“Contested Sustainability Standards in Indonesian Agriculture: On the process of claiming government authority”

The emergence of private sustainability standards and certification schemes in the last twenty years has changed the production of agricultural commodities in Southern countries. Most of these standards and schemes are developed by Northern-based businesses and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or by partnership between them. This study argues that Southern governments, such as Indonesia, need to reconsider their authority in the market system. This process of ‘claiming authority’ creates many tensions, as it is being realized in a decentralized and fragmented government system through various institutional arrangements. The research explores how the Indonesian government positions itself in the sustainability contestations and the different ways Indonesia claims its authority in the confrontation with Northern-based private standards and certifications.

This study was conducted as part of the SPIN project, with the financial support from the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Menristek-DIKTI) of Republic Indonesia and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).