Perception of Rights to Control the Land Over Natural Resources in Indigenous People of Papua, Indonesia

Abstract

The nature of indigenous peoples' lives on land and forests (natural resources) is based on the concept of customary law namely "cosmic", meaning the balance relations among fellow individuals or groups of indigenous people, both internally and externally, their natural environments, and God as the creator with the universe, in the atmosphere of communal and democratic life. However, by the development of time, lives of indigenous people who own the lands and forests (natural resources) in accordance with culture and customary law have started to face problems, causing a potential conflict or prolonged dispute due to differences in the perception of the right to control land over natural resources by indigenous peoples with the Basic Agrarian Law (BAL), Bureaucrats (government), and companies, especially in "mastering and possessing words" which are occupied in Article 18B paragraph (2) and Article 28I paragraph (3) and Article 33 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia as well as Article 3 and 5 of Law No 5 of 1960 (BAL), Article 399 of Law No 23 of 2014, Article 43 of Law No. 21 of 2001, Special Regional Regulation No 21 of 2008, Special Regional Regulation No.22 of 2008 and Special Regional Regulation No.23 of 2008. All of these regulations have not been optimally implemented as a form of answer to the potential conflicts / disputes of indigenous peoples over land and forests. Therefore, there needs to be a land policy at the district level that is closer to the indigenous people, land and forests in the Papua Province.

Keywords: Right to Control, Land, Forests, Indigenous Peoples