By Betty Ro Minar
It was an interesting eight day journey to bakun, last November 23 to December 1, 2003, providing a good opportunity to visit the Kankanaey-Bago indigenous communities. These communities have been managing their customary land, or ancestral domain, through the rights recognized by the 1997 Indigenous Rights Act of the Philippines.
The experience has inspired Lembaga Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Adat (LPMA) to do the same thing by encouraging the formulation of a local regulation among 3 villages in the Meratus are of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. To prepare for this, LPMA initiated a regional regulation study focusing on villages in Hulu Sungai Tengah Regency. The results of the study will be used as a starting point to formulate a local regulation (PERDES) in the villages of Juhu, Hinas and Hinas Kanan.
Simultaneously, work is being done with village institutions, to build capacity in planning and in the formulation of regulations that are within the constitutional framework and are responsive to community needs.
Capacity building is important because at present the village institutions are still weak in terms of formulating local regulations properly. Usually, higher-up authorities formulate local regulations, and often this process does not involve participation by the communities. There is now a new policy (Regulation No. 5/1997 to No. 22/1999) that recognizes the village as an autonomous institution and grants them the authority to manage their own administrative affairs. However, because this is still a new policy, the village representatives have not yet developed their full capacity, particularly in coming up with legislation. Hence there is still a need to improve their capacity.
Aside from the existing policy study, LPMA is also recording the customary law and covenants that are still practiced in the three villages. The expected outcome of these activities is the formulation of good local regulations, mutually developed by both the village administrators and the Dayak Meratus communities in the 3 villages. The regulations formulated will focus on the protection of the Gunung Meratus ecosystem, particularly the customary land, from the threat of over-exploitation and unsustainable resource use.
Why have a local village regulation? The village (Desa) is the smallest autonomous unit in the regional structure. It is therefore authorized to have its own rural administration plan. Consequently, the community has the right to formulate regulations that would maintain the sustainability of the villager’s livelihood and protect the territory as the community’s – in this case the Dayak Meratus – life support system (forest, land, water). Another reason is that local regulations may encourage communities to participate in sustaining the environment.
N.B This article has also been published in Spark newsletter No. 16.
