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Bank proposes US$80 million loan for ‘Land Management and Policy Development Program’ for Indonesia |
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11 November 2003 The World Bank is in the process of developing a new project which has major implications for the development of government policy on the recognition, registration and titling of customary and collective land rights in Indonesia. Although the project is principally targeted at assisting the national land agency (BPN) to register individual land titles on Java, with a welcome emphasis on gender and equity, the project will also address the thorny problem of how to recognise ‘adat’ (customary) and ‘ulayat’ (collective) lands at the national and local levels. The project constitutes a continuation of the World Bank’s previous Land Administration Project but the new name for the project demonstrates that this time the Bank has realised that more fundamental policy and legislative reforms are required if land issues are to be effectively addressed in Indonesia. Under the proposed project, support will be given for the development of a national policy on the recognition and ‘distribution’ of ‘adat’ and ‘ulayat’ lands with specific policies also developed at local levels. Regulatory instruments for recognizing and registering ‘adat’ land will also be supported through the project. In conformity with Presidential Decree 34 signed on 31 May 2003, which gives local governments responsibility for nine functions in relation to land issues, the project will support local governments in the determination and resolution of conflicts regarding ‘ulayat’ (communal) land. This may include the establishment of ‘ulayat’ land management entities to help resolve local land disputes. To safeguard all such lands, no titles will be issued under the project in areas where there are ‘adat’ and ‘ulayat’ land claims until consensus on the boundaries has been reached. Participation, NGO facilitation and monitoring, and broad awareness raising are thus all contemplated under the project, including community mapping and convening stakeholder forums, to ensure that conflicts are resolved and not generated. Interestingly, the draft proposal clearly recognises that there are ‘adat’ and ‘ulayat’ land claims on Java, although the draft specifically notes that it will not attempt titling in the Badui area in Banten Province, who, the proposal recognises, are to be considered an ‘indigenous people’ in terms of the World Bank’s policy on Indigenous Peoples (Operational Directive 4.20). According to the draft project proposal, development of these policies and regulations for the recognition and registration of ‘adat’ and ‘ulayat’ lands will commence with the drafting of an ‘issues paper’ followed by the convening of consultation workshops which will be used to generate a ‘policy paper’ which will be open to comment and revision over a 30-day period before being submitted to the government for adoption. The proposal notes that consultations on land policies will be conducted in local languages with professional facilitation. The project, which will be managed by a secretariat, to be set up under the national planning agency (BAPPENAS), will be guided by an advisory panel which, it is proposed, will include local government officials, NGO experts and AMAN (the national ‘Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago’). The proposal gives no hints on just how the proposed policies and regulations will secure ‘adat’ lands and it thus triggers a series of critical questions which land experts and indigenous peoples in Indonesia are themselves still struggling to find answers for. · How will the new national policy and proposed regulations accommodate the great variety and dynamism of customary rights regimes in Indonesia? Will the form of the collective titles and associated rights vary from place to place? · Will the ‘bundle of rights’ entailed by the titles amount to rights of ‘ownership’ ? · In which social entities will collective titles be vested? (who will be the registered ‘owners’ ?) · How will these entities be recognised and accorded legal personality at the district and local level? · How will these entities relate to the local administrative system? · Will titled ‘adat’ and ‘ulayat’ lands be alienable (saleable), transferable or divisible? · Will they be subject to tax? · What rights will be afforded to collective rights-holders over the management and control of natural resources on collectively titled lands? · Will these proposed policies and regulations all be established within the limitations of the present Basic Agrarian Law or will a new framework law be proposed? · How will these relate to the National Assembly’s Resolution on a new Natural Resource Management law (TAP MPR IX)?
The way the project and its ‘policy paper’ comes up with suitable answers to these critical questions will largely determine the success of this part of the World Bank’s proposed project. FPP 11 November 2003 |
