Customary laws protect Indonesian forests better than government does: Study

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 30 Mar 10;

Research shows customary laws that were implemented by a number of local communities were far more effective than government policies to preserve forest in efforts to deal with climate change.

For local communities, obliging traditional laws means respecting their ancestors.

Preliminary research says communities of Baduy in Banten province, Kampung Kuta people in Ciamis, West Java province and Dayak people in Kalimantan are among local communities that issue unwritten laws to preserve environment and protect the forest.

“Though such agreement is not written, local communities comply more with traditional laws than governmental law,” Ali Akbar, University of Indonesia Faculty of Humanities researcher told a workshop on climate change Friday.

He said that communities implementing taboo regulations do not know about the government regulations about the forest.

“The government’s regulations are not efficiently implemented to preserve forests,” Ali added.
The philosophy of Baduy people among others are mountains and valleys cannot be destroyed; traditional law should not be broken and taboos must not change.

“Baduy’s sacred responsibility is to guard the environment and spiritual heritage of its ancestors from change. To maintain balance and harmony they must live a simple lifestyle, acting moderately,” he said.

There are currently about 8,000 Baduy living in two groups of which each village is led by a supreme leader locally known as Punn.

Ali said that the community in Kampung Kuta entering sacred forests was taboo.

“It is forbidden to take anything from the forest or even enter it, except on Monday and Friday,” he said.

Kampung Kuta won the Kalpataru trophy in 2002 for protecting the forest.

Donny Gahral Aldian, researcher from the philosophy department at the University of Indonesia,
said that Dayak culture was highly influenced by spiritual tradition called Kaharingan, a folk religion most Dayak people followed in Kalimantan.

Kaharingan sees humans and nature as an integrated spiritual whole.

“The followers believe that nature is an integral part of life and not just inorganic matter,” he told the workshop.

“The Dayak people’s culture is a good example on how risk prevention action is inspired by local wisdom and religion.”

The international conference discussed mitigation efforts needed to slow global warming, which caused climate change.

Experts said that protecting forest was crucial to tackle climate change since the sector contributed about 20 percent of global emissions.

In climate talks, customary community roles has been a crucial issue in protecting forests to prevent carbon leakage once deforestation and the forest degradation scheme to reduce emissions (REDD) takes place.

The Alliance of Archipelagic Indigenous People (AMAN) predicted indigenous people had traditionally occupied about 20 million hectares of land, of which most was natural forest.

Most indigenous people rely on the forest as a source of livelihood but conflict is on the rise as many forests became valued as business projects such as plantations and mine sites, it said.

To better protect the indigenous people’s rights to their customary land, AMAN has initiated a mapping project to determine boundaries of the organization’s members land.


Followers believe that nature is an integral part of life and not just inorganic matter.