Theme
Strengthening country level institutions
Title
Decentralized institutions for land management at the
crossroads: the case of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia\
Authors
Bernandus Steni, Silvia Irawan, Guntur Prabowo
Organization
Earth Innovation Institute
Key Words
Decentralization, indigenous peoples rights, tenure system,
multi-level approach,
The rights to manage land in Indonesia are increasingly being devolved to local
governments and traditional institutions. Since decentralization in 2002, eleven
functions of basic services have been devolved to the district level. These laws,
however, do not specifically address the management of land. The Ministry of
Forestry and the land agency in conjunction with local governments, have the
mandates to manage land. The Ministry of Forestry is responsible to manage state
forestland according to the basic forestry law of 1999. The Ministry of Forestry
controls over 130 million hectares of forestlands that constitute about 70 per cent of
Indonesia’s territory. The land agency, working in conjunction with local governments,
deals with land management of areas outside state forests. These are areas that can
usually be allocated for activities such as agriculture, mining, housing, and
infrastructure. Until recently, customary land rights, however, have been largely
ignored in state forestlands. This year, however, the constitutional court, through
Decree 35/2013, decided that customary lands within areas classified as state forests
no longer belong to the state. The ruling removed the authority of the Ministry of
Forestry to manage these lands. According to the Decree, customary groups should
map their land and seek endorsement from district governments for the
reclassification of their land from the state forest to customary lands. Local
governments, as a consequence, have been granted increased authority to manage
this transition from state to customary ownership both inside and outside state
forestland areas.
The increased authority of local governments for land management poses both
opportunities and challenges. Local governments could play a crucial role in
facilitating traditional institutions to obtain land titles, which will greatly reduce
conflicts caused by overlapping claims over land. However, several challenges remain
including local institutions dealing with land issues generally have low capacity,
limited budget, overlapping regulations between the national and local level, and
sectoral approach to land management.
Using Central Kalimantan as the case study, this paper analyses how governments at
the provincial and district levels respond to their increased authority for land
management. Central Kalimantan offers an interesting case because of three main
reasons. First, the governor issued a decree for the recognition of indigenous land
rights even before the Constitutional Court Decree 35/2013. At least two provincial
regulations that have been stipulated related to the indigenous land rights are: (i)
Provincial Regulation No 16/2008 that recognizes the authority of indigenous
institutions to control lands, and (ii) Governor Decree No 13/2009 on Dayak
indigenous land. The recognition of indigenous land rights are also clearly stipulated
in other regulations dealing with large land acquisitions such as for plantations.
Second, under the Letter of Intent between the Governments of Indonesia and
Norway, Central Kalimantan has been selected as a pilot province for reducing
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Some of the REDD+
initiatives that have been conducted that deal with land issues include the
development of the “One Map” and improving governance in granting licenses for
plantations, mining and timber. Third, despite some progress, good land governance
in Central Kalimantan is constrained by a number of challenges. The most significant
issue is due to the existing dispute between the provincial and national delineation of
forest areas. This dispute has led to more than one million hectares of land having
unclear tenure and the delay in the finalization of the spatial plan.
This paper argues for a multi-level approach for improving land management in
Central Kalimantan. Customary groups and district governments need technical and
financial support to expedite the mapping of customary lands and issuing land titles.
Governments, at all levels, need to be more transparent about the processes for
allocating titles and licenses for large-scale concessions. The mandates of the village
level government (regulated by the National Government Regulation No 72/2005)
and the traditional institutions need to be harmonized to to prevent conflicts. Finally,
the national government need to enable local governments to address the
complexities of tenure systems at the local level. Similarly, the national government
should avoid issuing new regulations that could undermine local governments efforts
for handling these issues.