Learning Points
- Bottom-up approach for the identification of community lands as priority locations for land redistribution under the Agrarian Reform
- Good practices to advance conflict resolution of disputed lands in the context of Agrarian Reform, engaging with government
- Collective governance system with social inclusiveness (women, youth) based on the DAMARA model
- Good practices of agrarian reform practice by the peasant movement
- People-based economy (Advance Village of Agrarian Reform/DAMARA) pre-land redistribution
- Youth and women movement in the collective economy
Responsible Organisation
KPA (Consortium for Agrarian Reform)
Location
Tegalbunder, Sumber Klampok Village and Pemuteran Village, Buleleng Regency, Bali Province.
132 Km (±4 hours by car) from I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (Bali DPS)
Community Visit Profile
Participants will split into two groups visiting both of the villages:
Sumber Klampok village is one of the KPA Agrarian Reform’s Priority Locations (LPRA), supported by the Buleleng Peasants’ Union (SPB). Under the Agrarian Reform program, the identification of land to be redistributed was made by the government through a top-down process. As a result, some areas identified as land objects for Agrarian Reform were found to be not suitable for agriculture or farming. In addition, to be eligible for the Agrarian Reform program, the government requires that the land must be free from any other claim or overlapping rights, meaning that disputed lands or agrarian conflict areas cannot qualify for redistribution as they do not fulfil these criteria. To respond to this challenge, KPA has developed a bottom-up approach where priority lands are defined by the communities themselves; over the past years, KPA has consolidated data over more than 650,000 ha in 104 districts.
Sumberklampok is one of the community-prioritized locations where conflict over disputed lands was solved, and land was redistributed to peasant groups. In 2021, thanks to the collaboration between KPA, SPB, and the central and local government, 398 hectares of land were distributed for 200 peasants’ families through LPRA. This has been possible thanks to the consolidation and strengthening of the peasant’s union, KPA is promoting. Now that the land has been given back to the community, this last is exercising its collective governance, restoring ownership over the territory, and moving towards socially inclusive production and consumption systems where women and young people play a key role. This is being done by applying the DAMARA model, a progressive Agrarian Reform model for village and land use management promoted by KPA, that strengthens people's land rights and addresses agrarian structures inequity.
Despite this progress, the community is still facing another challenge related to the claim of forest areas. Indonesia's forest area, in fact, is under the authority of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, while land area is under the authority of the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry/National Land Agency. This sectorial division of the national territory is out of step with communities’ vision of the territory as a unified area and constitutes a major obstacle to the recognition of Indigenous territories encompassing forest, land, as well as coastal and marine areas. In the case of Sumberklampok, the conflict sees marginalized groups that have been part of the ancient governmental “transmigration programme”, coming back to Bali from East Timor (where they were voluntarily resettled decades ago), claiming back the forest areas they used to inhabit before the resettlement programme. Those areas, however, are now being classified by the government as forest areas, where farming activities are forbidden. Farmers are demanding the government take responsibility for returning their lands and recognize their land rights in the framework of the Agrarian Reform. At the moment, the village is a target for conflict resolution with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
During the visit, participants will be able to visit the two locations and appreciate the differences between the two areas: the one where land was already redistributed and where the community is implementing the DAMARA model, and the forest area where villagers are still struggling for the recognition of their land rights.
Pemuteran Village is one of KPA's agrarian reform priority locations (LPRA) proposed by Sumber Makmur Peasants Union (SPSM), now they are entering the preparation stage of land redistribution.
In 1990 the peasants reclaimed all of the abandoned plantation concession (HGU) of PT. Margarana expired in 2005. In the beginning, they experienced a lot of criminalization and repression from the government and security forces, but thanks to a strong peasant organization they were able to overcome it. They carried out their restructuring of land ownership, and land use and are now moving to production and consumption system restructuring or carrying out Agrarian Reform by Leverages (ARBL). In 2016 KPA, together with SPSM, proposed the LPRA to the ATR/BPN minister for land redistribution.
Although they have not yet received legal recognition for their land, the peasants have built their village for decades and become a prosperous village, even becoming one of the villages with the best food sovereignty in Buleleng. In addition, women and youth have collectively developed an organizational economy by working through a cooperative on their collective land.