2025/11/14 by Rahmawati, Diana, Budiman, Arief, Ifrani +2
paper · doi:10.25501/soas.00773551
Indigenous People have a very strong and historical relationship with their land and nature. They continue to struggle to strengthen their position and to obtain their rights. Often the rights of customary communities are ignored by the state, coupled with the existence of Law No. 41 of 1999 concerning Forestry, which states that customary forests are state forests located in the territory of customary law communities. Whereas the 1945 Constitution in Article 18B states that the State recognises and respects customary law communities and their traditional rights. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyse the legal certainty of the position and rights of Indigenous Peoples in South Kalimantan Province and the policies implemented by the government in forest management by Indigenous Peoples in South Kalimantan Province. The results of this study are as follows. First, South Kalimantan Province has not provided optimal legal certainty for Indigenous Peoples and their rights. Out of thirteen districts/municipalities, only three districts have ratified regional regulations in the framework of protection, recognition and empowerment of indigenous peoples. This situation arises because the existence of Indigenous Peoples is determined by the regional government and the political process in the regional parliament., Second, there are no customary forests that have been ratified by the Minister of Environment and Forestry. This absence limits legal access to Indigenous Peoples to participate in forest management. To empower indigenous peoples, the government grants permit to manage forest areas in the Social Forestry scheme such as Village Forests, Community Forests, People’s Plantation Forests, Forestry Partnerships. These schemes involve Indigenous Peoples in Forest Farmer Groups. However, the social forestry scheme is not in line with Constitutional Court Decision No. 35/2012 because the concept of social forestry has the status of a state forest that involves the community in its management.