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Following the enactment of Law Number 23 of 2014 on the Regional Government, which superseded Law Number 22 of 1999 and Law Number 32 of 2004, now the local government has no longer holds an authority to manage state forest areas, except “grand forest park” (Taman Hutan Raya) located in their respective administrative areas. The management of production forests and protected forests (located at state forest areas) is the authority and responsibility of the provincial government, while the management of conservation forests is the authority of the central government. The success of forest management and management program activities is determined, among others, by government and local government policies and their implementation at the site level. By considering ntthe complexity of forest management, the context of decentralization, and available resources as well as constrained authority, this study aims to identify the level of importance, priorities, and main roles of district governments in forest management by applying the analytic network process (ANP) method. This study suggests that the district government could play a significant role in building social capital, which serves as a first step in developing collaborative forest management by promoting the optimization of multipurpose forests to preserve forests.

Agro-forest management policy is one of the most trending issues in Indonesia under the dynamics circumstances of regional autonomy. Regional autonomy has been recognized in the formal governance system of the Republic Indonesia through Regional Governance Law 5/1972 and Village Governance Law 5/1979. A strong political reform following deep economic crisis in 1998 has forced Indonesian President Suharto to step down, and the new government has to accommodate political reform agendas, included a broader regional autonomy, which has been implemented under a Regional Governance Law 22/1999, then replaced by Law 32/2004 and Law 23/2014. The existing Regional Governance Law has shifted almost all authorities in forest management from the regency to the province, and associated with the new established Law 11/2020 on job creation, a single license of multi-purpose forest utilization was introduced, including agroforestry, that will potentially reduce deforestation and improve the community welfare. This study evaluates key elements of local development goals, risks and barriers, as well as basic capitals for agro-forest management in Tebo Regency, Jambi Province, using an Interpretive Structural Modelling approach. Overall, this study concludes that weak coordination, low quality of human capital, inappropriate communication with stakeholders, and lack of financial resources are the greatest challenges to the implementation of agro-forest management, particularly agroforestry, as a part of social forestry schemes.