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Govt urged to take tougher measures on customary forests

Customary forest communities have urged the government to take measures to clarify firmly and clearly the legal status of customary forests

Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post)
Purwokerto
Tue, September 30, 2014

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Govt urged to take tougher measures on customary forests

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ustomary forest communities have urged the government to take measures to clarify firmly and clearly the legal status of customary forests.

The Association for Community and Ecologically-based Law Reform (Perkumpulan HuMa) said that up to now the government had not shown willingness to implement an existing law that draws a clear separation between customary forests and state forests. The law is intended to have a positive impact on the prosperity of indigenous people living in the forest areas in question.

The association further said that the government must protect indigenous people'€™s right to manage their constitutionally-protected forests without intervention from business interests, which have often had a harmful impact on forests.

Widiyanto of Perkumpulan HuMa said the legality of the existence of customary forest communities still needed to be supported with tough legal frameworks, such as regional regulations (Perda) or regional head decrees.

'€œIn such situations, the role of local administrations in determining customary forest communities as legal subjects would be a main element in the determination of customary forests,'€ said Widiyanto in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In May 2013, the Constitutional Court ruled to scrap the word '€œstate'€ from Article 1 of the 1999 Forestry Law, which says that '€œcustomary forests are state forests located in the areas of custom-based communities'€. The Court also ruled that the government must recognize indigenous communities'€™ ownership of customary forests.

'€œMany local administrations have not yet dared to implement the Court'€™s ruling,'€ said Widiyanto.

Some local administrations have implemented the ruling through regional head decrees or regional regulations. They include Morowali regency administration, which has issued Perda No.13/2012 on the Acknowledgment and Protection of the Tau Taa Wana Customary Community and North Luwu Regent Decree No.300/2014 on the Seko Customary Community.

Local administrations in several other regions, such as Merangin and Kerinci regencies in Jambi province, have explicitly acknowledged the existence of customary forests, easing the task of the government, and particularly the Forestry Ministry, to carry out the process of identifying customary forests. (ebf)

 

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