Local People Must Benefit, Minister Says

Jakarta Globe, Willy Masaharu, January 21, 2013

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South Lampung, Lampung. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan says that local people must have the right to benefit from forests in their areas, as civil society groups continue to accuse the government of neglecting the rights of indigenous peoples to their homeland.

On his visit to a village in Lampung, Zulkifli said the government would prioritize local people in managing resources.

“The government will make people prosperous. Of course, they can utilize the forest as long as it’s in a wise way,” he said.

Activists and scholars have criticized the government for sacrificing indigenous people for the interests of big plantation companies when formulating regulations on natural resource management, with the sectors becoming increasingly synonymous with cases of land grabs, environmental damage and violent clashes.

They urged the government to consider people’s rights in formulating and executing policies.

Mohamad Choirul Anam, deputy executive director of the Human Rights Working Group, said the government should be held accountable for the many cases of conflict linked to land disputes, arguing it had failed to ensure people were fairly compensated for their land or to anticipate overlapping claims before issuing permits for plantations and mining concessions.

Zulkifli said the villagers would be protected from violence and any illegal practices of the companies and state agencies as long as they did not violate the law.

He said that each family could manage up to two hectares of forest, and no other parties could claim the land.

“However, the land can not be sold, and must only be utilized wisely,” Zulkifli added.

He said the government had also provided soft loans for local people so that they could buy seed and fertilizer.

The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) has recorded that at least 25 farmers were shot and three killed last year across Indonesia as a result of land disputes and agrarian conflicts.

Although 2011 was a more deadly year for agrarian conflicts, with 22 deaths linked to land disputes, the total number of conflicts rose to 198 in 2012, the KPA said.

The group highlighted cases over the past two years in South Sumatra and Lampung, where bloody conflicts between farmers and large oil palm plantations persist. Tensions first erupted in 2011, but a lack of government commitment to addressing the problem’s root causes prompted the conflict to resurface again last year, HRWG’s Choirul said.

In July last year, police, who many believe were siding with plantation owners, opened fire on a group of protesting farmers in Ogan Ilir district, South Sumatra. The victims of the shooting had accused private plantation companies of encroaching on their lands. A child was fatally shot by police during the protest.

The KPA also claimed that 156 farmers were arbitrarily arrested for protesting against land encroachment by big businesses, while none of the land dispute cases were ever investigated. Agrarian conflicts have also resulted in 55 farmers sustaining injuries from heavy-handed policing and alleged torture, the KPA said.

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