The Jakarta Post
Back in 2015, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo kicked off the ambitious program of social forestry, in which his administration is expected to distribute 12.7 million hectares of forests to be managed by communities throuvarious schemes, including hutan adat (customary forests). Customary forests are distributed to local neighborhoods that have been established as an indigenous community through a regional bylaw. However, activists have been lambasting the government for its sluggish progress in recognizing and granting forest tenure to indigenous people despite a historic court ruling around six years ago mandating that the government recognize their tenure rights. Attempting to answer such criticism, the government launched on Monday a map showing the current and indicative locations of customary forests across the archipelago, the purpose of which is to assist futur...