Worldwide, the legalisation of customary land rights has become a strategy for resolving land conflicts between local communities with companies and state agencies. In Indonesia, NGOs have been... Show moreWorldwide, the legalisation of customary land rights has become a strategy for resolving land conflicts between local communities with companies and state agencies. In Indonesia, NGOs have been promoting that strategy through campaigns for changing the legislation and directly assisting adat communities in concrete cases of land conflicts. However, success has been limited.Using a socio-legal research method, this book demonstrates the complexity of the legal recognition process of customary land rights in land dispute settings. It shows how the state legal framework deliberately repressed customary land rights over time, from the colonial period to the present. Detailed case studies also reveal competing interests among community members and their changing strategies in facing land conflicts. Finally, the book explores what happened in practice after communities did obtain legal recognition and whether that indeed solved their land problems.This dissertation invites indigenous rights activists and scholars to rethink the efficacy of the legal recognition strategy in using customary land rights claims as a solution to land conflicts. Show less
The concepts, policies, laws and practices regarding community-based forest management have changed over time. However, their objective is constant, namely to fight forest destruction and poverty... Show moreThe concepts, policies, laws and practices regarding community-based forest management have changed over time. However, their objective is constant, namely to fight forest destruction and poverty and to resolve conflicts regarding forest tenure. Securing community forest tenure is a way for achieving this objective. Forest tenure security, however, requires more than legalisation of community property rights by state law. It results from an interplay between state and/or community normative systems, actual practices and actors’ perceptions. Legalisation of rights by state institutions is only one facet of security, more specifically legal security of forest tenure that will be determined by the rights’ robustness, proper duration and strong legal protection. The security of community forest tenure will be also achieved through the ability of social norms to secure the rights of ordinary people. In addition, the consistent enforcement of the rules or norms by the officials or local authorities is necessary and the behaviour of these officials and local authorities must be in line with the interests and perception of the majority of community members. Last but not least, efforts of securing communities’ rights must take into consideration the specific history of land tenure and conflicts. Show less