Effects of Government Policies on Smallholder Palm Cultivation: An Example from Borneo

Abstract

Rattan is a non-timber forest product with good market potential that has been cultivated sustainably by smallholders for over a century. The government of Indonesia imposed a ban on the export of raw and semi-processed rattan in 1988. To determine whether and how the ban has affected smallholders, we interviewed farmers in two rattan-growing regions in Kalimantan. Since the ban, prices and rural incomes have dropped, cultivation has slowed/stopped (at least temporarily), and farmers have switched to and/or intensified other types of activities.