<![CDATA[Indonesia’s regional autonomy framework has redistributed authority over natural resource management from the central government to provincial and district administrations, yet the consequences of this redistribution for peatland and coastal ecosystem governance remain unevenly studied. Existing scholarship concentrates heavily on the large peatland landscapes of Riau, Kalimantan, and South Sumatra, leaving the governance dynamics of smaller, peripheral coastal districts largely unexamined. This study addresses that gap by applying a political ecology framework to examine how environmental policy autonomy is exercised, contested, and constrained in three coastal districts of Bengkulu Province: Mukomuko, Seluma, and Bengkulu Utara. Using a mixed-method design that combines qualitative political ecology analysis with supportive quantitative ecological and policy data, the study draws on policy document review, semi-structured interviews with government officials and community actors, household surveys, and field observations conducted between 2022 and 2023. Findings indicate that regional autonomy has produced a form of “bounded discretion,” in which district governments possess formal authority over peatland-adjacent land-use decisions but exercise it within severe fiscal, technical, and political constraints that favor short-term revenue-generating land conversion over long-term ecological protection. Power asymmetries between district agencies, plantation companies, and local communities further shape unequal access to peatland resources. Compared with the more institutionally developed governance arrangements in Riau, Kalimantan, and South Sumatra, Bengkulu’s coastal districts exhibit weaker technical capacity, thinner civil society oversight, and a narrower policy toolkit. The study concludes regional autonomy, without corresponding investment in local ecological governance capacity, risks reproducing environmentally degrading development trajectories in peripheral peatland areas.]]>
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