Land Control, Governance and

Agrarian Conflict in Indonesia

Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015

Kurnia Toha and William L. Collier

 Paper prepared for presentation at the“ANNUAL WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND

POVERTY”The World Bank - Washington DC, March 23-27, 2015.

INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is comprised of 13,000 islands with a total area of 7 million km2. It has a total population of 230 million in more than 1,000 various ethnic and sub-ethnic groups with their own cultures and traditions.

Purposes of this paper:Provide an Analysis of the recent changes in Governance

that impact regional decentralization and land control Review the New Laws, Regulations and Constitutional

Court Decisions Examine the potential for Reducing Agrarian ConflictsConsider the role of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and

Spatial Planning/National Land Agency Hopes and Challenges in the next five years concerning

these developments that primarily occurred in 2014

WHO CONTROL LAND IN INDONESIA?

Dual system of land control in Indonesia:

The Ministry of Forestry controls 70% of the land area; and

The remainder comes under the authority of the Ministry of Agraria and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency

Local Goverments?

Indigenous people?

MAJOR CHANGES ON LAND GOVERNACE 1

Law Number 23 of 2014 on Regional Governance:the government has recentralized to the level of the 34 provincial governors many issues including resource management from the 508 district regents and mayors.

Law Number 6 of 2014 on Villages: Strengthening of the approximately 73,000 villages (desa).

The Joint Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Forestry, the Minister Of Public Works, and the Head of the National Land Agency Number 79/2014 Concerning Procedures for the Resolution of Land Control In the Forest Estate/Zone.

Regulation No. 71 of 2014 on the Protection and Management of Peat Land.

MAJOR CHANGES ON LAND GOVERNACE 2 In September 2014, the Government

established the National Program for the Protection and Recognition of Indigenous Peoples at the Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation Plus Program (REDD+).

Constitutional Court Decision No 35/PUU-X/2012 on the Forestry Law No. 41 of 1999.

Constitutional Court Decision No 45/PUU-IX/ 2011 on the Rejection of the Forest Estate.

AGRARIAN CONFLICTS

According to available data at the National Land Agency, in 2013 there were 4,652 land cases. A total of 2,859 of these cases were successfully completed, so that by the end of 2013, there were 1,793 cases remaining.

By changing the National Land Agency into the Ministry of Agraria and Spatial Planning/ National Land Agency, the settlement of land disputes will be one of the priorities.

SOLVING THE AGRARIAN PROBLEMS

In order to resolve agrarian conflict, the government has carried out various efforts including: a)Carrying out synchronization and harmonization

of the regulations in the agrarian sector, specifically in the land sector there were a total of 650 regulations in this sector, but now only 150 regulations that will continue to be simplified

b)Simplification of the regulations and more favorable for the people;

c)Preparing the Land Law that is now included in the program priorities;

d)Preparing regulations that recognize the rights of indigenous people with procedures that are simpler and easier;

SOLVING AGRARIAN PROBLEMS

e)Recognizing the rights of the people who have lived in the forests or have small holdings for more than 10 years;

f) Acceleration of land registration and free land certification for the people who cannot afford it, civil servants, social organizations and religious institutions;

g)Pro-active in resolving agrarian conflicts with the principle of win-win solutions;

h)Begin implementation of land services online.

Approach of the Ministry of Agraria and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency

The Ministry will carry out the following programs and activities during this 2015 – 2020 period:

1. The Ministry will become the motor of successful development and construction of infrastructure in the public interest;

2. To support the investment climate, this Ministry will play an active role in the One Stop Services (OSS),with the principle of transparent, accountable and excellent service;

3. One Map Policy Implementation in the settlement of various problems of agrarian and spatial planning;

4. Strengthening of the rights of the public land through land redistribution and legalization of assets.

5. Support of the disadvantaged communities, among others, manifested in the form of fee waiver for the citizens of land certification of card holders Family Welfare and other people that cannot afford it;

6. Continue to implement abandoned land utilization by distributing land to people;

7. Implementing the Joint Regulation on Procedures for Settlement Land Tenure in forest estate/zone.

HOPE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

Combining these objects for the next five years with the issues of the last ten years that have been covered in this paper, the hope for Indonesia is that tenure rights for all the citizens of Indonesia will be secure, that forestry issues will be clarified and solved, that deforestation will be greatly reduced, that agrarian conflicts will be handled in a fare and judicious manner to reduce conflicts and provide solutions.

THANK YOU