for the lie of the land is an essential ingredient for travelers, and for anyone dealing with land tenure, or management and use of natural resources of the earth. This is especially true regarding the property rights of confusing and contradictory land of the indigenous peoples of Indonesia.
In 2012, the Constitutional Court declared that custom ( adat ) more forests belong to the state. This follows the decision of the Court No. 41/1999 on Forestry, who acknowledged the presence of customary forests. Decisions are unfortunately a bit late as the No. 5 Agrarian Basic Law of 1960 capped private property in rural areas and declared all unclaimed land to be state-owned.
The flooding that followed logging licenses and permits to convert forests to agro-parks, industrial forest plantations and mining tape radically changed land use and land cover , particularly in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua, and significantly reduces the size of the adat land.
Accordingly, the national income has increased and a small group of investors could significantly increase their wealth, but the losers were the inhabitants of native forests as hunter-gatherers, are based on extensive forests and a healthy ecosystem for their livelihoods.
This is ongoing, as an article in the March 7, 2015 The Jakarta Post shows: "The head of the tribal community of nomadic Orang Rimba Jambi, Temenggung Marituha, blamed the conversion of forests as a cause of the shortage of food they are currently suffering that led to the death of 11 tribes from starvation. "
as always, the implementation of decisions taken by government authorities is slow and hesitant. with respect customary land this is unfortunately also true, as the authorities at district, provincial and national levels are not sure how to proceed. But as the adat land was put on the map, so to speak, the regulation process of adat land tenure could be given a head start by beginning to map these lands earlier.
According to the traditional Community Alliance Nusantara (AMAN), some 33 million hectares of customary land, 17% of the area of Indonesia's 190 million hectares, should be mapped. Some 17 million people in more than 2,000 traditional communities benefit directly from the mapping exercise because it would help resolve land conflicts.
Of course, Kalimantan wall to wall of the 1950 forests are gone, and their disappearance has significantly reduced the livelihoods of many indigenous groups on the island. It will not be possible to restore forests to the conditions of 50 years ago. However, fixing the tenure of the remaining forests, oil palm plantations, clear-felled areas and mining concession areas would solve many problems, uncertainties and frustrations.
The first step of this [long] road will be the mapping of customary areas where conflicts occur, the rest later mapped. It is not immediately clear how customary lands that have already been converted to other uses should be included in the mapping process. The most practical approach would be to map first and then decide what to do with the information.
The mapping of adat land should be done with precision and linked to national references. Cards must show standard themes such as land use and land cover, as well as those that are relevant from the perspective of indigenous communities. To achieve this, the mapping will be done by the communities themselves, assisted where necessary by public or private organizations.
The 121 inhabitants of Punan Adiu, a village in Malinau District, North Kalimantan, have used participatory mapping to protect customary forests, which includes more than 17,000 hectares of primary rainforest.
The mapping took three years and involved investigations and negotiations to establish boundaries with other villages and limitations of the adat forest. The final map was completed in January this year, and must be approved by the Malinau district chief. Punan Adiu collaborated with a number of organizations, including the Community Mapping Network (JKPP) and AMAN in the implementation of activities.
outside interests have turned and offered a large sum of money to the forest, the plan being to clear-fell and palm vegetable oil. The Adiu Punan villagers refused the offer, but some of the neighboring villages not accept. We can only hope that more villages will refuse the offers because it is time to stop the degradation resulting from these transactions.
The forest loss leading to monoculture oil palm plantations
Although the approval of the district chief is certainly needed in land division , it is hoped that the authorities at provincial and national levels would also be involved, that the card must be registered to the base of national geospatial data. In this regard, the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) should play a vital role in the integration of participatory maps in the national spatial information system.
Until now, the main obstacle to finding a solution to the ubiquitous land conflicts is a lack of reliable and accurate maps. Those currently used at the national, provincial or district differ widely and customary land generally is not on one of them.
Participatory mapping in rural areas would be best complemented by a similar commitment in urban areas. uses this crowd-sourcing system worldwide with good results, and several tests were carried out in Indonesia, too. participatory urban mapping would, for instance, be very useful to identify the weaknesses of the drainage infrastructure. Based on the resulting maps, responsible for cleaning, maintenance and repairs could then be assigned to either the local neighborhood, or operations and maintenance of annual government budgets. This is a prerequisite to successfully undertake the former without dredging major rivers, for example, there is little enthusiasm or use to keep the drains clean along the way.
And most important from the standpoint of cartography, and this is BIG should come a referral system, technical examinations and tests must be set up to ensure that the participatory maps crowd source and others will be based on the whole of Indonesia references, so that these can be coherently integrated with national maps.
Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)