oAntara Kita Online Issue 5.0

Coffee, Property and Practice

Claudia D'Andrea

My doctoral research examines the property issues and the ecological integrity at stake in an unusual case in which a local community residing inside the boundaries of a World Heritage Site was able gain recognition of their territorial rights and avoid resettlement. Through the help of local NGOs in mapping their customary claims on land within the park, they demonstrated to the national park manager that their customary resource management system supports the management goals of the park. This recognition has sparked a land rush around the park creating a dilemma for the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy, co-managing the park through an Asian Development Bank project. It has also provoked the provincial government's ire. The political stakes are even higher with the national alliance of indigenous people celebrating this case of territorial reclaiming in a context of extreme sensitivity to indigenous sentiment that has sparked violence in many corners of the country.

With the eruption of communal violence throughout the past few years, land rights activists are critically reviewing their approach. In the past, these groups appeared to work mainly with culturally homogeneous ethnic minorities who fit with the popular images of indigenous peoples struggling against the state. Today, these organizations are focusing their efforts on understanding the ways that changing land ownership and land use have added to ethnic and religious tensions as well as affecting the park. The sale of lands from indigenous farmers engaged in subsistence agriculture to commercially minded newcomers appears to have been particularly pronounced during the height of the 1997-98 economic crisis. At that time, prosperous newcomers bought land from indigenous farmers who were suffering from the crisis combined with a devastating, long dry season. KatuÕs somewhat inaccessible location within the park boundaries insulated it from those land pressures and make KatuÕs case unique. Nonetheless, other indigenous communities around the park are eager to cite Katu as a model for their own land claims processes without recognizing the important factors that helped Katu gain its rights.

Despite the unrest in Poso shortly before my arrival and the flood of internally displaced persons seeking refuge in the Christian towns on the Eastern side of the park, I have found no problems in carrying out my research in Central Sulawesi. I have very good personal relations with the local NGOs in Palu that have been working around Lore Lindu National Park and specifically in the place where I am doing my research. I believe their introduction of me and my work to the villagers have made it much easier for me to carry out my research and I feel like they also look out for me. The government officials for the most part have been pretty helpful, in spite of their New Order bureaucratic procedures. I think that AMINEF and the Fulbright helped.

Politically, at the national level, things remain uncertain. While there are definitely some intractable problems stemming from political and military rivalries that could have unpleasant consequences, I do not get the sense that the country is about to unravel. Certainly, the ongoing conflict in Maluku is felt here in Sulawesi. A report came out from the United Nations today that there are officially more than 1 million internally displaced people in Indonesia, and surely there are even more in the unofficial count. Yet, I have been struck by the remarkable ability of communities here to absorb the "refugees,"lend them land, and get on with things.

I am reachable by email: cdandrea@nature.berkeley.edu which forwards to my local address. I am from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley doing my doctoral work in environmental/rural sociology with a political ecology approach.