TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - At the end of last year, the environment and forestry ministry declared eight forests, covering 13,122.3 hectares and home to 5,700 families, as customary forests. The decision came five years after the Constitutional Court issued its Decree No. 35/2012, which removed the word 'state' from the management of community forests in the Forestry Act, Law No. 41/1999. The decision returns the rights to community forests from the state to traditional communities once a verification process has been completed.
"The government believes that traditional communities have so far shown that they can manage their forests well," Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told Tempo reporters Amri Mahbub and Aisha Shaidra last month.
The minister also explained the penalty for selling customary forest land and why the government has only recently begun declaring the customary forest status.
Why did the government formalize customary forests only at the end of last year when the Constitutional Court's decision was issued in 2012?
At the time, [the decision] was not followed by a fundamental policy change, so no adequate legal and institutional measures were then in place. After the ministries for the environment and that of forestry were merged [at the end of 2014], the directorate-general of social forestry and environmental partnerships was established. One of the directorate's functions is to oversee customary forests. I also had to first issue my Ministerial Regulation No. 13/2015 on Forest Rights to serve as the legal framework. Preparing the regulation took quite some time. We could only speed up declaring customary forests after everything was ready.
Were these steps only taken under the current administration?
The President also asked me this question before making the move official at the Presidential Palace at the end of December (laughing). Actually, there are several reasons. The first is political will. Pak Jokowi's political will for this to happen was strong, as set out in his Nawacita (nine priority) program, particularly in regard to developing from the fringes. Secondly, it was whether the government was strong enough to manage customary communities.
So our government was then not strong enough?
I didn't say that. It's correct to say that it was after our domestic political reforms were yet stabilized. Demands to (officially announce) the customary forest status had been put proposed since 2001, when I was secretary-general at the internal affairs ministry (now interior ministry) during Minister Hari Sabarno's tenure. The demand reemerged in 2005.
Who called for the status of customary forests to be officially announced?
The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) proposed it in 2001, but at the time Indonesia had yet to recover from its post-reform (problems). I then used the acknowledgment of traditional native American communities' rights by the United States (government) as my reference. But there were many consequences that had to be dealt with, such as those affecting local governments and their internal own regulations. I presented the conditions and [potential] consequences to Hari Sabarno. Maybe at a cabinet-level meeting it was decided that the government was not yet ready to take on all the risks.
What was the solution?
We placed traditional communities outside the forestry rights sector. We placed the welfare of these communities a high priority item at that time. As a result, traditional communities were most often managed by the social welfare ministry. Then, during the Yudhoyono presidency, Komnas Ham again pursued the matter. They had a strong basis because it happened to coincide with the first International Day of the World's Indigenous People, which falls on August 9. But there, too, they finally took the social welfare approach.
Komnas Ham pursued it once again under Pak Jokowi's (administration). It so happened I was following up on this issue from my time as secretary-general at the internal affairs ministry. So, when I took office (as minister), I continued to work on it until I found the solution, until the President's decree was issued the other day. That's the history.
Was a ministerial decree enough? What if, under a new minister, the decree is revoked?
That's why regional regulations had to be in place before the ministerial decree could be issued. A ministerial decree cannot stand alone, so it cannot easily be revoked. Additionally, supervision by the civil society is vital to ensure that the recognition of customary forests is maintained.
Will the customary forest status reduce deforestation and forest fires?
Traditional communities have shown they can manage their forests well. For instance, the Kajang people watch their forest very closely, at an even more intense level than managed by current government regulations, particularly when it comes to protecting the forest. Customary community-based forest management reduces forest fires because supervision is more effective.
Can customary communities sell their forest land?
Customary forests may not change hands or be sold to any other party.
What if a community sells its forest land?
We will undoubtedly take legal action against the community. To facilitate monitoring, we have developed an online system. Reports that come in go to a customary community conflict resolution desk.
If a commercial logging company operating next to a customary forest is delinquent, what happens then?
Law enforcers will not discriminate (among lawbreakers), particularly regarding customary forests.
How will the customary forest status affect the (local) economy?
Customary communities will be encouraged to become economically self-sufficient. We will work with them on entrepreneurship. Not just for its timber and non-timber goods, but also for genetic resources yet to be considered for their economic benefit. I have also signed another ministerial decree on the protection of local wisdom. This will hopefully have an economic impact on customary communities because they will be able to reap benefits. (*)
Read the full interview in this week’s edition of Tempo English Magazine
