Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast AsiaNusa Tenggara Timur, is inhabited by several tribes. Each can be consideredas an autonomous adat community. The two biggest adat communities areKedang and Lamaholot, each group shaped and defined by different socioeconomicand political structures.Conflicts over land and natural resources in Lembata have involved bothconflicts between adat communities and district government and conflictsamong adat communities. In some respects, adat has been successful inresolving conflicts among communities. In others, adat communities wereunable to put an end to conflictual relations because political groupsaffiliated to their members/leaders had contributed to an escalation of thedisputes.Adat has been used by both district government officials and NGO activistsin the conflicts related to a mining concession plan. The officials have usedtheir traditional kinship connections and co-opted some adat leaders tosupport their plan of mining development in Lembata. NGO activists havealso reactivated adat ceremonies to strengthen the solidarity of adatcommunities’ members in their struggle against the district government.State law has also been used by the district government and NGO activists.In line with their objectives, the district government has enacted regulationsand issued licenses to support their mining policy. NGO activists, throughtheir representation in district parliament, have struggled in trying topromote and implement a district regulation that would protect the rights ofadat communities. They have been partially successful in enacting aregulation for community forestry, but must accept that the regulation doesnot allow the communities to own their land. In line with the national policyof community forestry, the land must be under direct control of thegovernment. Once again, it is clear that customary laws in Indonesia areoften considered of inferior legal importance in comparison with State laws.Furthermore, they risk being instrumentally manipulated by the State orindividuals with ulterior motives, against the wishes and rights of the localcommunities in which adat laws are historically rooted.132