Reform of land administration processes is central to Indonesian efforts to address the nation's poor governance of land matters. But while much wrong, there is also solid evidence that the situation is improving faster than ever before.
Joyo Winoto, the head of the National Land Agency, told a workshop in Washington DC there were reasons to be optimistic. The workshop, Land Governance in Support of the Millenium Development Goals was hosted by the World Bank and FIG, the international surveyors organisation.
There are critical issues in Indonesia, Winoto said. About 35 million Indonesians (34 per cent) live below the poverty line. Most of these are rural peasants who live on less than half a hectare of land.
Competition for this land is intense. In 2007, there were almost 8000 disputes involving land before the courts. Tragically, an estimated 7.4 million hectares of land lay idle or abandoned that same year, mostly due to disputed ownership.
'Serious agrarian reform is needed,' he said. However, this is a major bureaucratic exercise. Land law is controlled by the Consitution of 1945 and subsequent amendments in 1960 and 1970. There are also another 12 laws, 48 regulations, 22 presidential decrees, four presidential instructions, 243 ministerial regulations and 209 letters between ministers.
It comes as little surprise that Indonesia's land laws are contradictory and unclear.
Nevertheless, the National Land Agency has during the early years of this century attempted to ‘develop land management practices through democratic, transparent and just principles,' he said.
The agency has developed four strategic plans to achieve its policy objectives. It has seperate plans for reforming land policy, reforming the NLA bureaucracy, developing land administration and improving administration processes.
Of these, the most important is the last - improving admistrative processes - because this is the part where certificates of title to land are issued to the people and, if necessary, defended.
The statistics are good. Winoto said that 919,000 land certificates were issued in 2005. By 2008, this had grown to more than 2.6 million. It is now also easier and more straightforward for landowners to obtain one. Furthermore, 1778 land disputes were heard and resolved in 2007.
One part of the strategy that has certainly worked is the development of spatial information systems, which has been accelerating over the last 10 years.
However, there is still much work to do. Only about 45 per cent of land parcels have been registered and only a fraction mapped. Modern digital cadastres are still in their infancy.
Source: www.asmmag.com
