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Nongovernmental organizations as interest groups and their roles in policy processes: Insights from Indonesian forest and environmental governance

Forest and Society · Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022) · pp. 570–589

DOI
10.24259/fs.v6i2.19125
ISSN
2549-4333, 2549-4724
Published
2022-06-19
Publisher
Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin
Language
en
License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Abstract

The traditional conceptions and claims of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have profiled NGOs as civil society representatives and as benevolent philanthropic actors of development in the Global South. However, recent phenomena indicate NGOs often acting in opposition to their benevolent claims. This study attempts to move away from the normative concepts of NGOs and develop an analytical framework fitted with the current empirics in environmental governance. Using theories of organized interest groups in a democratic political system, we analyze the extent of NGOs fulfilling their roles as organized interest groups (OIGs), where they should take roles representing the interests of particular groups within societies and exerting political influence on governments on the basis of these common interests. We use empirics from Indonesian forest and environment-related governance, and our framework is called “Representation–Influence Framework,” which assists in establishing more systematic coherent typologies of OIGs. Analyzed from the perspective that NGOs claim to serve as representatives of specific groups within societies, we establish three overarching categories of OIGs, that is, 1) en route to fulfilling the claim, 2) breaking the claim, and 3) opposing the claim. We further detail our framework into a subset of nine OIG typologies. In this way, we provide pathways to begin deconstructing the common simplifications and misunderstandings about NGOs. For empirics, we identified 38 OIGs in the cases of social forestry and timber legality policies and populated them according to the typologies. We found that most of them are en route to fulfilling the claim of representing the groups’ interests, although their political influence on the government is, in most cases, limited.

Keywords

Collaboration network of the authors

40 authors · 121 co-authorship links · 56 across different organisations · showing the 40 most connected

Hover or tap a name to highlight its co-authors. Double-click to open the author's page.

  • Universitas Gadjah Mada
  • Hasanuddin University
  • Center for International Forestry Research
  • University of Göttingen
  • National Research and Innovation Agency
  • East–West Center
  • Leiden University
  • Other organisations
  • Affiliation unknown
  • Different organisations
  • Same organisation
  • Affiliation unknown
  • Thicker line = more joint articles · bigger circle = more articles
Show as table
Co-authorOrganisationJoint articles
Muhammad Alif K. SahideHasanuddin University13
Nurhady SirimorokHasanuddin University6
Karno B. BatiranHasanuddin University4
Bart VerheijenLeiden University4
Fatwa FaturachmatHasanuddin University3
Yubelince Y. RuntuboiUniversitas Papua3
Fitria Dewi SusantiUniversitas Gadjah Mada3
Muhammad Haidar DaulayRiau University3
Md Faisal Abedin KhanUniversity of Göttingen3
Carsten SchusserTechnische Universität Dresden3
Dwiko Budi PermadiUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Arsad RagandhiUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Agus Heruanto HadnaUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Setiadi SetiadiUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Eka WulandariUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Widodo Budi SantosoUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Aprisep Ferdhana KusumaUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Ema IsmarianaUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Ronggo SadonoUniversitas Gadjah Mada2
Nurul HasfiDiponegoro University2
Ahsan YunusHasanuddin University2
Siti Halimah LarekengHasanuddin University2
Emban Ibnurusyd Mas’udAffiliation unknown2
Agung WibowoUniversity of Palangka Raya1
Swati NegiETH Zurich1
Sukanlaya ChoenkwanKhon Kaen University1
Ahmad DhiaulhaqAustralian National University1
Pham Thu ThuyCenter for International Forestry Research1
Ngô Hà ChâuCenter for International Forestry Research1
Dao Thi LinhCenter for International Forestry Research1
Hoang Tuan LongCenter for International Forestry Research1
M M MeilaniUniversitas Gadjah Mada1
Wahyu AndayaniUniversitas Gadjah Mada1

Affiliations come from OpenAlex; journal OAI-PMH metadata carries none. Authors without an OpenAlex ID are matched by name, which can merge or split people.

Metadata source: OAI-PMH (metadata jurnal) https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/oai, first harvested 5 Nov 2026, last seen 8 Nov 2026.
Original metadata (oai_dc) 
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	<dc:title xml:lang="en">Nongovernmental organizations as interest groups and their roles in policy processes: Insights from Indonesian forest and environmental governance</dc:title>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Laraswati, Dwi</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Krott, Max</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Soraya, Emma</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Rahayu, Sari</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Fisher, Micah R.</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Giessen, Lukas </dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Maryudi, Ahmad</dc:creator>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">NGOs</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Interest Groups</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Representation</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Influence</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Forest Policy</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Environmental Governance</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Indonesia</dc:subject>
	<dc:description xml:lang="en">The traditional conceptions and claims of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have profiled NGOs as civil society representatives and as benevolent philanthropic actors of development in the Global South. However, recent phenomena indicate NGOs often acting in opposition to their benevolent claims. This study attempts to move away from the normative concepts of NGOs and develop an analytical framework fitted with the current empirics in environmental governance. Using theories of organized interest groups in a democratic political system, we analyze the extent of NGOs fulfilling their roles as organized interest groups (OIGs), where they should take roles representing the interests of particular groups within societies and exerting political influence on governments on the basis of these common interests. We use empirics from Indonesian forest and environment-related governance, and our framework is called “Representation–Influence Framework,” which assists in establishing more systematic coherent typologies of OIGs. Analyzed from the perspective that NGOs claim to serve as representatives of specific groups within societies, we establish three overarching categories of OIGs, that is, 1) en route to fulfilling the claim, 2) breaking the claim, and 3) opposing the claim. We further detail our framework into a subset of nine OIG typologies. In this way, we provide pathways to begin deconstructing the common simplifications and misunderstandings about NGOs. For empirics, we identified 38 OIGs in the cases of social forestry and timber legality policies and populated them according to the typologies. We found that most of them are en route to fulfilling the claim of representing the groups’ interests, although their political influence on the government is, in most cases, limited.</dc:description>
	<dc:publisher xml:lang="en">Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin</dc:publisher>
	<dc:date>2022-06-19</dc:date>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/article</dc:type>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion</dc:type>
	<dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
	<dc:identifier>https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/article/view/19125</dc:identifier>
	<dc:identifier>10.24259/fs.v6i2.19125</dc:identifier>
	<dc:source xml:lang="en">Forest and Society; Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022): NOVEMBER; 570-589</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2549-4333</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2549-4724</dc:source>
	<dc:language>en</dc:language>
	<dc:relation>https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/article/view/19125/8293</dc:relation>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">Copyright (c) 2022 Forest and Society</dc:rights>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</dc:rights>
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