The Sesaot Forest (SF) is a protection forest located at Mt Rinjani, Lombok Island, Indonesia. Formerly a successful community forest project, in 1982 it was reclassified as a protection forest by the Ministry of Forestry due to its importance as a water catchment area for the residents of Lombok. In 2009, Sesaot was reclassified as a Grand Forest Park (Tahura). Currently, the forest management authorities of SF are facing a number of critical issues such as land tenure, il egal logging and intensive resource col ection. This paper describes the historical, economic, social, cultural, political and geographical aspects of the two vil age communities, Sesaot and Lebah Sempage Vil ages, surrounding the forest. Data col ected includes in-depth interviews, focus group meetings, field observation and col ecting as wel as analyzing writ en materials and maps. The results shows that complex mixture of historical, economic, social, cultural, political and geographical factors are significantly affecting local management arrangements in managing the protected area. These factors are described in this paper.