Governing the palm oil sector through finance: the changing roles of the Indonesian state

By analysing the roles performed by the Indonesian state since 1945 in arranging finance schemes for palm oil development, this article aims to answer two questions: what were these different roles? And to what extent do these roles prioritise or balance economic growth, environmental protection and/or social equity? We conclude that the Indonesian state has never been absent but has performed different and changing finance roles that are historically contingent and shaped by the evolving economic and political landscape. Furthermore, these different and changing roles reflect Indonesia’s unchanging priorities of achieving economic growth by developing palm oil, paying some attention to social equity and—but only recently—to environmental sustainability.