Researchers fear disputes over tribal land

Researchers fear disputes over tribal land

JAKARTA (JP): A group of researchers have called on the government to slow down the process of registering traditional lands, saying that moving too rapidly could do more harm than good.

Unless the government moves cautiously, the process of land registration and certification could raise potentially explosive disputes over land ownership, a research unit led by Atma Jaya University said on Tuesday.

The researchers presented their finding on land ownership surveys conducted in West Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggara at a seminar on Tuesday. The National Land Agency (BPN) also attended the seminar.

"Let the people decide when they want to register their land. Do not force them to do so," researcher Rianto Adi said.

The team of researchers, including noted anthropologists T.O. Ihromi and Loekman Soetrisno, defined traditional land as property with special cultural characteristics that is inherited from ancestors.

Rianto said that the registration of traditional lands without certification remained the best way to protect their titles against other possible claimants.

BPN representatives insisted that the registration and certification of common land would give inhabitants greater legal certainty, especially when disputes of ownership arise.

The head of BPN's Research and Development Center, Suryo Suwarno, argued that an absence of legal documents made handling land disputes difficult.

"In the case of traditional land being taken by force, which has happened in the past ... it will be hard for the inhabitants to win their land back because they never had any legal documents to prove their claim," he said.

Suryo said that his agency has actively campaigned for people to register their common land.

He said that registration was not the same as certification, but people often confused the two. "Registration only indicates the status, size and location of the land, but it does not confer title."

Ihromi said that the land agency must pay attention to the local cultures when approaching tribal people, especially when measuring and defining land boundaries. "The local people are the only ones who know the lines and the history of the land, and they have done their own mapping," she said.

The Atma Jaya team said that the government's development projects which involve land appropriation should respect the local cultures and give them special protections for their lands.

"The process of land registration must come through their own initiative. To avoid any form of malfeasance or undue pressure, land registration should not be initiated by the local land agency," Rianto said. (edt)