This study addresses occupational ergonomics issues in Indonesian forestry (work conditions, workers' characteristics, occupational safety, occupational health, and job satisfaction) to acquire a comprehensive perspective in understanding the actual problems facing the operations. Direct observation, interview, questionnaires, and secondary data analyses were carried out to acquire all of the required information. A total of 191 frontline forestry workers (chainsaw operators, helpers, manual hauling workers, skidder/tractor operators, logging truck drivers, and nursery workers) participated in this study. The study shows that various techniques of forest operations (labor-intensive to semi-mechanized systems) have been applied in Indonesian plantation forests, both short and long-rotation, as well as in natural forest management. Most of the workers were non-permanent workers, who receive a low wage, work under a straight piecework system, have a high dependency on the forestry work to make a living, and exhibit poor comprehension of the concept of hazard control. The fatality rate was recorded as 1.3 deaths/106 m3 log, but this may be even higher as this rate only represents data taken from formal forestry workers. An intense physical dimension of fatigue occurs among workers involved in forest operations, with the highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the upper back, lower back, neck, shoulders, and arms. This study reveals eight variables that influenced job satisfaction, i.e., wage, type of contract, accessibility, health services, living facilities, work equipment, training, and social facilities.

Forestry workers play a crucial role in implementing forest management programs, but their outdoor work exposes them to rising temperatures caused by global climate change, which poses potential health risks related to heat. This study specifically investigates the relationship between knowledge of heat-related issues, risk perception, and precautionary behavior among Indonesian forestry workers and paddy farmers in response to the escalating workplace heat exposure. Developing effective precautionary behavior is essential for preventing heat-related health disorders and promoting health protection programs. To investigate the association of the latent variables comprehensively, structured interviews were conducted with two occupational groups of outdoor workers, comprising 210 forestry workers and 215 paddy farmers. The findings indicate that increasing knowledge about heat-related issues promotes precautionary behavior, and risk perception acts as a mediator between knowledge and behavior. Additionally, the study highlights that the emotion of “dread” intensifies the perceived risk and predicts positive behavior changes. To enhance heat-related knowledge, exploring the potential use of a “fear” tone is important. In conclusion, comprehensive strategies should be implemented to promote precautionary behavior among forestry workers, particularly manual laborers, who are more vulnerable compared to farmers.

Timber harvesting processes, especially motor-manual felling, are hazardous to forestry workers’ health and safety. The purpose of this study is to examine forestry workers’ mental safety models (at the supervisor and operator levels) using the Nordic safety climate questionnaire. This study also examines how operators and their families perceive workplace risks (dread and unknown risk factors). The safety climate analysis revealed that supervisors misunderstand management safety priority, competence, empowerment and justice. Additionally, this study found that operators do not yet prioritize safety. There was a lack of safety communication and operators’ skepticism about the current safety system. These findings highlight the critical importance of implementing safety measures into operators’ work environments. The risk perception analysis revealed that family members had a greater risk aversion to dread risk factors than operators. As a result, we see a possibility for family members to act as safety-net figures, bolstering the operators’ safety values.

In addition to an outstanding commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG) agenda to good governance (goal no. 16), there is an argument that the SDGs can only be achieved through good governance with strong political institutions and processes. In Indonesia, a new era in politics has been marked with the new leadership of Joko Widodo (the current Indonesian President) who has a vision to reform the Indonesian bureaucracy. One of the bureaucratic reform implementations is the merging of the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoE). In this kind of organizational change, employees may have increased perceptions of organizational politics and feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. This effect is suspected to be exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article, therefore, aims to investigate the effects of organizational change in the public sector. Based on a survey of 112 state civil apparatuses in the forestry sector in Indonesia, we found that organizational change is positively related to employees’ perception of organizational politics. Nevertheless, our most intriguing finding is that the COVID pandemic situation has decreased employees’ perception of organizational politics. This is because political behaviors are difficult to perform in virtual working settings due to reduced face-to-face interaction and limited non-verbal cues.

Motor-manual logging has been considered as the most dominant logging system in Java Island, Indonesia. The system-which consisted of felling, delimbing, bucking, hauling, and transporting activities- involves a combination of stress factors e.q. difficult work postures, generation of force, and lifting techniques. In the other hand, combination of the three is well associated with high risk of work-related musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs), including musculoskeletal disorders. This research aimed to assess difficult work posture on felling, delimbing, bucking, and manually short wood hauling by employing rapid entire body assessment (REBA) technique and muscular pain scoring based on the worker's perceive. It was revealed that felling and manual hauling were scored 4 in the REBA action level, indicated very high MSIs risk level, and categorized as “necessary now” for an injury risk preventive action. The workers' pain scoring indicated that low back (spine in general) disorders resulting in low back pain has been considered to be the one of the leading safety issues in the felling and manual hauling. Regardless to complex mechanism of how the personal risk and environmental factors associated with manual material handling injuries, job-related factors approach should be underlined in the MSIs prevention initiative in motor-manual logging. Keywords: motor-manual logging, difficult work posture, REBA, MSIs, low back pain