Internal migrants in Indonesia have
shifted land arrangements, resulting in both social and ecological damage: land
conflicts increase along with deforestation. This complex relationship has been
underplayed in the REDD debate, say Gamma Galudra,
Meine van Noordwijk, Putra Agung, Suyanto and Ujjwal Pradhan
By Masayu Vinanda
Conflicting claims over land
ownership have occurred in most parts of Indonesia, according to Gamma
Galudra and colleagues, writing in Mitigation
and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. They describe one such
conflict and its implications for reducing emissions from deforestation and
degradation (REDD) in Senyerang village, Tanjung Jabung Barat district, Jambi
province on the island of Sumatra.
Agroforest on peat in Tanjung Jabung Barat. Photo: World Agroforestry CentreThe recent background to the
conflict in Senyerang starts in 1997, when the Ministry of Forestry granted a
permit for a pulp-and-paper company to expand its concession area. About 1500
people—long-settled migrants from other parts of Indonesia—protested over the rights
to the land in question, resulting in one person shot dead and two wounded. The
migrants argued that the area was their communal land that had been used by the
Banjar people since the 1920s. A land licence granted by the pesirah (the chief of the territory),
active since the Dutch colonial period, was used as their advocacy tool.
However, the company did not stop the conversion and continued planting the
area with acacia.
The Senyerang situation clearly demonstrated
the tenurial interaction between a group of migrants and a concession-holding
company. However, interaction between the migrants and the government
institution that issued the permit to the company was also part of the problem.
Historical, informal negotiations between the pesirah and the migrants dated back many years and provided a more
In their study, Galudra and his team
analysed relations between four key groups: the state, local communities,
migrants and state-sanctioned concession holders in the peat forests of the
district to reveal complex, ‘underlying land ownership, power struggles and
strategic positioning among stakeholders across scales’. Those three aspects are crucial to the
effectiveness of any REDD scheme in the district, they argued.
Inhabited by approximately 280,000
people, nearly half of the population of the district are migrants from other
parts of Indonesia. Practically, the district is divided into two parts: the
inland villages on mineral soil inhabited by people from western and northern
Sumatra; and the lowland peatland inhabited by Malay people from Riau. Peatland
occupies 40% of the district and half of the land is state domain, with the
largest area classified as ‘production forest’.
In the 1970s, the Ministry of
Agriculture issued concessions to log the forests, leaving behind huge
logged-over areas in many parts of the region. These areas were easily
accessed, thanks to the roads built for timber extraction, which resulted in
further land clearing, particularly for oil-palm and pulp-and-paper
plantations. Fifteen years later, the Forest Allotment Consensus provided a
stronger legal basis to issue more permits.
‘Both permit regimes marginalized
migrants and local communities’, said Galudra. ‘Interaction began between
migrants and local communities in the form of land sales. Local communities sold
land—to which they might have had customary but not state-sanctioned rights—to groups
of migrants who expanded the crop area. Those migrant-controlled areas would
sometimes then be occupied by customary landowners who claimed that the land belonged
to them. To resolve the conflict, the migrants had to undertake a second
transaction, paying extra amounts to the customary landowners’.
Additionally, interaction between
migrants and local communities resulted in changing how land was used. For
instance, one migrant group, the Banjar, had much experience in clearing and
draining peat forests, land which was then transferred to the pesirah (the chief of the territory).
‘The local people of the district lacked
this knowledge’, said Galudra, ‘but the Banjar people were able to extend the
village’s claims over territory in the peatland. The migrants did this to build
a better relationship with the locals. The clearing was seen as an initial
investment in easier access for all to use the land’.
Often, an even more complex situation
appears when analyzing interactions between migrants and the private sector. Competing
claims over land between migrants, local communities and private concessions
arose owing to changing policies after decentralization took place, affecting
the power relations between the central and local governments. For example, local
people and migrants understood that the land they claimed was classified as ‘non-forest
area’, a belief justified by such a designation in the District Spatial Plan of
1993. However, private companies believed the area was classified as ‘conversion
production forest’ as shown in the records of the central government’s 1985
Forest Allotment Consensus. The conflicting land-use policies have seen an
increase in concession permits and the status of forests changed to ‘conversion
production forest’ to meet the demand for expansion by the palm-oil and
Galudra and team argue that examining
the complexities of tenurial interaction—particularly how migrants balance
power with local communities, businesses and government authorities at the
local level—will help ensure an effective implementation of REDD.
Clear and secure land and forest
ownership is required if any progress is to be made. If forest or land tenure insecurity
has been resolved, there is no doubt that the benefits or incentives generated
from REDD initiatives can then be equally and fairly distributed.
Read the article
Galudra G, van Noordwijk M,
Agung P, Suyanto, Pradhan U. 2014. Migrants, land markets and carbon emissions
in Jambi, Indonesia: Land tenure change and the prospect of emission reduction.
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for
Global Change 19(6).
This work is
linked to the CGIAR Research
Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry