(Published in the National Geo-Data Press Release on Wednesday, July 23, 2014)

A decade of this Reform Era has brought changes in the governance of natural resources, both in terms of policies and their implementation. Sadly, these changes were not accompanied by fundamental changes in the capitalistic economic and political structure of Indonesia, the state capitalism that developed during the New Order era merely transformed into private oligarchic capitalism (Hadiz and Robison, 2004). So, where is the community-managed area heading?

At least based on the participatory mapping conducted by members of the Participatory Mapping Work Network (JKPP) until 2013, from the total area of 5,263,058.28 ha of community-managed areas, approximately 4,050,253.38 ha or 81.4% overlap with forest areas and around 2,637,953.94 ha overlap with permits (logging concessions, mining, palm oil plantations, and industrial timber estates). The significant extent of overlapping indicates high levels of conflicts and potential spatial conflicts that imply the narrowing of community-managed areas, threatening food sovereignty.

Huma stated that there are generally 281 conflicts in 24 provinces, including 80 forestry cases, 32 agrarian/land conflicts, and 23 mining conflicts, with the most numerous being plantation conflicts reaching 147 cases covering an area of 2,706,725 hectares (Huma Outlook, 2013). This area is equivalent to the size of West Sumatra Province, and this is just the surface, conflicts are definitely more than that.

Sawit Watch recorded more than 720 conflicts between communities and palm oil plantation companies until 2014. These conflicts continue to increase along with the decreasing land available for communities. The expansion of oil palm plantations annually reaches around 400,000 hectares. Sawit Watch found that in Central Kalimantan alone, there are approximately 1.2 million hectares of “uninhabited” land left, mostly located along riverbanks. This shows the increasing disparity in land ownership between large plantation companies and communities. Where for just one province, land is already dominated by large palm oil plantation companies, mining, logging concessions, and industrial timber estates.

The increase in mining permits has escalated social and ecological crises. Violence, environmental damage, criminalization, and conflicts occur almost all over Indonesia. Talking about mining is not just about how much money flows into the state treasury, but it also closely relates to the safety and living space of the residents. This can be seen from the emergence of 10,935 mining business permits covering an area of over 40 million hectares of land in Indonesia (Jatam Data, 2013). The island of Kabaena, with an area of only 86,769 hectares, has been divided into 35 mining concession permits covering 66,166 hectares, or 76% has been taken over by mining companies.

The disorder in the management and utilization of forest areas in Indonesia arises from the functionalization of forests as a national economic potential, where it serves as an indicator of the contribution value of the forestry sector through concessions issued for logging, industrial timber estates, selective logging concessions. In its development, the government issued permits for social forestry utilization through the Minister of Forestry’s Decree No. 31 of 2002 concerning Community Forests (HKM). In support of the forest management and utilization system within communities, the government issued Government Regulation No. 34 of 2002 concerning Forest Arrangement and the Preparation of Forest Management Plans, Forest Utilization, and Forest Area Use. It regulates systems that can be managed by the community. Based on this Decree, KPSHK attempted to identify potential Community Forestry Areas in 2010 to develop social forestry schemes. From the identification results, it was found that the Customary Forests in the Community Forest Areas reached 2686.64 ha; proposals for village customary forests covering 719.04 ha; HKM reached 27,674.04 ha; People’s Forests reached 2100 ha; Community Plantation Forests reached 72,375.69 ha.