Governance Institutions, Resource Rights Regimes, and the Informal Mining Sector: Regulatory Complexities in Indonesia

SummaryThis study examines how shifting resource governance regimes affect labor inequities in the small-scale mining sector in Indonesia. It focuses on the implications of governance “decentralization” processes and mining regulation reforms for indigenous and migrant populations who rely on informal (unlicensed) mining for income in Central Kalimantan. While the findings illustrate the territorially uneven impacts of recent reforms, they highlight how dominant paradigms that prioritize the enforcement of property rights schemes have contributed to problems of livelihood insecurity and poor environmental governance. The article urges for more nuanced attention to contested articulations of power as well as local resource rights and institutional arrangements to assist rural communities in reversing marginalization.