Indonesia - Dayaks and Drones- How technology can promote sustainable forests and communities

Even a well-managed, recognised forest faces constant challenges but innovative drone GPS technology, cooperative campaigning, local government support and eco-tourism are helping the Setulang people thrive. They have shown that community rights, the environment and development go hand in hand.

Setulang boasts clean water, sustainable fishing and hunting, building materials, fruit and traditional medicine, a ‘life bank’ for future generations. But by being in a heavily forested area they still face the growing threat of timber, oil palm and mining companies. The head of the village is looking to find new and innovative solutions to protect his land and a team of experts from West Kalimantan may have the answer. GPS based drones are being used for the first time to map community land and the results have been impressive.

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Participatory 3D mapping for DRR in Jelapan, Sindumartani, Sleman, Indonesia

As the most active volcano in Indonesia, Merapi Volcano has been threatened the life of people surrounding its slope either by primary hazard in form of pyroclastic flow and secondary hazard in form of debris flow. Therefore, disaster risk reduction (DRR) effort become an important thing to be done in the area. Integrating different stakeholders is one of the most pressing contemporary needs for enhancing disaster risk reduction. The participation of such a large range of actors in DRR allows for the integration of local and scientific knowledge as well as top-down and bottom-up actions.
Methods that used for this research is participatory three dimensional mapping (P3DM). P3DM provided a tool of dialogue between local people, scientists and local government. All stakeholders were able to contribute their knowledge on the same tool. P3DM is credible to both locals, who build the map and plot most of the information and to scientists and government representatives who can easily overlap their own data and plans. In the process, NGO/academic partners served as facilitators and moderators. Such a dialogue resulted in concerted actions including both bottom-up and top-down measures to enhance disaster risk reduction.

Results showed that from the three dimensional (3D) map, participants which consist of local community and representative of local government, could identify all aspects which needed to enhance disaster risk reduction in the study area. Those aspects are affected area, distribution of vulnerable group which consist of children, old people, people with disability, and pregnant woman, also meeting point for each neighborhood system and evacuation route which can be used to evacuate when the pyroclastic and debris flow from Merapi volcano reach the area. Those aspects were displayed in the 3D maps using clear symbol and legend which are depicted in push-pins (points), yarns (lines), and paint (polygons).

Read full paper: on ScienceDirect

At global land rights conference, combining participatory mapping tools with traditional knowledge emerges as powerful weapon to fight massive land grabs

SAMOSIR, NORTH SUMATRA (30 August 2013) - With governments, loggers, miners and palm oil producers poaching their lands with impunity, indigenous leaders from 17 countries gathered on a remote island in Sumatra this week to launch a global fight for their rights that will take advantage of powerful participatory mapping tools combined with indigenous knowledge to mark traditional boundaries.

“It’s amazing to see indigenous groups from all over the world coming here armed with hundreds of detailed maps they have created with things like handheld GPS devices and Internet mapping apps,” said Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, head of the Philippines-based Tebtebba, one of the co-organizers of the Global Conference on Community Participatory Mapping on Indigenous Peoples’ Territories, which took place on the edge of the largest volcanic lake in the world. “It’s a new and vivid way to illustrate how they and their ancestors have inhabited and worked these lands for thousands of years and have every right to assert their ownership.”

Indigenous groups from countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Panama, Mexico and Brazil, explained how they have adopted affordable, high-tech mapping technology to retrace the history of their land ownership and catalog their natural resources. Their hope is that detailed maps can help them fight the destruction of vast tracks of forests, peatlands and waterways—brazen incursions by government and industry that not only deprive indigenous peoples of their lands but also greatly accelerate the global loss of biodiversity and accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For example, participants at the conference believe maps of this sort could help bolster the fight in Indonesia to stop the steady loss of traditional lands to palm oil production, logging and other industrial needs. Participants issued a declaration calling on the government of Indonesia to pass legislation, currently under consideration by the nation’s Parliament, which would provide new protections for the country’s 50 million indigenous peoples.

“We need to take advantage of new mapping tools to accelerate the process of mapping the more than 30 million hectares we have left to document—before they are swallowed up by plantations,” said Abdon Nababan, secretary general of Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), which has helped communities across the country to map their customary forests as part of their efforts to defend their lands against development by palm oil and other industrial plantations and mining.

A recent report stated that the Indonesian government’s continued practice of granting national and international companies permission to convert millions of hectares of forests to palm oil and other plantations on lands that overlap with or abut indigenous territories often leads to the displacement of indigenous peoples—and a rash of sometimes-violent land disputes. The report on the state of large-scale agribusiness expansion in Southeast Asia by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), also noted that the country faced more than 280 land conflicts across the country in 2012.

“Lines on a map have always been a source of conflict, but they are becoming more and more contentious around the world today,” said Tauli-Corpuz. “In many cases, government and military maps don’t acknowledge the presence of indigenous territories, leaving these communities vulnerable to land rights violations and conflicts, as well as the loss of their sustainable livelihoods, the onset of poverty, environmental degradation, and the loss of cultural heritage. Indigenous peoples are creating maps to protect their customary lands.”

Sleek computer-generated Indonesian maps presented at the conference documented cases in which the government had handed over indigenous territories to developers. In the case of the Lusan community in Borneo, three different government agencies had handed a community’s land over to three different companies—a logging group, a mining operation and a palm oil plantation.

“Without maps, it is difficult for indigenous peoples to prove that they have occupied their ancestral lands for centuries,” said Giacomo Rambaldi, a senior program coordinator at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), who has helped indigenous peoples to develop maps for more than 15 years. “If you are able to document and map your use of the resources since time immemorial, you have a chance of asserting your rights over land and water.”

It Takes a Village

Unlike satellite images or traditional political maps, the maps presented at the conference document key cultural and social sites, such as burial grounds, caches of medicinal plants, hunting trails or groves of specific species of trees. Based on pre-existing maps, satellite images or coordinates generated by hand-held GPS devices, these computer-generated documents or models record knowledge passed down through generations and integrate input from the entire community—including women and youth.

Conference participants heard that indigenous communities have successfully used these maps to protect their lands from land grabs and to monitor the impact of external forces on their lands.

In Brazil, South America’s largest democracy, an Afro-Brazilian community used a map to stop Cyclone-4, a space company jointly owned by Brazil and Ukraine, from expanding into their lands to build rocket launchers. These maps refuted claims by the company that only 10 communities would be impacted by the development by showing that more than 100 communities would be displaced. Cyclone-4’s expansion was blocked—though the government continues its efforts to build the rocket launchers on indigenous territories.

In Panama, which loses one percent of its tropical forests each year, members of the Guna community created a map—in the Guna language—to determine if the expansion of croplands had damaged sacred sites located in the rainforest surrounding their community. The map also served to show younger generations where these sites are located.

In Indonesia, the village of Pandumaan produced hand-drawn maps to scale, based on GPS data, to show that a pulp and paper company encroaching on their lands had razed the forests they rely on for myrrh—a fragrant resin that they sell for a living and use in spiritual rituals.

In Malaysia, which, along with Indonesia, is a leader in palm oil production, communities have used maps to win 25 of the 250 land disputes brought in front of the courts since 2001. The government continues to appeal the 25 cases that it lost in an attempt to regain the lands from indigenous peoples.

40 Million Hectares by 2020

Indonesia’s 2,200 indigenous communities, spread out across the country’s 18,307 islands, are the most prolific indigenous map-makers, the conference revealed. These mapping efforts have added urgency, since the country’s Constitutional Court decided in May that a line in the country’s 1999 Forestry Law, which states that customary forests are state forests, is not constitutional. To take advantage of this decision, which would first have to be implemented in national and local law, experts from the conference said it’s crucial for indigenous peoples to put these forests on paper.

AMAN’s Abdon Nababan said that he hopes to help map all 40 million hectares of land by 2020, and he called on the national Parliament to speed up the adoption of the Law on the Recognition and Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The body is currently reviewing a draft of the law.

“Without Indigenous Peoples, There Would Be No Forests”

“Mapping not only empowers indigenous communities with evidence that they can use to assert their land rights, it also provides communities with the ability to catalog the natural resources sheltered in their territories,” said Tauli-Corpuz, the head of Tebtebba. “These maps successfully demonstrate what we already know: that indigenous peoples are the best custodians of their forests and lands.”

A study by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) finds that biodiversity thrives in indigenous territories where communities are free to engage in hunting and other sustainable uses of natural resources—as opposed to state-held protected areas that ban such activities.

The National Coalition of Indigenous Peoples (KASAPI) in the Philippines arrived at the same conclusion. The project, which inventoried the resources in indigenous communities across the country, concluded from evidence gathered on the ground and from village elders—who recalled which species of plants have disappeared since their youth—that forests and lands owned and managed by indigenous peoples have stronger biodiversity than those that are under government control.

According to conference participants, maps that document a territory’s biodiversity provide indigenous communities and national governments alike with “baseline” knowledge about the health of their natural resources, enabling them to monitor changes to natural resources, such as the restoration—or degradation—of forests over time. Participants added that maps like these can show the impacts of climate change—and aid in the tracking of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Vu Thi Hien of the Centre of Research and Development in Upland Areas (CERDA), taught members of the Thai Nguyen community in Vietnam how to map in order to support an international climate change effort to reduce climate change through the protection and preservation of forests, known as REDD+. She said that local authorities were so impressed with the professionalism and accuracy of the maps that they adopted the maps for their own use.

“If the community is not empowered to assert their rights, they can only go so far, even with strong laws supporting land rights,” Tauli-Corpuz said.

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About Tebtebba
Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) is an indigenous peoples’ organization born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples respected, protected and fulfilled worldwide. It also advocates and works on the elaboration and operationalization of indigenous peoples’ sustainable, self-determined development. www.tebtebba.org.

About AMAN
AMAN’s mission is to pursue sovereignty, prosperity and dignity of indigenous peoples.  Established on 17 March 1999, its members consist of 2,240 indigenous communities in Indonesia. www.aman.or.id.

Indonesian Government Accepts Ancestral Domain Maps: Making Indigenous Peoples visible within the Nation State

Jakarta, 14 November 2012 – The Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) and Network for Participatory Mapping (JKPP) have officially handed over ancestral domain maps registered with the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) to the Indonesia's Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) and Presidential Delivery Unit for Supervision and Control of Development (UKP4). This is the initial handover done by AMAN and JKPP. As a start, being submitted are 265 maps of ancestral domains covering a total area of 2,402,222 ha.

Ancestral domain maps available in BRWA, of which process facilitated directly by AMAN and JKPP as well as NGOs advocating the archipelago’s indigenous peoples, are prominent information to support One Map Indonesia carried out by the government through UKP4 and BIG. It is a collective movement of all including indigenous peoples, for managerial improvement of Indonesia in order to be a better Country.

“Making Indigenous Peoples visible within the State will help the government in managing a Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), peaceful and equitable State based on the conditions and characteristics of indigenous peoples from across the Archipelago” said National Coordinator of JKPP Mr. Kasmita Widodo.

According the Secretary-General of AMAN Abdon Nababan, the handover aims as representation of indigenous peoples as well as their rights to lands, territories and natural resources in the Republic of Indonesia.

Indonesia has a constitution recognizing indigenous peoples but lacks of administrative law acknowledging the existence of indigenous peoples and their collective rights. Thus, this handover is part of welcoming the legalization of Recognition and Protection the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PPHMA) Bill currently discussed by House of Representatives. Once legalized, the Act will provide recognition, protection, and service to indigenous peoples of the archipelago as citizens of Indonesia.

“AMAN and JKPP want to encourage all development sectors in Indonesia currently managed by Ministries and other Government Institutions to work together under the leadership of the President to ensure national development that significantly able to alleviate land, territories and natural resources disputes that may thwart the development objectives” said Nababan and Widodo.

Further information:
Mr. Mahir Takaka
Deputy III of Secretary General
Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara/AMAN
mtakaka@aman.or.id

Non-edited press release received from JKPP

Community Mapping in Tsunami Affected Areas in Aceh, Indonesia

Sekadau Consensus: Community Mapping in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

The documentary describes a process wherein the Dayak communities in Nanga Mahap, Sekadau District of Indonesia get control and manage their territories and succeed in stopping the expansion of palm oil plantations.

Participatory mapping and spatial planning were used to build new consensus between the communities and the local government at village and sub-District and District level.

The new consensus was built after the communities gained a clearer understanding on the impact of the industrial palm oil plantations on land tenure and on the cultural, economic and ecological sustainability of their villages.

Video and description courtesy Kasmita Widodo, Jaringan Kerja Pemetaan Partisipatif (JKPP).

Mapping the Sea - Improving Livelihoods

In 2005, when the Tsunami hit Banda Aceh in Indonesia, it killed many of the elderly fishermen. Much of the traditional knowledge about the waters surrounding Banda Aceh was lost with them. Traditionally this precious knowledge was transferred from generation to generation. In the post-Tsunami vacuum, this community-led initiative was able to retrieve and document some of that endangered knowledge.

This video documents the efforts done in one community, where traditional authorities coordinated the mapping of the coastal waters including the sea floor. So far 460 km of coastline have been mapped including previously unmapped features like four seamounts, four geologic faults and eighteen coral areas. In addition to the physical data, the community documented key biodiversity areas including shark nurseries, nesting beaches, spawning grounds. Data will be used to support the development of coastal resources and fisheries management plans.

According to Sumatra Konservasi Alam this project was completed at minimal cost (less than 10% of the cost of a conventional survey) and in less than one year. More information on the initiative is found at http://www.konservasi.org