At the holding of the 2nd Asia Park Congress (APC) at the Sabah International Convention Center which took place from May 24-29, 2022, Kalpavriskh (India) and the ICCAs Indonesia Working Group (WGII) held a side-event themed “Documentation and Mapping of Community Conserved Areas in Asia” on May 27, 2022. This Side-event is a joint initiative to initiate a learning sharing activity between countries in Asia, especially Indonesia and India in escorting advocacy for the recognition and protection of ICCA in each country. This good opportunity is maximized to share experiences in mapping and documenting ICCA, as one of the key issues voiced by the ICCA Consortium for the theme documenting territories of life which in its development has been consolidated into a web-portal to more easily reach the targeted audience or parties who support the protection of the rights of Indigenous and local communities.
The 2nd Asia Park Congress this year tries to accommodate the presence and representation of Indigenous and local communities to engage in inclusive and effective conservation management practices and models. This is welcomed by conservation organizations and individuals in Asia, given how state conservation practices with the Protected Areas conception often exclude Indigenous peoples as owners of territories as well as important conservation actors. In fact, the connectedness of Indigenous and local communities with their living areas that are deeply rooted in history, socio-culture, customary law, spirituality, and wisdom practices has given birth to various forms of management of territories and natural resources that have conservation values and spirit. Therefore, in the side-evet organized by Kalpavrisk and WGII also invited representatives of indigenous peoples to be able to directly voice the role of indigenous peoples in the management of indigenous territorial space in which there is ICCA, along with initiatives at the grassroots level that they have done together with their supporters.
Rudrath Avinashi, a researcher and member of Kalpavriksh in his presentation explained that conventional conservation approaches have limited access and use rights by Indigenous Peoples on their customary lands. “Since 1999 more than 13,000 families have been displaced from PAs (Protected Areas). Systematic inequality results from the loss of livelihoods of millions of people, the Prohibition of access to seasonal grazing and resources, the lack of access to apply traditional knowledge, and the lack of certainty of rights to protect indigenous territories from extractive external threats. Poaching, timber theft, and destructive use of Natural Resources in many conservation areas a.k.a Protected Areas ended up being an inevitable effect, giving rise to the issue of distrust for Indigenous peoples of the conception of conservation by the state.
This situation is complicated by the complexity of recognizing the rights of indigenous and local communities through policies. The same thing happened in Indonesia. Although the basic law has recognized the existence of indigenous peoples, the rights of indigenous peoples are not fully recognized. Policies on indigenous peoples' rights are sectorally fragmented under the authority of different institutions and none of them implicitly recognize indigenous peoples' knowledge-based conservation practices. “To date, there is no policy that specifically recognizes the conservation practices of indigenous peoples. Opportunities are seen in the Bill on Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystems, which mentions the term Indigenous Peoples Conservation Areas in the draft bill (2016). Unfortunately, this bill has been withdrawn from the national legislative program,” explained Cindy Julianty as WGII Program Manager.
Geoportal Tanahkita.id and iccas.or.id : working tools to navigate ICCA tenure situation and efforts to protect the rights of Indigenous and local communities
ICCAs Indonesia Working Group (WGII) since its establishment in 2011, has been working on documenting the conservation practices of indigenous peoples and local communities to realize the recognition and guarantee of Indigenous and local rights by the government. Mapping and documentation initiatives are carried out based on the principles of self-identification and self - determination. This documentation records how conservation practices carried out by Indigenous and local communities are firmly attached to historical identity, customary law, traditional institutions, social order, Culture, way of life, local knowledge and wisdom, spirituality, and mutual relationships with nature and regions. Such knowledge and practice also contribute directly to the preservation of the environment and Natural Resources.
So far there have been 462,650.61 ha of 104 ICCAs sites documented by WGII. The number is still growing considering the potential of ICCAs in Indonesia reached 2.9 million Ha. Therefore, WGII created a single webGIS-portal database that can consolidate this information so that it can become a common platform that can be used to support the struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and promote ICCAs to the public
Geoportal icca.or.id this is a social and spatial database of the distribution and richness of ICCA information in Indonesia through the mechanism of registration (registration), potential (indicative), and international registration. Together with geoportal tanahkita.or.id the picture of ICCA tenure situation is presented clearly, how overlapping and agrarian conflicts are the problems faced by indigenous peoples over their territories. On the other hand, tanahkita.or.id also present and monitor the progress of recognition of Indigenous and local land rights through various schemes available through several policies, including customary forests, TORA, and Social Forestry.
A similar initiative was also built by Kalpavriksh. In India, ICCAs has not been recognized by the government. This prompted Kalpavriksh, as the Coordinator of the ICCAs South Asia Consortium to build an ICCAs database that presents maps and ecological information from conservation practices and cultural communities in India. This Portal tries to build ICCAS visibility to the public and challenge conventional conservation models by presenting a variety of research on the impact of policy changes and exclusive conservation.
At the end of the activity, Indigenous people from Indonesia represented by Ketut Santi Adnyana from the Dalem Tamblingan Indigenous community delivered a presentation on community experiences in initiating the processes of recognition of indigenous peoples and indigenous forests, starting from participatory mapping involving youth and women, Biodiversity Inventory, proposing indigenous forests, to encouraging community empowerment by developing local products and learning houses. Ketut Santi Adnyana said “Embracing the Memmories of Alas Mertajati is the theme I chose, because the traditional system inherited by our ancestors has many important values for us to hold fast and preserve”. Furthermore, he emphasized that “documenting indigenous territories and ICCA is an effort to digitize ancestral knowledge so that it becomes a provision for the Dalem Tambilangan Indigenous people and youth in fighting for Alas Mertajati to obtain recognition of indigenous forests”.
In closing Ketut Santi Adnyana, as an Indigenous community hopes “hopefully this (documentation), is not only done by Indonesia and India but also the whole world and we can all connect. The government often forgets the great role of indigenous peoples in protecting their territories so that this documentation becomes a way to recognize and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples". This is also the purpose of the side-event held at The 2nd APC 2022. Documenting and mapping initiatives, both by grassroots and non-governmental organizations such as WGII and Kalpavriskh, can bring the existence of indigenous peoples and their territories and local wisdom to a level that is more visible to both the government and the public.
Author: AN & CJ