Mia Siscawati, Ph.D. University of Indonesia/CIFOR

1. Mia Siscawati, Ph.D.
University of Indonesia/CIFOR

2.  Forest tenure is a broad concept that includes a variety of
arrangements over the use of forest resources, from
ownership, tenancy and a variety of mechanisms of access.
 The concept of forest tenure provides space for a
combination of legally or customarily defined access to
forest lands and forest resources as well as arrangements
to manage, use, and have control over these lands and
resources (FAO, 2010).
 Forest tenure not only determines who has access to what
resources for how long and under what conditions but also
who has control over what resources, and who has benefit
from the use of those resources.

3.  The study of access focuses on the multiple ways people
gain benefits from resources.
 Access retains an empirical “ ... focus on the issues of who
does (and who does not) get to use what, in what ways,
and when (that is, in what circumstances)” (Nealle 1998).
Within this framework, access can be seen as “bundles and
webs of powers that enable to gain, control, and maintain
access” (Ribot and Peluso, 2003).
 Different people and different institutions can hold and
exercise different bundles and webs of powers. Therefore,
some people, group(s) of people, and institutions control
resource access while others must maintain their access
through those who have control (Ribot and Peluso, 2003).

4.  Women of different social status and classes have certain forms
of relationship with forest lands and resources while performing
critical roles in managing forest lands and resources.
 One woman may have a variety of access to different plots of
forest lands, started from her own land(s), her husband’s land(s),
her conjugal land(s), her relative’s or neighbor’s land(s), as well
as communal lands.
 Multiple identities carried by one woman, contributed by her
marital status, socio-economic class, age, occupation, and other
factors will influence her positions in the daily application of
forest tenure and forest governance at multiple levels, from the
household, clan, and community levels.

5.  In Indonesia, customary forest tenure systems are in conflict with the legal framework
that support state control over the territorialization, zonation and management of
forest lands.
 The government of Indonesia adopts the colonial approach of state control over forest
lands and resources through forestry laws and regulations
 Through this state-supported enclosure, the Ministry of Forestry issued forestry
concessions (logging, industrial timber plantations, and ecosystem restoration) mostly
to private corporations. This ministry also established conservation areas managed as
national park, nature reserves etc. The areas allocated for all of these homelands of
indigenous peoples and local communities.
 In setting up the “state forest zone” and applying state-controlled system of forest
management, this regime exercised the alienation of indigenous peoples and local
communities from their communal forest lands. This process continues until today.
 The impacts for customary communities and other local communities, especially
women and marginal groups within these communities are quite devastating

6.  In gaining access to forest lands and forest resources, indigenous women and local
women gain and maintain access to lands and forest resources through those who have
control via various mechanisms, processes, and social relations.
 In many cases, those with control are mostly male actors (male customary leaders, male
members of the family, male neighbors, male state forest guards, etc.) that occupy
different positions in relation to the lands at certain periods.
 In gaining and maintain access to lands and forest resources, adat women and local
women have to navigate within webs of power in the household, the clan, the
community, the state, as well as the market. These processes women face various forms
of gender injustice such as sub-ordination, marginalization, discrimination and
stereotyping.
 At the same time, these forms of gender injustice contribute to the degree to which
women can gain and maintain access to lands, and in what ways and how long they can
maintain that access.

7.  On 16 May 2013 the Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled
that customary forest is no longer part of the state forest.
This Ruling can be seen as the recognition of customary
territory.
 It recognizes indigenous peoples as rights bearing subject
and it fundamentally validates customary communities'
position in their scattered struggle over land, resources, and
territory.
 The Constitutional Court Ruling was enacted in response to a
judicial review submitted by the alliance of indigenous
peoples of Indonesia's archipelago (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat
Nusantara/AMAN).

8.  Indigenous women in many areas in Indonesia, who
have lower level of education compared to their male
counterparts, have very limited access to knowledge,
particularly about changes of policies on forest
tenure and forest governance that affect the lands
they manage.
 This sub-ordination contributes to the
marginalization of indigenous women in various
processes that happen in their own family and
community. This has led to women losing access and
or control of their lands, making them more
vulnerable.

9.  The Master Plan on the Acceleration of Economic
Development opens more space for privatization of
lands, including forest lands.
 Oil palm and mining companies have been approaching
indigenous peoples to release their lands
 Customary leaders, their husbands and other male
members of their families make decisions to release
lands located within customary areas without
involvement and consent of women.
 The impacts for indigenous and local women are
devastating