JAKARTA — President Joko Widodo recently issued Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in Indonesia more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of land titles, under his flagship social forestry program.

As a result, the government has recognized IPLCs’ rights over 8 million hectares (19.77 million acres) of lands in Indonesia.

These include various forms of social forestry titles, such as village forests, community forests, plantation forests and ancestral or customary forests.

But the pace of recognition for IPLCs’ rights to their lands is not fast enough compared with the size of Indigenous lands that have been mapped, activists said.

In response to the government’s slow progress in recognizing ancestral land rights, a group of NGOs established an initiative called the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) to guide Indigenous groups in mapping their own territories, including forests, rivers and sea.

So far, the BRWA has mapped 30.1 million hectares (74.4 million acres) — an area more than twice the size of Java — of land claimed by IPLCs.

The pace of formal recognition is particularly sluggish for customary forests, which is the strongest category of land rights in Indonesia, as it means the government is completely relinquishing state lands to Indigenous communities, the BRWA noted.

Customary forest

As of July, the government had recognized only 265,250 hectares (655,400 acres) of ancestral forests, lagging behind the 23.2 million hectares (57.3 million acres) of land that the BRWA had identified as potential customary forests.

This shows that the government efforts to recognize and protect Indigenous peoples’ rights are still lacking, according to the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the main advocacy group for Indigenous communities in Indonesia.

Having a specific law on Indigenous rights would greatly help IPLCs to have their land rights formally recognized by the government by providing a legal framework that acknowledges and protects the rights of communities.

For example, the law could facilitate the process of issuing land titles or certificates to IPLCs. It could also include provisions for resolving disputes between Indigenous communities and other parties as well as providing mechanisms for demarcating and mapping Indigenous territories.

A bill on Indigenous rights was proposed in 2012 and has been placed on Parliament’s list of national priority legislation every year since 2014 — but it has never passed.

“We call for the government and the Parliament to immediately pass the Indigenous rights bill as a form of constitutional responsibility in protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights,” AMAN secretary-general Rukka Sombolinggi said.

Muhammad Said, the director of conflict resolution and customary forests at the forestry ministry, said the ministry supported passing the Indigenous rights bill.

“Of course, we very much support [the Indigenous rights bill],” he said during a recent event in Jakarta. “If the bill passes, we can speed up [the recognition of Indigenous lands].”

Progress

As there are still many ancestral lands the government hasn’t formally recognized, the forestry ministry has set an ambitious goal for the recognition of customary forests.

The forestry ministry plans to issue decrees this year to recognize 592,000 hectares (1.46 million acres) of customary forests home to 41 Indigenous communities, according to Bambang Supriyanto, an expert staff member at the ministry.

And from 2025-27, the ministry has a target of recognizing 3.3 million hectares (8.15 million acres) of customary forests, he added.

Recently, the president issued decrees that formally recognize 15,879 hectares (39,200 acres) of ancestral forests to six Indigenous communities in North Tapanuli district on Sumatra Island.

Tampan Sitompul, a member of the Simardangiang Indigenous community, said he appreciated the government’s decision to formally recognize his community’s forests, saying his community was very pleased that its efforts “have finally paid off.”

After receiving the formal recognition, the Simardangiang community plans to use haminjon, a local tree species scientifically known as Styrax sumatrana, and fruit-bearing trees within the customary forest as sources of livelihood to improve its economy.

“The entire community will also continue to protect the Simardangiang customary forest and its habitat, while also planning to develop it as a forest tourism destination,” Tampan said.

To speed up the recognition of customary forests, the forestry ministry has taken some measures, Muhammad said.

For one, it has simplified the recognition process, he said.

In the past, Indigenous communities would need to lobby local heads for them to issue regulations that specifically recognize their existence. But now, the local heads only need to issue regulations that detail the way these communities could be recognized. There’s no need for separate regulations for each community, Muhammad said.

In the absence of such regulations, the forestry ministry has mapped and earmarked for future recognition some customary forests that haven’t been recognized yet, he said.

So far, the ministry has earmarked 1.11 million hectares (2.74 million acres) of forests to be recognized in the future, a move aimed at demarcating Indigenous lands to prevent land grabs by businesses and developers.

“If there’s no permit issued yet in these areas [indicated to be customary forests], then no permit can be issued without permission from the Indigenous communities there,” Muhammad said.

Banner image: President Joko Widodo hands over land titles to Indigenous and Local Communities (IPLCs) during an event in Jakarta on August 9, 2024. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. 

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Karen Coates Editor

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Community ForestryCommunity ForestsDry ForestsEnvironmentForestsHuman RightsIndigenous CommunitiesIndigenous GroupsIndigenous PeoplesIndigenous RightsLand GrabbingLand ReformLand RightsMappingAsiaIndonesiaNorth SumatraSoutheast AsiaSumatra

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