Background

In Indonesia , exploitation of and state control over land and forest resources has negatively affected many indigenous peoples' communities. Access to land by indigenous peoples is a key issue West Kalimantan province, where nearly 5 million people - more than 40 percent of the total population - identify themselves as part of indigenous communities collectively known as "Dayak." For more than 30 years, state land and resource policies not only limited economic opportunities for Dayak communities, they also cut them off from cultural and religious practices that centered on their forests and rivers.

The Program for Strengthening Community Forestry (Program Pemberdayaan Sistem Hutan Kemasyarakatan - PPSHK) was founded in 1995 by three local NGOs, in conjunction with village-level partners throughout the province. PPSHK works with indigenous communities to document and support traditional natural resource management (NRM) systems, and advocate for wider application of traditional NRM along with secure land rights by men and women living in forest areas.

Key land rights challenges, as identified by villagers in Engkarangan and Terungin (Sintang district)

• Indigenous peoples' rights to land are not recognized by the state. While Indonesian law does acknowledge the existence of indigenous forest land ( hutan adat ), it considers this a subset of state forests. The villagers, on the other hand, very clearly stated that they have rights to their traditional forest land.

• Information concerning forest concessions - where, to whom, for how long, etc. - is not provided by the government. For instance, when concessions expire the land could revert to community use (via its return to state, under existing legal framework). But without knowing the length of concessions, communities are not able to position themselves to resume use of land or ensure that companies do not "overstay" their concessions.

• Communities are not directly involved in negotiating contracts or concessions with companies. This increases conflicts, when concessions are given in areas where agro-forestry is already taking place.

• Productivity of land is another real challenge to secure land claims. Farmers in the villages readily admit that their rice fields are not very productive, in part because they lack skills and equipment to engage in more modern farming. The land only produces some of HH food needs, meaning that access to other income-generating activities is critical. But, it is still important to retain access to land for rice, because it the crop yield is at least fairly certain and predicable - they know their starting point in terms of HH food security.

Accomplishments of PPSHK and Community Partners

While the Indonesian government does not formally recognize indigenous forest land claims, on a case-by-case basis some communities are gaining control over land on which there is no active commercial exploitation. Community mapping is used in this process, to document ancestral land claims and then, in conjunction with a forest resource inventory, to assist villagers to plan how to manage their natural resources. PPSHK is finding that where indigenous people can demonstrate how rehabilitating and using forest land contributes to improving their livelihood, they have more leverage to negotiate with the government for secure land access.

To support the land reclamation process, PPSHK works with indigenous farmers to increase the productivity and sustainability of their land management. Two of PPSHK's initiatives focus on increasing ability to make a living from and retain control over their land.

The first is called Usaha Bersama or " UB" , which means "working together" in Indonesia . The UB group operates like a sales cooperative, and involves 15 rubber-farming households in Terungin, about half the village. The group negotiates jointly with middle-men for sales of their rubber, which improves their leverage and increases the price they receive.

The UB purchases rubber from both members and non-members, with members receiving a slightly higher price (about one cent more per kilogram). This allows the group to sell rubber at regular intervals, not only when its own members harvest. The price differential is meant to be an incentive to join the group, but so far the group has remained small - in part because a larger rubber dealer lives in the neighboring village, and in part because the group has not done much to publicize its work and the benefits of becoming a member.

After two years, the UB has already brought material benefits to the village. In the words of one member, before the UB his family struggled 99 percent of the time to feed itself and meet other household needs. Now, they are in a more secure position. The UB has invested in a small store that sells goods from outside the village (bankrupting visiting salesmen who previously came via boat), and a generator along with a TV, radio and DVD player. The group is now considering whether to buy or rent a boat that would allow it to access rubber factories in Pontianak directly.

The other and much larger initiative is a rural credit union or "CU", which involves more than 30 villages in the region. While called "credit union" by PPSHK and participating villagers, it is actually both a credit and savings institution: members pay a one-time enrollment fee, and then make mandatory monthly deposits of 5,000 Rupiah (about 55 cents). The CU now manages more than 300 million Rupiah (> $30,000 USD) in assets, and has a staff person and small office in Engkarangan village.

The goals of the CU are to increase access to credit for productive investments, as well as to provide a kind of safety net to families for health care and other social expenses. In practice, loans are split roughly 50-50 between those for short-term investment (e.g., purchasing farming equipment and other inputs, or motorcycles to increase market access), and long-term investments (i.e., children's education) or other household spending (e.g., health care or wedding expenses).

The credit union uses a group lending approach, i.e., it harnesses the social enforcement power of the group to gauge credit risk and ensure that loans are repaid, rather than rely on collateral. To take out a loan, two co-sponsors are required. This "sponsorship" serves to increase the likelihood that loans are paid back.

Shares in the CU are registered in names of families. Either husband or wife can initiate a loan request, and both must co-sign to indicate approval within the household. The CU members I spoke with thought that loans initiated by wives tended to be repaid more quickly and consistently than those initiated by their husbands.

PPSHK and other NGOs are also documenting the labor effects of forest concessions , to counter claims by the government that employment generation is a positive result for local people. Their findings show that where indigenous farmers become forest sector laborers, it doesn't necessarily improve their household livelihood. There are, for instance, cases where timber companies set up bars, gambling dens and the like on site, which makes it easy to take back the earnings of men working at logging camps. This also reflects gender bias of logging and forest industry, because the jobs it does create generally go to men - there is not an employment benefit for women.

Community Empowerment Facility

Local Wisdom Strengthening in the Rehabilitation of Infertile Land in West Kalimantan Indonesia

Knowledge Programme

Documenting lessons from "Strengthening Local Wisdom in the Rehabilitation of Critical Lands in West Kalimantan"