Collaborative governance for forest fire mitigation in the large-scale palm oil enclaves: Case studies from West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Enclaves are areas within palm oil company concessions that are fully controlled and managed by local communities and often experience fires during the dry season due to slash-and-burn practices for horticulture crops and oil palms. This research critically analyzes the types of collaborative approaches taken by multiple actors—such as palm oil companies, local communities, village offices, and government institutions—to mitigate forest and land fires in the enclaves, as well as the motivations driving these multiple parties to collaborate. The research has been undertaken in the enclaves within two villages around a large-scale oil palm company group’s concession in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. The data were collected through interviews with key informants, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), observations, document analysis, and Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping. We found that collaborative governance among palm oil companies, village offices, local communities, and subdistrict government institutions—through fire awareness campaigns, preparedness drills, and firefighting—has helped minimize traditional slash-and-burn practices and prevent fires from spreading to oil palm concessions and forests. These collaborative efforts were carried out through structural arrangements, knowledge sharing, and resource sharing, driven by tensions between traditional slash-and-burn practices and changing biophysical and socio-political landscapes. They also relied on interdependence in funding, firefighting equipment, legitimacy, and personnel, as well as consequential incentives from external pressures such as penalties from market-based certification and strict military chain-of-command directives.