Administrative re-functionalization of encroached conservation landscapes: A six-stage governance model for sustainable cattle-oil palm integration

Abstract

Encroachment in protected areas represents a persistent governance challenge in tropical landscapes. Tesso Nilo National Park (TNTN), Riau Province, Indonesia, provides a critical case in which formal conservation status coexists with extensive land occupation, oil palm cultivation, and settlement. This study examines (i) the institutional, legal, and socio-economic conditions associated with persistent encroachment, (ii) the governance mechanisms required to restore conservation authority, and (iii) how those mechanisms can be sequenced into an implementable framework. Using qualitative socio-legal and policy analysis of regulatory frameworks, official institutional reports, land-use and relocation data, and relevant academic literature, the study develops an empirically grounded governance sequencing framework for post-encroachment conservation and landscape recovery. The sequence comprises six linked stages: legal reaffirmation, socio-legal inventory, actor classification, rights-based relocation and livelihood stabilization, coordinated enforcement and access control, and institutionalized ecological restoration. The stages are derived by matching observed governance problems in TNTN with the administrative mechanisms required to resolve their dependencies. The framework clarifies the institutional preconditions for separating conservation space from legally designated production landscapes and thereby supports sustainable cattle-oil palm integration (SISKA) outside protected areas.