Indonesia's agrarian land reform program is well underway. Moves to fix the country's land problems began in 2007, with the introduction of a new land law. Nevertheless, it is still not clear whether the program will be a success. Surveyors will need to show leadership, says Joyo Winoto, head of the National Land Agency.
Winoto was speaking at the 2009 South East Asian Survey Congress (SEASC, 3-7 August) in Bali to an audience largely made up of Indonesian surveyors.
Land law reform in Indonesia is necessary to address inefficiencies in the allocation of land. The nation’s rich have accumulated vast amounts of land while many of the poor have no access to land at all.
This might not matter if the land was used efficiently. However, much of it is wasted. One and a half million hectares is in registered blocks but remains unsold or the ownership is not known. In other cases, the land is owned but has been abandoned or left idle; some 7.3 million ha falls into this category. A further 8.5 million ha is currently forested but not required for forestry or national parks.
The present strategy is to allocate this bank of 17.3 million ha to the poorest of the poor. They will be given good title to this land, which can be sold or used to derive an income.
The strategy requires an integrated national database, which the country does not have. Winoto identifies the lack of such an instrument as a major challenge for the country.
He says this approach to land reform is suited to the Indonesian context. He noted that other countries had taken different approaches, including simply expropriating the lands of the rich and giving it to the poor. This ‘Robin Hood’ approach had never worked, he said.
He also dismissed the idea of government buying the land from the rich. This cannot be done in Indonesia, he said, as it would cost too much.
Another alternative is colonisation, that is, for the government to release unused land – usually forests – for farm fields or urbanisation. This is not an attractive option for environmental reasons, although several million hectares have been converted in this manner.
Source: www.asmmag.com
