Indonesia’s indigenous adat communities have long sought formal recognition of customary rights over forests and ancestral lands, but progress remains uneven despite major legal advances. Under Suharto’s authoritarian rule, much customary territory was absorbed into the state domain, interrupting locally governed land tenure systems.
After democratic reforms and decentralization in 1998, adat groups gained new openings to reclaim ancestral control. Still, recognition has moved slowly: by 2024, only 240 of 1,425 adat communities (13.8%) had received formal status, covering about 244,195 hectares out of an estimated 22.8 million hectares of potential customary forest land.
A new global study led by Andi Rahmat Hidayat from Hasanuddin University asks a question that earlier research has largely left unanswered: why do some communities secure recognition while others do not? Using comparative evidence from Indonesia’s local governance layers, the researchers show that national legal guarantees do not automatically translate into durable outcomes on the ground.
The team examined adat communities in three districts in Sulawesi—Enrekang, Sinjai, and Pasangkayu—combining 58 semi-structured interviews with community leaders, activists, journalists, academics, and officials. They also analyzed regulations, academic publications, meeting records, and online materials tied to recognition procedures.
Their results point to “legal fragmentation.” Even when national rules recognize customary tenure, communities must first establish their status as adat groups and prove the boundaries of their customary territories. This creates a bottleneck: local governments effectively become the gatekeepers of formal recognition.
Success, the study finds, is strongly shaped by local political conditions. In Enrekang, adat representatives built close relationships with district leaders, turning recognition into a legislative priority. In Sinjai and Pasangkayu, communities met many legal requirements but faced weaker political representation and less responsive local institutions.
Support organizations can help bridge these gaps. The Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) assisted communities through documentation, historical verification, participatory mapping, and navigation of procedural pathways.
To improve recognition, the researchers recommend simplifying bureaucratic steps, strengthening the capacity of local NGOs, cultivating informal ties with influential local actors, and reforming electoral incentives to reduce vulnerability to capture by extractive interests.
By framing recognition as a matter of governance, not only law, the work aligns with human-rights standards that treat land as foundational to multiple rights. It also supports development goals focused on inclusive institutions and reducing inequality—suggesting that equitable land recognition requires implementation capacity, responsive leadership, and stronger support networks.
Article Title: Uneven recognition: A comparative study of indigenous communities’ struggle for securing customary land rights in Indonesia
News Publication Date: 14-Apr-2026
Web References: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2026.108061
References: Land and Human Rights: Standards and Applications (OHCHR, 2015)
Image Credits: Credit: Andi Rahmat Hidayat from Hasanuddin University, Indonesia
Keywords: Land use policy, indigenous peoples, land rights recognition, adat communities, governance, decentralization, legal fragmentation, Indonesia, forest tenure
