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government-sponsored conference on land tenure is set to take place next week, in which experts are expected to provide insights to bolster the implementation of the current administration’s land reform and social forestry policies.

Organized by the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Presidential Chief of Staff Office (KSP) and numerous agrarian and social civil groups, the 2017 Tenure Conference will be held in Jakarta from Oct. 25 to 27 and will be joined by relevant high-level officials and hundreds of agrarian experts.

The previous Tenure Conference was held in Lombok in 2011, wholly organized by civil society groups.

Hanni Adiati, an expert staff member under Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, said the government had decided to work together with NGOs in the coming conference because it had partiality toward people living in rural areas.

“The previous administration did not give affirmation specifically for the struggle of village people, who either live inside or outside forest areas,” Hanni said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

Hanni said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had several pledges outlined in his Nawa Cita document, which details the former Jakarta governor’s nine political promises that focused on improving the welfare of the people.

“Outcomes of the 2011 conference were used as a basis for the Nawa Cita, which was also drafted by environment and social activists. Maybe that’s why Jokowi could win the hearts of the public back then,” Hanni said.

Jokowi’s administration aims to give tenure certainty for small-scale farmers on around 9 million hectares of land through the land reform program, while through the social forestry, it gives permits to citizens to manage and harness 12.7 million ha of land in forest areas.

Legal uncertainty over land tenure has been blamed as a cause of rampant land conflicts, victimizing mostly poor people who are falling prey to massive exploitation by both timber and oil palm businesses.  

“Tenure rights would not only provide land [for citizens] but also would better land administration and allow citizens to harness land,” said Hanni.

Also present at the briefing was Usep Setiawan, senior adviser on social, cultural and ecological affairs with the KSP, who said the government had established in May the Agrarian Reform Team, chaired by Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Darmin Nasution.

The team consists of three working groups, each chaired by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil and Village, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Eko Putro Sandjojo.

“The draft of the presidential regulation on agrarian reform is also expected to be signed before the end of this year,” Usep said.

Despite the pledges and structural improvement, both Hanni and Usep admitted the land reform and social forestry programs had encountered various obstacles on the field.

For example, Hanni said, there had been growing resistance toward the government’s move allowing citizens to manage degraded forests owned by state forest firm Perhutani, which is included as part of the social forestry program.

“It is an erroneous claim saying the policy could further destroy the environment,” said Hanni, adding people who fueled such claims were “illegal cultivators” fearing a crackdown by the government on their activities.