Legal Protection on Indigenous Peoples in the Utilization of Coastal Area and Small Islands

Abstract

The main purpose of this scientific paper is to know in which extent the State of Indonesia as a sovereign country, able to provide legal protection against indigenous peoples in coastal areas and small islands in the utilization of its territory. During this time, the State's concern in establishing maritime is still pulling out, due to renewal and development in various sectors still tend to be centralized, centered on the land and urban areas. This makes the coastal areas and small islands vulnerable to various obstacles and challenges, including in accommodating the interests of indigenous peoples who are acknowledged to exist in the Basic Agrarian Law. Meanwhile, the existing legislation concerning the use of coastal areas and small islands is more oriented to the exploitation regardless of the sustainability of natural resources. In this case, the existence of indigenous peoples of coastal areas and small island islands play an important role in the management of marine areas throughout Indonesia. The feature of the traditional lives and the behavioral patterns of indigenous peoples that respect nature and the sea which can help its management to be better, maintain ecological balance and sustainable principles. In fact, there are still many indigenous peoples in the coastal areas and small islands that form a legal alliance, far from accessibility. The establishment of various regulations governing the utilization and management of coastal areas and small islands, as well as the limited reference and information of indigenous peoples on the subject, is feared to cause problems and irregularities in the implementation. Therefore, in this matter it is necessary to have further regulation as supervision and control measures. The regulation is expected to engage indigenous peoples in a participatory manner in order to be able to produce inclusive legal products, hence the birth of regulation is no longer tend to overlap or be understood as a paradoxical rule.

Keywords: coastal area, small islands, indigenous peoples, communal right on sea, basic agrarian law