Resolving Land-Use Conflicts over Indonesia’s Customary Forests: One Map, Power Contestations and Social Justice

Indonesia’s One Map Policy aims to produce a standardized and single map which can clarify and provide a consistent record of land tenure with a view to resolving land-use conflicts in the forestry sector. The implementation of this policy has faced many challenges, including contestations over land ownership, uncertainty over the status of indigenous customary lands and other procedural obstacles associated with generating a single master map. While significant parts of Indonesia’s forests are owned and managed by indigenous peoples, this has not always been uniformly recognized across different legal jurisdictions. This is slowly changing following a 2012 Constitutional Court decision to formally recognize customary indigenous lands and forests. Despite this ruling, obstacles remain in rectifying past practices and decisions as well as streamlining the complex array of forestry governance arrangements currently applied throughout Indonesia. This article suggests the resolution of land-use conflicts within the forestry sector must be premised on principles of forest sustainability, which must include addressing the social justice concerns of indigenous peoples and local communities as well as improving their capacity to manage customary forests.