The Impact of Concession Rights Overlapping on Indigenous Peoples’ Access to Natural Resources on Customary Lands

¹ Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
² Asia E-University, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: ditaperwitasari@unesa.ac.id

Abstract

The overlapping concessions rights in customary land is a complicated legal and social issue in Indonesia because it deals directly with how indigenous peoples can access the natural resources, which are the source of their livelihoods. Much of the traditional environment managed by indigenous peoples for centuries has been titled to mining, forestry and plantation companies providing resource concession rights with disputed ownership, environmental damages and loss of traditional living space. So the key point is the very narrow recognition of customary rights by the state and desynchronized regulations between natural resources management, which affects directly the protection of indigenous peoples. This research follows a normative juridical method, with legislative and conceptual analysis, to analyze the legal foundation for the superposition of concessions in indigenous lands and its forms and consequences. Data were collected from literature review, legislation analysis, court judgments and complaints filed at relevant institutions. This study is aimed at tracing the types of concession overlap on transnational traditional lands possessing natural resources and evaluate its environmental and economic impacts on indigenous peoples usage of these resources. The study indicates that overlapping concession rights have resulted in constraining the room for indigenous peoples’ management, forest and water body damage, and reduction of local economic welfare. As a result, reforms in land and natural resource management should be environmentally sustainable and obey the collective rights of indigenous peoples.