The Draft Law on Indigenous Peoples will again be included in the 2025 national legislation. Precisely the number 31 priority national legislation. Since 2009, the Bill on Indigenous Law Communities has been proposed and included in the national legislation, but there has been no new ratification of it. The Legislation Body of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia is optimisticthat the Bill on Indigenous Law Communities can be passed in 2025.
The Bill on Indigenous Peoples is a hope for all indigenous communities throughout Indonesia. The reason is, Indigenous Peoples have been in the vortex of tenure conflicts and even experienced exclusion since the Dutch Colonial Government until today, after Indonesia’s independence, including those experienced by the Kasepuhan Indigenous People in the Mount Halimun-Salak ecosystem area.
This is a portrait of the elimination of local institutions that regulate access to and ownership of forests which were gradually eliminated from legal discourse by the Dutch Colonial Government (Peluso, 1992)2. This event was marked by the unilateral designation of forest areas in Lebak, especially in the Halimun Ecosystem Area in 1924. This policy has led to a conflict of spatial and natural resource management with the Kasepuhan Indigenous People.
The impact of this policy has been summarized in the Komnas HAM National Inquiry document on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples over their Territories in Forest Area3, including the inhibition of forest access to fulfill food, board, and health rights of Kasepuhan residents, the fading of Kasepuhan values that are aligned in the management of natural resources, the high migration out of Kasepuhan, and the emergence of various dimensions of poverty experienced from generation to generation of Kasepuhan Indigenous Peoples.
The Kasepuhan Indigenous People continue to be narrowed in their living space by state and business interests. State-style conservation interests through the control of the Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park (TNGHS), Perum Perhutani with the interests of production forests to private companies for production and mining forests.
Practically, now the customary territories of at least 522 Kasepuhan —which are recognized through Lebak Regency Regional Regulation No.8 of 2015 concerning the Recognition, Protection, and Empowerment of Kasepuhan Customary Law Communities—have been controlled by various actors except the Kasepuhan Indigenous People themselves.
Not surprisingly, people have concerns when they want to utilize sources of livelihood from forests because they have to deal with forest stakeholders recognized by the state. Kasepuhan indigenous youth also often hear stories from their parents about people’s fear of cultivating land. “Because (the status of the area) the national park should not be cultivated, let alone firewood is taken (from fallen tree branches) or others. So the community is afraid … to work or deny it (to cultivate the land),” explained Andri, one of the indigenous youth of Kasepuhan Jamrut (11/03/2025).
In another study, Ina Marina and Arya Hadi Dharmawan (2011)4 also noted that the Kasepuhan Indigenous People were feared to be expelled from their homes. The community was also arrested when working on their gardens because they were considered to have encroached on the forest and illegal logging. Not only that, the National Park also installed signs announcing the prohibition of entering conservation areas both in the gardens and in front of residents’ houses.
The Dilemma of Livelihood in the Village
In the eyes of the young generation in Kasepuhan, they feel the above connotations in at least two ways. First, the limited source of livelihood in the village. This is due to population growth which also narrows the work for the younger generation. Second, the inability of parents to send them to school optimally. Data collected by RMI in 2019 shows that 55% of community members from the age group of 17-40 years old in Kasepuhan Cibarani and Pasir Eurih are elementary school graduates and only 9% are high school graduates.
Three years later, data from four Kasepuhan (Kasepuhan Cibarani, Pasir Eurih, Cirompang and Cibedug) and Baduy stated that in the same age group 53% were elementary school graduates, 10% were high school graduates, and only 3% were bachelor’s graduates.
Limited access to land as the main source of livelihood for Indigenous families in Kasepuhan has had an impact on the sustainability of the level of education that their children can take.
“I dropped out of high school in the 2nd grade … seeing the economic condition of my family because it was not possible … I decided to quit school,” said Yadin, one of the indigenous youth of Kasepuhan Cirompang (11/03/2025).
Limited access to land has also made indigenous youth not have many choices of livelihood sources in their villages. Most of the youth, both women and men, will migrate to the city in search of various types of jobs. However, the low level of education taken makes indigenous youth unable to access skilled jobs so that they only become cheap laborers in the city.
Usually women will work as domestic workers or garment workers such as clothes and sandals/shoes, and men will work as livestock workers, garbage transport workers in housing complexes and so on. By working in the city, these indigenous youths are usually paid in the range of Rp 700 thousand – Rp 1.5 million per month. This is not comparable to the burden and working hours that must be taken. It is not uncommon for them to work more than 8 hours a day.
“So we work in housing. On the one hand, we have work at home (cleaning the house), there is work to take care of the children like that, but also work on convection (the owner of the house has a convection business so he is asked to help do one of the components of the convection work). So we are in three jobs, we do it all,” explained Jarsih, one of the indigenous women of Kasepuhan Cibarani (11/03/2025).
In addition to migrating to the city, another option for indigenous youth is to become illegal gold miners or gurandil with a very big risk. They will enter the mine pit and take the soil material containing gold and bring it to the surface. Limited physical activity and lack of oxygen supply in the mine pit are risks that must be borne by mine workers, not even a few of whom die in the collapsing mine pit.
“If I don’t, I’ve experienced it (because that’s the only option)… but in my opinion, it’s difficult to move and quickly weak (due to lack of oxygen),” added Andri.
Income from illegal gold mining activities is highly dependent on the amount of gold obtained each month. Not to mention that it must be divided based on the number of workers and mine pit owners in a certain location.
Challenges for Indigenous Youth in Villages
The location of the cases in this essay includes Kasepuhan Cibarani and Cirompang which have received a Customary Forest Decree, only Kasepuhan Jamrut is still in the process of determining the rights of its customary territory as a Customary Forest which is currently still in the status of State Forest managed by TNGHS and Perum Perhutani.
After the determination of customary territories through the Customary Forest Decree, the people in Kasepuhan Cibarani and Cirompang no longer experience anxiety to cultivate and utilize their cultivated land. The community has the freedom to manage the land while feeling responsible for preserving the forest based on the applicable customary rules. It was also observed that there was an increase in the interest of the youth to return to the village and participate in utilizing cultivated land.
Andri, Jarsih and Yadin are portraits of Kasepuhan youth who return to their villages. They play an active role in building communities both with youth groups and women in their respective villages.
Currently, Andri and a youth group in Kasepuhan Jamrut are conducting participatory mapping of customary territories in the context of advocating for the Customary Forest Decree5. Jarsih and a women’s group in Kasepuhan Cibarani are developing processed cake and sugar products from palm trees.
Yadin and the youth group in Kasepuhan Cirompang are also interested in working on the land with their parents again. “….very interested now. In terms of agriculture, it is very profitable (if managed properly). We also feel that we have freedom in managing … as long as it is not in the area (source) of the spring, it can still be used … (and) the forest as long as it does not change its function,” said Yadin.
Even so, both land use and increasing the selling value of processed agricultural products do not necessarily quickly improve the welfare of the Kasepuhan community. The limited living space due to land boundary policies since the Dutch Colonial Government until now has made it structurally impoverished. This means that it is not only about limited access to natural resources as a source of livelihood, but also access to knowledge through formal and non-formal education and other basic service facilities that should be enjoyed equally as Indonesian citizens.
One form of access to knowledge that Kasepuhan indigenous youth expect is about the integrated agricultural system and the development of post-harvest processed products that can increase community income. Of course, this knowledge should be able to be explored from local wisdom or in accordance with the socio-cultural context of the community.
“So I want the indigenous people to have an agricultural training system that is more profitable (economically). For example, how about training such as maintenance and marketing. I hope that in Kasepuhan we have cooperatives. Because it (becomes) easier. Residents can sell to us, to cooperatives, their agricultural products. Then we sell it to the outside,” explained Yadin again.
However, this hope is still just a discourse, there has been no realization of planning, let alone implementation into a certain program. The community is still constrained by inadequate supporting factors.
Hope for the Indigenous Peoples Bill
In the book Agrarian Reform for Beginners (Gunawan Wiradi, 2005) [6], we will understand that agrarian reform should not stop at the problem of land redistribution alone. Land redistribution must be a package with infrastructure to support the overall reform such as credit programs, counseling, education and training, technology, marketing and others. Land reform plus infrastructure preparation programs is called agrarian reform.
With the same pattern, the determination of Customary Forests should not only be completed after the determination or issuance of the Customary Forest Decree. There must be supporting infrastructure in the form of programs to improve the welfare of Indigenous Peoples. Determination of customary territory rights through Forest Decrees
Customary Peoples should only be a bridge or development base for Indigenous Peoples. Then the re-entry of the Indigenous Peoples Bill in the national legislative program is a hope for the certainty of the rights of indigenous youth as the successors of generations in their communities. The Indigenous Peoples Bill should be the starting point for the recognition and determination of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the management of natural resources.
It does not stop there, the recognition and determination of rights must also be accompanied by supporting infrastructure programs as conveyed by Gunawan Wiradi as part of the fulfillment of the rights of Indigenous Peoples towards well-being. Youth anxiety over the source of livelihood in the village must be comprehensively overcome through the Indigenous Peoples Bill for the sustainability of Indigenous Peoples themselves and the preservation of various natural resources in their customary territories.
Disclaimer: This article was written in Indonesia and has been translated by Google Translate. In case of dispute or discrepancy, the original language of the article should prevail.
