Advocacy Coalitions and Knowledge Transfer within Geothermal Policy Change in Indonesian Conservation Forests

• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Author: Santi Pratiwi,Nataly Juerges
• DOI: 10.1177/10704965211070244
• Date: 01 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2022, Vol. 31(2) 168–195

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10704965211070244

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Advocacy Coalitions and

Knowledge Transfer within

Geothermal Policy Change

in Indonesian

Conservation Forests

Santi Pratiwi

1,2

and Nataly Juerges

1

Abstract

The utilization of geothermal energy is recently disrupting the management of con-

servation forests. It has taken more than a decade to change related forest policy in

justifying geothermal energy utilization in the conservation forests. This study com-

bined the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Research-Integration-Utilization

models to analyze the driver of forest policy change related as per the legitimation of

geothermal utilization linked to actor’s power and interests. Expert interviews, f‌ield

observations, and document analysis were triangulated according to the methodology

described in this study. The results show different interests of key actors affecting the

geothermal practice through two opposing coalitions, namely, development and

conservation coalition. Furthermore, the weak integration and implementation of

science-based policy evoked conf‌licts, thus creating a deadlock for geothermal projects

in the conservation forests. A sustainable and integrated policy is necessary to resolve

conf‌licted interests without threatening the conservation forests and the local

community.

Keywords

actor analysis, geothermal project, policy change, conservation forests, advocacy

coalitions, scientif‌ic knowledge transfer

1

Chair Group of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Georg-August-University G¨

ottingen, G¨

ottingen,

Germany

2

Central Java Nature Conservation Off‌ice, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia

Corresponding Author:

Santi Pratiwi, Chair Group of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Georg-August-University

G¨

ottingen, Büsgenweg 3, G¨

ottingen 37077, Germany.

Email: spratiw@gwdg.de

Introduction

Recent studies show that the development of renewable energy sources is politically

controversial in terms of infrastructure, economic, society, ecology, and environmental

(Hindmarsh, 2014;Juerges & Newig, 2015;Kim et al., 2014), leading to country-

specif‌ic debates on policymaking (Rochyadi-Reetz et al., 2019). Notably, there is an

ongoing debate on the impact of tapping geothermal energy from Indonesia’s con-

servation forests. According to the Directorate of New Energy, Renewable Energy, and

Energy Conservation (EBTKE), approximately 40% of the world’s geothermal energy

potential is located in 351 geothermal spots scattered throughout Indonesia, with 42.9%

located in forest areas (EBTKE, 2020)(Figure 1).

Despite the country’s extensive geothermal energy potential and supportive policy

changes, many challenges hinder the development of geothermal energy projects. The

Indonesian government has accelerated geothermal power development by enacting

new geothermal laws, feed-in-tariff (FIT) policies, and incentives (Sugiawan &

Managi, 2016). However, the technical, social, and political challenges associated

with geothermal energy development reveal a knowledge gap, which has evoked

conf‌licting policies and halted progress in this area (Sahide et al., 2018). This

knowledge gap shows a disconnect between scientif‌ic knowledge and utilization,

which become more escalated by the existence of conf‌licted actor’s interests. As

Figure 1. Geothermal potential in Indonesian Conservation Forests.

Pratiwi and Juerges 169