Corey Rogers at Mongabay.com recently published an article on efforts by indigenous groups in Indonesia who are turning to local governments for recognition of their rights.
Belying this huge spatial and demographic footprint, and despite explicit constitutional recognition, no national law has been passed that says who qualifies as indigenous, or what rights, if any, such status confers. The lack of legal certainty leaves adat communities especially vulnerable to abuse and loss of lands to those who see profit in their forests.
“After 70 years, there hasn’t been one law that integrates how the government will operationalize the rights of indigenous peoples as guaranteed by the constitution,” Rukka Sombolinggi, AMAN’s deputy secretary general and a Sulawesi native, told Mongabay.