• The role of indigenous peoples in maintaining and preserving forests in Indonesia by maintaining customary law.
• Corporate and government exploitation activities are causing the threat of deforestation, indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and climate change.
• The benefits of customary forests are not only for indigenous peoples but also for the environment as a whole.

Application of Customary Law to Forests

In various islands of Indonesia, numerous indigenous communities continue to uphold and enforce customary law, which encompasses various aspects of their daily lives. This customary law has been passed down through generations and applies uniformly to all members of these indigenous communities. It also governs their activities in meeting daily needs, as these communities generally live in close dependence on the natural resources available in the forests.

Despite relying on traditional methods to sustain their livelihoods, exploitative or destructive activities toward forests have never been observed among indigenous peoples across generations. This is a remarkable phenomenon, as these seemingly traditional communities have managed to develop and implement an effective and efficient legal system to safeguard their resources. This system not only ensures the sustainability of their livelihoods but also plays a significant role in preserving forests, mitigating climate change, and protecting the diverse flora and fauna of Indonesia.

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Exploitation and Deforestation

Along with the increase in population and efforts to improve economic conditions in Indonesia, there are several policies and activities from both the government and companies that utilize forests. However, this reaps cons for the community, especially indigenous peoples who depend on forests for their livelihoods. With poor regulation and supervision from the government or companies will encourage exploitative activities in forests that tend to damage nature and harm the community around the forest, this is often the case in the mining, agriculture/plantation, housing and infrastructure development sectors. One of the impacts caused by such exploitative behavior is deforestation.

Deforestation is a massive and rapid logging or reduction of forest area, in this case carried out by humans. The impact of deforestation climate change, social and economic, forests play an important role in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2), emissions by absorbing CO2 produced from human activities.

Forests also have a role as carbon stores in plant and soil biomass, besides that forests also play a role as climate stabilizers to maintain carbon balance in the atmosphere as well as play a role in mitigating climate change. The social and economic impact of indigenous peoples around the forest is also affected, such as loss of water resources, loss of food resources, loss of livelihoods (productivity) and conflicts over land disputes with companies or governments. Cases of forest damage that have occurred to the community have occurred several times, for example what happened to the Besipae indigenous people in Linamnutu, South Amunaban which is located in the South Middle East Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. They had to evacuate because of the loss of the customary forest where they lived. Similar cases also occurred to the Awyu tribe in Boven Digoel, South Papua, and the Moi tribe in Sorong, Southwest Papua, who rejected oil palm plantation activities that destroyed their customary forests.

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The Importance of Sustainability of Customary Forests in Indonesia

Customary forests that are currently still being guarded by several indigenous peoples in Indonesia not only bring benefits in meeting their needs such as; food sources, livelihood sources and shelters. However, customary forests have far wider benefits for the ecosystem and climate on earth, especially in the source of oxygen providers and carbon dioxide emission absorbers which continue to increase along with human activities.

In addit ion, forests and indigenous peoples can be an example in efforts to protect and preserve forests by involving all levels of society by applying laws that not only prevent and repair forest damage, but also indirectly provide collective awareness to the community to protect and preserve forests.

There are several examples of the application of customary law related to forests in Indonesia, one of which is in the Tablasupa customary village living in the Cyloops mountains located in the administrative area of Jayapura Regency applying customary law to forests and birds of paradise, this was said by one of the Ondoafi or tribal leaders who have been inherited from generation to generation. “There are customary sanctions for indigenous peoples who wear or make a crown of paradise from native birds”. The sanctions given are in the form of catching pigs in the forest, having to hold a traditional ceremony to pay a fine with a Tamako stone or traditional stone axe and a sum of money.

The same thing is also applied in the Dayak Iban tribe of Sungai Itik West Kalimantan, there is a law that is applied from planting to harvesting. Land use is regulated so as not to damage nature, and is usually carried out on the edge of production forests to make it easier to supervise. Every time they do the planting season, they precede it through rituals, a total of 25 types of traditional ceremonies that must be passed so that nature blesses. From the traditional prayer ritual, they also seem to get “instructions” on which land can be used and which cannot be used. The use of forest timber is also regulated wisely because each resident is only allowed to cut no more than 30 trees a year. Each wood they cut down must be replaced with 2 to 4 new plant seedlings and so on. If it is not done, then a customary fine is imposed, namely paying a sum of money to be deposited into the hamlet treasury. Later, this cash can be used for common needs.

So it can be concluded that forests provide benefits not only with the resources in them, there are also social, economic and cultural benefits in them.

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Editor : Alfidah Dara Mukti

Referensi

1. Kearifan Lokal Menjaga Hutan, dari Dayak Iban untuk Dunia 
2. Pusparagam Cycloop: Memuliakan Lautan dan Hutan di Kampung Tablasupa
3. Masyarakat adat Besipae di NTT yang ‘digusur’ dari hutan adat Pubabu: Anak-anak dan perempuan ‘trauma’ dan ‘hidup di bawah pohon’
4. Anak Muda Adat dan Masa Depan Hutan Papua
5. Dashboard Penutupan Lahan di Indonesia