FOREST OWNERSHIP CONFLICT BETWEEN A LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE STATE: A CASE STUDY IN DHARMASRAYA, INDONESIA

Abstract

Forest ownership conflict in Production Forest Management Unit (PFMU) Dharmasraya, West Sumatra occurs due to legal pluralism in forest ownership. The local community claims the forest as tanah ulayat (communal land) but the state claims the forest as state land. Due to this legal pluralism, forest grabbing by the local community has been rampant. The forest land is then converted into communal plantations of rubber and oil palm. In the year 2000, the local community grabbed a forest area in PFMU, about 86.35% of 33,550 ha, and by 2015 the forested area had been reduced to 18.89%. In the same period, the community plantations of rubber and oil palm in PFMU increased from 10.24 to 71.23%. Deforestation in PFMU occurred rapidly because the local community considered the existence of the forest unimportant and prefered to convert forest into oil palm and rubber plantations.