As written by Augusta Molnar and Nayna Jhaveri on Friday” December 9″ 2011
A Bold Conference in Lombok
In Indonesia” 70% of the land has been classified as “Forest Estate” under the management of the Ministry of Forestry. While some attempts from mid-1970s to late 2000s were made to clarify the area which is the “State Forest” (about 12% of this forest land)” there has been little progress in clarifying ownership in the remaining 88% of the Forest Estate in and around which we find about 33″000 villages with up to 70 million people involved in managing millions of hectares planted as community-based agro-forests. Despite ongoing attempts by various Indonesian CSOs to push for legal recognition of the adat forest lands” the Ministry of Forestry has thus far been unwilling to move forward in an effective fashion. Not only is this issue of tenure security generally important for ensuring long-term livelihood improvements” but very recently it has become crucial to the viability of the proposed program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). Indonesia is not only a major forested country but it is also a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions” with some arguing that it is the world’s third-largest emitter because it has the fastest deforestation rate of any country in the world.
There are a number of key civil society” non-governmental organizations as well as researchers in Indonesia that have pushed for reform of this inadequate forest tenure rights and governance system. These include AMAN (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago)” HuMA (Association for Community and Ecologically Based Law)” Epistema” Forest Peoples Programme” FKKM (Indonesia Communication Forum on Community Forestry)” ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre)” Samdhana Institute” KPA (Consortium for Agrarian Reform)” Kemitraan (The Partnership for Governance Reform)” Sawitwatch as well as the Working Group on Tenure among others.
In July 2011″ International Tropical Timber Organization” the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry combined to host” on the island of Lombok” the International Conference on Forest Tenure” Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context. It was the third of a series of such conferences: the first was held in Acre” Brazil” in 2007 and the second in Yaoundé” Cameroon” in 2009.
This conference provided an impetus for a renewed dialogue between civil society organizations and the Indonesian government—releasing new research on the status of tenure reform in Asia and in Indonesia” opportunities for a low-carbon growth path with recognition of forest tenure and rights” and the overlaps between local communities and lands designated as public forests” and status of forest conflicts.
The conference was attended by about 300 participants from Indonesia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia” Bangladesh” Cambodia” China” Fiji” India” Japan” Laos” Malaysia” Myanmar” Nepal” New Zealand” Pakistan” Papua New Guinea” Philippines” Sri Lanka” Thailand and Vietnam)” Europe” Africa and the Americas. Participants included representatives of governments” civil society” local communities” traditional authorities” regional and global organizations” and donors. Countries who had executed major reforms—Brazil” China” US” Nepal” India—showed that change was politically feasible and had a positive impact on poverty and forest conservation. High level forest officials” the Vice-President of Indonesia” and the head of the President’s Special delivery unit attended” committing the government to a renewed dialogue with civil society organizations to develop a road map for moving forward on forest tenure reform. The first meeting to develop this road map has already been held in late September 2011.
The conference demonstrates the effectiveness of a premise that underlies the Rights and Resources Initiative: the strategic mobilization of new analysis” change agents” social movements” and convening an effective dialogue space for serious engagement can move reform processes forward in a way that conventional development cannot. Building a constellation of local and global actors working strategically—social science and environmental researchers with practitioners AND government change agent—was essential to the success of the outcomes.
Augusta Molnar is Director of Country/Regional Programs and Nayna Jhaveri is Coordinator of the Asia Program at Rights and Resources Initiative (www.rightsandresources.org) in Washington” DC.
Gretchen E Schafft is the contributing editor of Human Rights Forum” the AN column of the AAA Committee for Human Rights. She may be contacted at [email protected].