Nethy Dharma Somba, Sorong – Indigenous communities in Klamono district, Sorong regency, West Papua, have called for the formulation of a regency bylaw on customary forests to provide greater legal certainty on land rights.
The chief of the Malamoi tribe, Silas O Kalami, said that to determine a tribe's areas within a customary forest, the authorities needed to conduct thorough mapping, which would be regulated in the bylaw. Apart from determining areas, the bylaw was also needed, Silas said, to protect the rights of indigenous communities.
"There is no single bylaw that stipulates the rights of indigenous communities in the regency. We hope a Environment and Forestry Ministry regulation can serve as the foundation for the administration to issue a bylaw," he said. He added that there existed only one map, designed by the Moi Kelim tribe, while 13 other tribes had no map whatsoever.
The regulation on customary forests was issued last year to follow up a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling that annulled state ownership of customary forests. With the regulation, customary forests are no longer considered state forests, and the government is obliged to recognize indigenous communities' ownership of then, allowing locals to exploit the forests' resources to meet their daily needs.
However, the ministry said that exploitation must be in line with the status of the forest – whether it is a production forest or protected forest. "I was once taken to the police station because I sold wood; they thought I was involved in illegal logging. How can I be considered a thief just for taking wood from my own land?" asked Merry Indik, a noted figure in the district.
Another local, Costan Mangablo, said his tribe had understood the regulation, and would not exploit the forest in an unsustainable way. "We won't give permission to investors who want to use the land for palm oil plantations. Instead, we'll use it to set up an eco-tourism business to supplement our income," Costan said.
Sorong Deputy Regent Suka Harjono, said the administration and the local legislature were currently working on the bylaw, which was expected to set clear rules for the exploitation of the forest. "The bylaw will also regulate ways to improve the welfare of local people, allowing them to earn the own income," he said.
Smita Notonegoro of the Multistakeholder Forestry Programme explained that the bylaw would serve as the legal basis for the ministry to later decide if the area could be declared to be customary forest.
Twelve customary forest requests, Smita said, had been submitted by communities, with the help of non-profit organizations, and were currently being assessed by the local administration and the ministry.
However, it may take a while for the indigenous community to earn the status of customary forest for their territories, given the weight of bureaucracy involved. For a regency administration to issue a bylaw, it has to ensure that the indigenous people have been living in the area for a long time and that the customary land truly exists, among other requirements.
According to the Association for Community and Ecology-Based Law Reform (HuMa), the only customary land that has been recognized by a local government in a bylaw is located in Morowali, Central Sulawesi. The government plans to redistribute 12.7 million hectares of community forests by 2019 to stem the rampant land disputes involving indigenous communities.