In a community hall, a group of men sit cross-legged on mats, poring over documents and maps marked with forests, farmland, a river and the village of Gajah Bertalut in Indonesia’s Sumatra island.
They are gathered to work on their claim to legal rights and a collective title to 4,414 hectares of land on which they have lived and farmed for years.
“This is proof that you have lived here and used the forest land, and that you have customary rights over it as indigenous people,” said Rakhmat Hidayat of research organization World Resources Institute (WRI), holding a sheaf of papers.
“Once you get the title, you will have more control over the land and you need not worry about the land being taken for mining or palm oil plantations against your wishes,” he said.
Gajah Bertalut in Riau Province is among the first villages to have its land mapped by WRI as part of the government’s drive to clarify land holdings using satellite technology and local records, with the help of community leaders and researchers.
Indonesia aims to register all land holdings under its One Map initiative by 2025.
Following a landmark 2013 ruling by the Indonesian Constitutional Court to remove customary forests, or hutan adat, from state control and restore them to indigenous communities, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has vowed to return 12.7 million hectares of land.
As of last year, titles to 1.9 million hectares of forest land have been given, benefiting about 500,000 households, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry said.
However, progress has been slow because of conflicting claims, a paucity of records and a multiplicity of maps, said WRI, which compiles competing claims on a single map and attempts to resolve conflicts by bringing everyone together for talks.
“We have lived here a long time, and we have used the forest and cultivated the land with our traditional knowledge,” said Darman, who goes by one name, a resident of Gajah Bertalut.
“All around us, we have seen forest land taken for mining and for palm oil plantations that are not good for the environment or for the people. When our rights are recognized, we will preserve the forest and plan for the future,” he said.
Indigenous and local communities own more than half the world’s land under customary rights, yet they only have secure legal rights to 10 percent, advocacy group Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) said.
Governments maintain control over more than two-thirds of global forest area, much of which is claimed by local communities, RRI said in a report.
In Indonesia, indigenous people are estimated to have ownership rights over 40 million hectares of customary forest and other land.
The concept of adat, or custom, has been in place since the Dutch colonial era in the nation, and refers to the rules that determined who used land and resources, and how.
When the federal government took charge, it declared much of the forest land as state forest area and decided who could use it. This undermined customary adat rights and dispossessed many communities of their land, activists say.
Decentralization in 1999 led to the granting of land concessions to investors tapping the palm oil boom, further weakening indigenous rights and their claims over land.
The 2013 ruling has “dramatically strengthened” indigenous peoples’ tenure rights, said Rukka Sombolinggi of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), but claims can only be recognized at the federal ministry level and not by local officials.
This has led to an expensive and time consuming process, made more challenging by the requirement of clear titles, she said.
“The government’s insistence on ‘clean and clear’ titles places an unfair burden on indigenous people, many of whom have never had formal titles,” she said.
AMAN, which is also a part of the One Map program, has submitted maps of indigenous land of about 9.65 million hectares to the government to be recognized, she said.
In addition, passing a long delayed law on indigenous people would speed up the return of land, she said.
The draft law recognizes their customary and collective rights over land, as well as their right to self governance.
Indonesia is one of only a few Asian nations, including India and the Philippines, with legal frameworks recognizing communities as forest owners, but the process is beset by delays and attempts to dilute the laws, activists say.
Villagers also need support to manage their resources better and diversify land use.
In Gajah Bertalut village, where families have tapped rubber trees and cultivated forest land for generations, WRI is teaching residents organic farming to supplement their income from fishing and to conserve the soil better.
A group of young men and women is growing chilli, spinach and vegetables on common land with training from WRI, said Elin Purnamasari, 24.
“It’s only a small plot now, but when we get the community rights, perhaps more people can join and we can cultivate on more land,” she said. “This can be our future.”
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Taiwan is facing multiple economic challenges due to internal and external pressures. Internal challenges include energy transition, upgrading industries, a declining birthrate and an aging population. External challenges are technology competition between the US and China, international supply chain restructuring and global economic uncertainty. All of these issues complicate Taiwan’s economic situation. Taiwan’s reliance on fossil fuel imports not only threatens the stability of energy supply, but also goes against the global trend of carbon reduction. The government should continue to promote renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage technology, to diversify energy supply. It
RSS