Nusron Wahid Urges Partnership Scheme to End Era of Land Grabbing

JAKARTA - The Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN), Nusron Wahid, has stressed that indigenous customary lands should ideally be recognised first before Business Use Rights (HGU) are issued over those areas.

This was stated by Nusron, as quoted by Kompas.com from the Ministry of ATR/BPN website, on Tuesday (12/5/2026).

“Indeed, ideally, all HGU lands that are proven to have customary lands there should have the customary rights acknowledged first before the HGU is granted over the customary rights,” said Nusron.

According to Nusron, if an HGU is located on customary land, the relationship between the HGU holder company and the indigenous community must be one of partnership.

“The HGU holder has the status of a contract with the customary rights holder. And customary rights cannot be sold, so the land is truly protected,” he explained.

One of the issues faced is the unclear boundaries of customary territories in several areas.

In addition, customary institutions in some regions are also considered incomplete and not yet solid.

Nusron gave an example of cases where tribal chiefs sell land, while other indigenous groups claim the same territory.

“This is the problem: how to unite those indigenous communities so they are truly cohesive and recognise each other. That’s our homework, our task,” he said.

Therefore, the Ministry of ATR/BPN is currently carrying out the process of recognising customary rights in several regions, particularly in West Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and Papua.

As part of legal protection for customary lands, the government has also issued customary rights certificates in those areas.

“Thus, no one can enter and take control of that land as long as there is a customary rights certificate. Anyone who wants to enter must cooperate with those customary rights,” he emphasised.