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Long, winding road for indigenous rights
Only 26 indigenous communities have managed to secure their land rights from the government, covering just over 24,000 hectares of land.
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A village boy poses for the camera with traditional houses in the background in Wae Rebo, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. (thejakartapost.com/Shivaji Das)
A
lthough they have the strongest historical and emotional ties to their land, indigenous groups in Indonesia are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to secured land tenure rights and legal access to natural resources. For the greater part of history, indigenous communities have been trying in vain to assert their traditional rights and redefine their role in Indonesian statehood.
Indigenous rights have, however, been severely undermined for the sake of development or other “national interests”. Reformasi has, since 1998, opened the channel for many disenfranchised groups, like indigenous peoples, to demand social justice.
A new study from 15 countries, including Indonesia, titled “The scramble for land rights” by the World Resources Institute, highlights significant disparities between companies and indigenous communities in terms of land ownership and the ease of acquiring secure land tenure to support their livelihood.
Currently, only 26 indigenous communities have managed to secure their land rights from the government, covering just over 24,000 hectares of land. This number is far less than over 37 million ha of concessions granted to plantation and timber companies.
