Entry points for integrated landscape approaches Assessing prospects under polycentric governance and legal pluralism in West Kalimantan

Tropical forest landscapes face biodiversity loss, livelihood insecurity, and contested land-use claims. Integrated landscape approaches (ILAs) seek to reconcile conservation and development through inclusive, cross-sectoral, adaptive governance. Their operationalisation is challenging amid multiple decision-making centres, overlapping rule systems, and unequal power relations. This thesis examines ILA prospects in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, through conservation partnerships (CPs) and village forests (VFs).
The study combines qualitative case-study research, including interviews, focus groups, observations, and a systematic literature review. It applies polycentric governance and legal pluralism to understand the landscape context by examining statutory, customary, and private governance systems and their implications for coordination, legitimacy, conflict resolution, and participation. It also develops and applies a principles, criteria, and indicators framework to assess CPs and VFs across foundational conditions, stakeholder engagement and capacity, landscape outcomes, negotiation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
Findings show that CPs and VFs are not competing models to be ranked by a single measure. Instead, they represent different institutional pathways with distinct strengths and gaps. CPs show stronger connections among actors and across institutional boundaries, supported by formal agreements, certification-based monitoring, and NGO facilitation. VFs provide stronger foundations for policy integration, participatory zoning and planning, and locally recognised governance. Both face constraints from uneven participation, unequal benefit sharing, fragmented coordination, and reliance on external support. Their sustainability depends on ongoing negotiation, adaptation, capacity development, resource mobilisation, knowledge exchange, and monitoring and learning. Thus, CPs and VFs represent emerging institutional pathways for operationalising ILAs, offering entry points whose potential is shaped by local governance and social-ecological conditions.