Indonesia integrates Indigenous data in bid to put customary lands on map

Indonesia has combined Indigenous community data from the Ministry of Culture, the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) and the AMAN Indigenous alliance into one dataset covering 3,857 communities, launched Aug. 19 in Jakarta. Officials say the merger could eventually feed into official geospatial maps used for spatial planning and permitting, potentially making customary territories visible to companies seeking land permits.

Culture Minister Fadli Zon acknowledged the government's data has been disorganized, saying 'if the data are not in order, policy interventions will also be inadequate.' AMAN handed over 2,284 customary territory maps covering 36.6 million hectares, of which only 418 territories — about 7.54 million hectares — have received local government recognition; just 332,661 hectares have been formally recognized as customary forest.

BRWA's Kasmita Widodo cautioned that integration alone doesn't grant legal recognition, and that the Geospatial Information Agency still must determine a data custodian before maps become part of official planning layers. Until then, a company can seek a permit on Indigenous-claimed land without that claim ever appearing on the government's system.

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