BRIEF REPORT EPISTEMA INSTITUTE
STUDY THE LAWS CONCERNING COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT CONSERVATION AREAS IN INDONESIA
(LEGAL REVIEW ON INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY CONSERVATION AREAS IN INDONESIA)
At present there are more than 225 regional law products concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples at the Provincial and Regency levels that have been issued by the Regional Government since the period 1979 to date (see Outlook Trends on Regional Law Products, Epistema Institute, 2017). These findings were obtained by the Epistema Institute (2015,2017,2018) by following a number of regulatory processes in the scope of drafting legislation related to the recognition of the Subject of Customary Law Communities, Customary Areas and Customary Forests, and Traditional Villages; drafting Ministerial Regulations related to Customary Forests, and dialogue with the Regional Government in drafting Regional Regulations and Decrees of the Regent or Mayor and the Governor concerning customary law communities. Some of these regional legal products have legal consequences for designating customary territories and customary forests at the regional level of more than 213,541.01 hectares, and some of them covering 22,073.84 hectares (see Directorate General of PSKL, KLHK, Performance Achievements in Providing Access to Area Management Forest, 2018) has been designated by the Minister of Environment and Forestry as Customary Forest.
The momentum of the Constitutional Court Decision No.35 / PUU-X / 2012 has indeed become an important moment for indigenous peoples as the subject of customary forest management, and has had a positive impact on the transformation of forest and natural resource management in Indonesia by involving more communities. The Constitutional Court's decision 35 corrects the mistake of the Forestry Law, by ruling that 'customary forest is no longer part of state forest, but is part of private forest'. Previously, the Indonesian government only saw customary forests as areas within state forests with reference to Law No.41 / 1999 on Forestry. At both the central and local government levels, policy regularization regarding indigenous peoples and customary forests has continued to improve during the 2012-2017 period.
The agenda of placing indigenous peoples as the subject of forest area managers is also carried out by introducing the concept of Indigenous Peoples Conservation Areas into state policies. KKMA emerged as a discourse that was conveyed globally through the Convention on Biological Diversity which has recognized Community Management Conservation Areas (AKKM or ICCAs). By definition AKKM is a form of recognition of conservation practices by the community which consists of 3 (three) inseparable aspects, namely: environment and conservation, culture, and livelihood economy (Eghenter, 2016: 13). The ICCAs (Indigenous Peoples 'and Community Conserved Territories and Areas) Working Group of Indonesia played a role in campaigning the KKMA concept in collaboration between indigenous peoples' NGO activists and WWF after the ICCA Symposium was held in CIFOR, Bogor (Eghenter, 2017). The Customary Territory Registration Agency (BRWA) which is part of WGII ??acts as the coordinator of the WGII ??consortium. The BRWA spatial data shows that there are more than 6.28 million hectares of the total 9.3 million customary areas that have been mapped, overlapping with forest areas. 1.6 million of these customary areas are located in conservation areas (Widodo, 2016: 9).
Gradually, the initiative emerged from the role of WGII ??in the form of 9.3 million hectares of customary areas mapped and accommodated by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG). BIG by referring to Presidential Regulation No. 9/2016 concerning the Acceleration of the Implementation of the One Map Policy, has accommodated by initiating the preparation of standards for the involvement of indigenous peoples in: i) creating; and ii) verify and validate maps of customary territories for designation of customary territories throughout Indonesia. The initiation was carried out after a coordination meeting led by the Minister of Environment and Forestry, Mrs. Siti Nurbaya, together with the Ministry of ATR, Ministry of Home Affairs, and BIG, in order to accelerate the designation of customary forests in Indonesia.
December 28 2017 also concludes the end of the year achievement in replicating the recognition of customary forests in conservation areas. After a long period of time, indigenous peoples have always been criminalized in conservation areas, efforts to place indigenous peoples as conservation actors were carried out by drafting a Perdirjen on Conservation Partnerships. Through the Directorate General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation (KSDAE), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the draft of the Draft Regulation of the Director General of KSDAE on Partnership Conservation is designed to place Indigenous Peoples Conservation Areas as one of the clauses that are regulated to promote a more inclusive conservation model by involving actors other than the State as conservation area manager. KKMA cites the term used by the Director General of KSDAE, Ir. Wiratno, is one of the “New Ways to Manage Conservation Areas” which considers the principles of respect for Human Rights. Various problems related to community relations or customary law communities in conservation areas are resolved through a non-litigation approach and prioritizing dialogue. The cost of maintaining a conservation area can also be managed effectively when conservation area officers can protect the area together with indigenous peoples.
A legal review on the principles of Community Management Conservation Areas was carried out by the Epistema Institute during the period February - September 2018 to see the extent to which biodiversity conservation policies at the regional and central levels have provided space for the community. In the period 1979-2018, the research team identified 225 regional legal products, 53 regional law products that provided content on aspects of Environmental Management and Protection initiated by indigenous peoples in customary territories and forests. Collaborative policies between local governments and indigenous peoples in REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) policies, Customary Forest Management, Customary Forests as buffer zones from conservation areas, to the Conservation Partnership model are some of the content regulated in the regional legal products. A number of forms of local community knowledge in the management of forest areas based on the conservation of indigenous peoples are formulated in the clauses of articles on regional legal products. Install ri Kajang in Ammatoa Kajang Customary Forest, Bulukumba, South Sulawesi; and Tatali Paranti Karuhun in Kasepuhan Karang Customary Forest, Lebak, Banten, are several kinds of local knowledge of indigenous peoples accommodated in regional law products to guarantee their position as the main subject of forest and natural resource management in customary forests.
At the national level, efforts to promote policy harmonization to involve communities in conservation policies have been carried out by the civil society movement. We found that there are five national legal products in the form of Laws and Ministerial Regulations that provide opportunities for the adoption of the principle of Community Conservation Area Management in policy implementation, including: 1) Revision of the Law on Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystems; 2) Draft Regulation of the Directorate General of Partnership Conservation; 3) Draft Regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry on Essential Ecosystems; 4) Law No.27 of 2008 jo. Law No.1 of 2004 concerning Management of Coastal Areas and Small Islands (UU PWP3K); and 5) Regulation of the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries No. Per.17 / Men / 2008 concerning Conservation in Coastal Areas and Small Islands. In addition, there are two other laws, which can be a focus for understanding the division of roles of government and spatial planning as the context for enabling factors for the implementation of AKKM in Indonesia, namely: 1) Law No.26 / 2007 on Spatial Planning; and 2) Law No.23/2014 on Regional Government jo. Law No.1 / 2015
In the latest progress at this time, the Epistema Institute team is still reviewing the content of regional and national legal products with the AKKM principle instrument which refers to the norms of Human Rights, Sustainability, Inclusiveness, Collaboration, Equality, Shared Governance, and Legal Pluralism. The next agenda in the middle of the program is to discuss the findings of the Epistema Institute team with local and national stakeholders, as well as with one of the cases of indigenous peoples in Kasepuhan Lebak, Banten.