JAKARTA — In recent United Nations biodiversity conferences, global leaders have championed Indigenous peoples as critical partners in achieving conservation goals. Indonesia, as a signatory to an international treaty on biodiversity protection, pledged to uphold these principles.

Yet, its latest conservation law does the opposite—sidelining Indigenous communities and threatening to criminalize their traditional practices, despite global recognition of their essential role in biodiversity stewardship.

A rapidly growing body of scientific research has found that Indigenous peoples are the most effective stewards of their forests and the massive stores of carbon and biodiversity within them.

A 2023 research paper by think tank the World Resources Institute (WRI) concluded that Amazonian forests managed by Indigenous peoples are strong “carbon sinks” as they remove 340 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, while forests outside the Amazon’s Indigenous lands release more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

But as Indigenous communities’ role in biodiversity conservation gains more global recognition, communities in Indonesia, a megadiverse country that harbors the majority of Earth’s species and high numbers of endemic species, are increasingly sidelined from nature conservation efforts.

Database records indicate 22.5 million hectares (55.6 million acres) of Indigenous territories in Indonesia have high conservation potential, highlighting the critical role of Indigenous stewardship.

Instead of having protected rights to manage their forests that overlap with conservation areas, Indigenous communities in Indonesia are at risk of being displaced from protected areas.

Therefore, activists say it is urgent for the Indonesian government and lawmakers to pass a long-awaited bill on Indigenous rights to ensure that Indigenous peoples can contribute to biodiversity conservation without fear of being criminalized or evicted.

Having a specific law on Indigenous rights would make it simpler and easier for Indigenous communities to have their rights recognized and their territories registered, including those in conservation and protected areas.

A 2020 research study found that Indigenous peoples in the Amazon are only effective in protecting their forests when full property rights over their territories are recognized and fully protected.

An omnibus law that serves as a legal umbrella for Indigenous rights in Indonesia could prevent a situation called hyperregulation, in which there’s a dense and complex web of regulations that may overwhelm Indigenous peoples and communities that try to comply, said Cindy Julianty, the program manager of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories Indonesia.

“This will create confusion on how to recognize [Indigenous rights] and how they could contribute [to biodiversity conservation],” she said. “That’s why having a law on Indigenous rights is so crucial.”

Passing the Indigenous bill into law is particularly important in light of the recent introduction of a new conservation law, which has been criticized for failing to recognize Indigenous peoples’ tenurial rights in biodiversity hotspots or their traditional conservation practices.

“The new conservation law clearly eliminates the role of Indigenous peoples who have been contributing to conservation [efforts],” Mufti Barri, the director of nonprofit Forest Watch Indonesia, said during a recent discussion in Jakarta.

New law

The core issue with the new conservation law, a revision of the old 1990 conservation law, is the lack of mention of Indigenous peoples in the law itself.

Indigenous peoples are mentioned in only one article. The article in question explicitly includes Indigenous peoples in public participation for conservation efforts.

But it doesn’t address critical aspects such as the recognition of Indigenous land rights within conservation zones and the autonomy of Indigenous peoples to manage or co-manage conservation areas.

This means that instead of having their tenurial rights within conservation areas recognized, Indigenous peoples’ roles in conservation are limited to their involvement in public participation, according to an analysis of the new law by the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the country’s largest advocacy group for Indigenous rights.

“The government still treats Indigenous peoples as stakeholders [with limited participation in conservation], not as rights holders in the concept and management of conservation in Indonesia,” AMAN said in its analysis.

This conservation approach is not in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the most comprehensive international treaty that aims to conserve biological diversity, use resources sustainably and fairly share the benefits of those resources, according to Teo Reffelsen, manager of the legal department at Walhi, Indonesia’s largest environmental NGO.

Indonesia ratified the CBD in 1994, which means that it has formally declared that it will incorporate the treaty into its national legislation. It also means that the Indonesian government should recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples and their roles and practices in conservation, Teo said.

“CBD puts Indigenous peoples not only as subject but also as rights holders in the management and protection of forests,” he said during the recent discussion. “But in this [conservation] law, the participation [of Indigenous peoples] is merely formality. There’s no specific chapter [in the law] that regulates the position of Indigenous peoples.”

It’s also not in line with the increasing participation of Indigenous peoples in global biodiversity conferences, Mufti said.

During the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022, countries issued commitments to protect Indigenous peoples and their contributions to biodiversity conservation.

And in an unprecedented action at the recent U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, countries agreed to give Indigenous peoples and local communities a place at the negotiating table for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as for the “fair and equitable” sharing of benefits.

“This means that the global paradigm [on conservation] has started to shift, but unfortunately there’s no change of paradigm in Indonesia,” Mufti said.

During a parliamentary hearing in November 2024, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said he recognized the need to change the paradigm of forest conservation in Indonesia.

“Protecting forests is important, but due to limitation of human resources and budget, it’s not possible anymore to prevent people from entering the forests,” he said. “The fact is that poverty exists on the outskirts of forests. The sources of livelihoods exist inside the forests, but people are being pushed away [from the forests] and are stopped from entering the forests. We can’t do this anymore.”

Potential eviction

Another major issue with the new conservation law is the introduction of a new category of conservation area, called “preservation area,” which puts Indigenous communities at risk of being displaced from their territories.

The so-called preservation area is an expansion of conservation areas, as they are located outside established conservation zones, such as protected forests. Preservation areas essentially act like buffer zones to established conservation zones.

The problem with the introduction of preservation areas is that the type of activities allowed within them are only conservation works. This means all activities outside conservation are strictly prohibited, which could include Indigenous communities’ activities such as collecting wood and non-timber forest products for subsistence as well as harvesting plants or animals for traditional medicine or ceremonies.

Therefore, Indigenous communities will have their activities heavily restricted in preservation areas, Mufti of FWI said.

“The space for people to utilize [natural resources] and contribute in conservation areas completely disappears,” he said.

If landowners refuse conservation activities, then they have to cede their land rights, the new conservation law stipulates.

This means that the government could force Indigenous communities out of their lands that overlap with preservation areas and criminalize them under the guise of conservation if community members carry out activities that fall outside the official scope of conservation, Teo said.

This treatment is different for companies. The new conservation laws give concession holders a number of options on what to do if their areas overlap with preservation areas.

Unlike Indigenous peoples, companies have structured pathway to participate in or benefit from conservation-linked economic initiatives such as eco-tourism or carbon trading.

This raised suspicions among experts that the new conservation law is more focused on the economic incentives of conservation works, such as carbon trading and eco-tourism, which is why corporate interests are prioritized over Indigenous rights.

And even if companies fail to meet conservation requirements, they only face administrative sanctions such as written warnings, temporary suspension of operations and revocation of business permits.

“Companies only need to adjust their concession sizes. They’re not at risk of being evicted even if they have damaged preservation areas,” Teo said. “Meanwhile, people who have lived there and depended their lives there for years have to cede their land rights with compensation. There’s no other option. If they’re not willing to cede their lands, they will be evicted.”

Even before the introduction of the concept of preservation areas, Indigenous peoples have already been criminalized for living in conservation zones.

According to data from Indonesian NGO HuMa, out of 86 recorded forestry conflicts in Indonesia, 27 occurred in national parks, with 13 cases involving criminalization and violence against Indigenous peoples.

These conflicts typically arise from issues like overlapping land claims, restrictions on traditional land use or criminalization of subsistence activities such as farming, hunting or gathering.

Further loopholes

Further increasing the risk of criminalization and forced eviction of Indigenous peoples is the new conservation law’s failure to regulate customary sustainable use of biodiversity, which is when Indigenous communities use natural resources in a way that’s sustainable and based on their traditional knowledge and practices.

Cindy cited the example of Mentawai people, one of the oldest tribes in Indonesia who live a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the coastal and rainforest areas of the Mentawai Islands.

“The Mentawai people still eat monkey. And that practice is not regulated [in the new conservation law], even if Indigenous peoples consume and utilize species for specific purposes such as ritual without overexploiting them,” she said.

This means that the law doesn’t distinguish Indigenous peoples who practice customary sustainable use of biodiversity with poachers, which would lead to the criminalization of Indigenous communities, Cindy said.

The new law also doesn’t have grievance mechanisms to solve conflicts between conservation policies and Indigenous livelihoods or traditions, which means Indigenous peoples are left to defend themselves when conflicts arise, she said.

“Where should Indigenous peoples report to when there are conflicts?” Cindy said.

Due to the myriad of issues in the new conservation law, AMAN and other NGOs filed a lawsuit against the law at the Constitutional Court in September 2024. The basis of the lawsuit is that the government and lawmakers had failed to properly include Indigenous peoples in the formulation of the law, which explains why the law is riddled with articles that harm Indigenous peoples’ rights.

Therefore, the plaintiffs sought to overturn the law through the lawsuit.

Not afraid

But even if the new conservation law isn’t overturned, Indigenous communities like the Ngata Toro people who live around the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi have vowed to continue managing their territories sustainably using their traditional knowledge.

Rukmini Paata Toheke, a member of the Ngata Toro Indigenous community, said her community has been practicing conservation works based on local wisdom for long time, as they believe that nature is the source of life.

“That’s our pride as Indigenous peoples, but the government doesn’t really appreciate us,” she said.

The community had applied to have their land rights recognized by the government in 2018, and in 2021, the government issued legal recognition for the community. However, the land issued are for land located in a different area from the one for which the community applied, Rukmini said.

Even without formal recognition of their territories and risks of criminalization and eviction from the new conservation law, Rukmini said her community will continue protecting its forests.

“We will continue preserving our ancestral practices. We’re not afraid of the new conservation law,” she said.

The government shouldn’t see Indigenous communities like the Ngata Toro community as threats to conservation areas. Instead, they should see Indigenous peoples as the main actors in conservation, said Tommy Indyan, the director of legal policy and human rights at AMAN.

“Indigenous peoples aren’t a threat. The one who poses a threat is actually the government, which doesn’t understand [the importance of Indigenous peoples in conservation] and thus blocking access to conservation areas,” he said.

Any conservation policy like the new conservation law that continues to see Indigenous peoples as a threat and prioritizes state or corporate control over community-based approaches is just another form of land-grabbing, Cindy said.

“Even if we use the term ‘nature positive’ or ‘nature-based solutions’ and increase the size of conservation areas, it’ll only be a new form of land-grabbing and another form of discrimination and human rights violations,” she said.

Banner image: The Dayak Pitap community lives dependent on nature. Image by Riyad Dafhi Rizki/Mongabay Indonesia.

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