Ulrich Löffler, (1996):
Land Tenure Developments in Indonesia

Executive Summary

1. The purpose of this paper is to study the land tenure developments in Indonesia. Along with the formal, informal and traditional legal regulations, the serious land problems in rural and urban areas are analyzed, and an attempt is made to draw some conclusions from them for development cooperation. The utilization of and access to the land resources plays a decisive part in the further development of Indonesia, since even today, a large part of the Indonesian population, in particular outside Java, live in and from the agrarian and forestry sectors, and thus land tenure for the Indonesian population must be regarded as being crucial. But the legal regulations are not only significant for the agrarian sector; along with them, an increasingly significant part is being touched by the rapidly growing industrialization and urbanization of Indonesia in particular for the provision of areas of land for housing estates and infrastructural measures, and also within the framework of industrial estates or joint ventures with foreign companies. The efficient allocation of land resources is thus a central aspect of agricultural and social development in Indonesia.

2. Some 70 million ha (out of 192 million ha of land) are used in Indonesia for agricultural purposes and settlements. The primary focus of agricultural policy is self-sufficiency in rice. Rice production already occupies the most fertile lowlands of Java, Bali, Southern Sumatra and Southern Sulawesi. But the agricultural policy also tries to diversify the production and to increase the non-rice food crops and cash (estate) crops. Thus marginal lands must be developed for an increase in the production of non-rice food crops and estate crops. This includes the tidal swamp lands on Kalimantan and Sumatra (about 35 million ha), as well as the alang-alang grasslands (about 15 million ha) and the critical uplands on Java and Bali (about 10 - 40 million ha) which are susceptible to erosion. The spread of estate crop plantations will additionally require the conversion of forest areas. This means that agricultural uses compete with forest uses in many places. According to official submissions, 3 million ha of state forest land have been converted to agricultural estates, and used for transmigration and infrastructure purposes in the last 3 years.

3. For various reasons, land tenure problems in Indonesia have increased dynamically and explosively over recent years. The diverse interests of forest concessions, industrial forest plantations, commercial agricultural plantations, mining concessions, settlement programmes and the local population overlap in many rural areas. Thus it is that conflicts in these places occur repeatedly since land or resource claims are always announced by different interest groups. Shifting cultivators lay claim to rights to areas which have been assigned to commercial timber concessionaires for a long-term period by the Ministry of Forestry (MoF). Further conflicts arise out of claims from shifting cultivators to areas which are earmarked by the Ministry of Transmigration and Forest Squatter Resettlements as transmigration areas. Conflicts are also pre-programmed by the increased earmarking of National Parks and the simultaneous limiting of the resource rights of the local people.

4. The Indonesian government and the "newcomers" (individuals from different ethnic origins, and agri-businessmen with commercial agricultural and forest plantations) view fallow land within the confines of shifting cultivation often as "vacant" or "unused" land. Thus it passes automatically to the State according to Indonesian law. The State can then award the land to commercial farmers and business people for agricultural and forest plantations. Immigrants have also tried to use this "vacant" land. On the other hand, these areas are used by the local communities, either temporarily or permanently, for gathering forest products or as reserve land, and thus regarded as "their" land. The Adat communities believe that they have ownership rights to these resources since they have received these rights from the traditional functionaries. Therefore they see no reason why they should have to have these rights recognized as "their" ownership rights again in a lengthy and complicated procedure.

5. Competing uses of land also play an important part in the urban and peri-urban areas. Land for housing development, industrial estates and infrastructural measures which must be withdrawn from agricultural production is needed to cope with the rapidly growing industrialization and urbanization. There are no coordinated programmes for land use management in urban fringe areas. Through the division of properties and unregulated construction, unplanned conversion from agricultural to non-agricultural utilization takes place. A systematic securing of agricultural land which is highly suitable for agricultural utilization in contrast to other utilization forms does not exist. In rural areas, the economic and political elite who do not belong to the local community acquire land for themselves. In many cases, the land has been state-owned and of uncertain status although controlled by local people. This land is of high interest to "outsiders" for appropriation due to its uncertain status. These financially powerful investors force the locals off their land in the interests of the agro-industry, luxury housing complexes, tourist and sport facilities.

6. Land conflicts are by no means a new phenomenon in Indonesia. But today, the number of land conflicts in both rural and urban areas has starkly increased. The majority of conflicts is to be found in the economic boom regions of Indonesia. In West Java, 37 % of the pending conflicts are to be found in the Bogor-Tangerang-Bekasi Development Region, and 35 % are to be found in the Greater Bandung Development Region. This may well be connected on the one hand with the concentration of investments and the corresponding need for land in these two growth regions. On the other hand, it might also be an indication of better information about and a greater awareness of these problems within the local population. The disagreements in West Java arose above all about questions of compensation and questions about the status of the land. Which parties have been involved in the disputes? In West Java, disputes take place predominantly between members of the community and government agencies, and between the community and private companies. The growing number of land disputes, in particular with regard to insufficient compensation payments, has resulted in a number of protest actions by farmers since the mid 80s, supported also by student groups.

7. Many institutions are involved in solving land conflicts, and resolutions are sought on different levels. Adat institutions, of course, contribute to the resolution of traditional conflicts between and within the various Adat communities. The Adat institutions are, however, frequently not in a strong bargaining position when it comes to conflicts between Adat authorities and the national government. The rapid changes for example in Kalimantan and Irian Jaya influence the traditional leadership patterns and tend to lead to the weakening of power of the traditional leaders. New leadership structures (Government) arise and put the paramount leadership of the adat leaders in question. This is particularly visible in the conversion of adat land to state land for development programmes. Attempts are made through state regulations to adjust and consolidate the traditional power structures so as to force back the power of the adat leaders.

8. The formal procedures of such a legal case in court are complex and lengthy and bound up with multiple administrative snares. The judges of general courts are often insufficiently prepared for the form of these land conflicts in which one party can consist of thousands of people, or in which thousands of local people want to be members of the community which is suing for higher compensation. In addition, the decisions according to "winner" and "looser" of a court battle do not fit in with the necessity of finding innovative, locally specific and flexible solutions and compromises which do not go against the interests of all concerned. This, however, appears to be an important prerequisite for long-lasting solutions. Many NGOs on several islands which deal with the problems incorporated in rural development and consider their prime task in strengthening and setting up of community institutions have become involved in the land tenure issues. Church NGOs in particular frequently play the role of negotiator in Indonesia in land conflicts. Representatives of religious institutions often live for decades in rural areas on the outer islands and often possess profound knowledge about local Adat regulations and are often seen in addition as an authority by the local Adat leaders and is turned to for advice.

9. The central law for land rights is the Basic Agrarian Law (BAL). Apart from the BAL, further laws and regulations also play an important part. This refers in particular to the Basic Forestry Law (BFL) as well as the Spatial Use Management Law and the Conservation of Living Resources and their Ecosystems. The Basic Agrarian Law, enacted on 24^th September 1960, compromises two important alterations of the previously valid old Netherlands Indies agrarian legislation of 1870. For one thing, it canceled the old land registration, titling laws and regulations. This led to the dissolution of the existing dual legal system (western law and adat law), and to the introduction of a new system of land law of unique Indonesian applicability. The fixing of ceilings and the exclusion of foreigners from landownership should protect the autochthonous Indonesian citizen from economically stronger groups. In practice, however, numerous examples of land tenure can be found which more or less strongly diverge from the formal rights in the BAL. This, for example refers to the regulations for minimum and upper ceilings as well as for regulations which should avoid so-called "Absentee Landlords".

10. The Basic Forestry Law of 1967 lays down the structural and political basis of the state forestry policy. "Forest areas" are areas with or without trees which have been designated by the government as "forest". The permanent forest areas under the Basic Forestry Law can be divided into the following four areas: production forests (64.3 million ha) are designated for exploitation of timber, rattan, saps and other forest products. Commercial utilization rights in the form of concessions for so-called production forests are granted to private and semi-State businesses. Since the end of the 60s, the number of concessions and the extent of licensed areas of land has risen sharply and today takes in virtually the entire amount of production forest in Indonesia. Protection forests (30.7 million ha) are forest areas which should be protected so that their functions, particularly their hydrological function, can be maintained. Nature reserve and recreation forests (18.8 million ha) are for the protection and preservation of genetic resources and the development of science, education and tourism. Conversion forest (26.6 million ha) is forest land designated for conversion to other land uses such as agriculture and settlement.

11. The Consensus Forest Land Use Plan (Tata Guna Hutan Kesepakatan (TGHK)) was passed in 1984. Through the classification at the time, wide areas of land were declared as state forest. This land-use regulation not only reduced the amount of land suitable for shifting cultivation, it also led, for example, to land under hak ulayat or other adat land now being in state forest. According to the Basic Forestry Law, there are no personal rights in these state forest areas (Kawasan hutan). This means that as long as the land is classified as forest and is subject to the Forestry Department, no individual or communal property rights can be registered under the National Land Agency (BPN).

12. The BPN was founded through the Presidential Decree No 26 / 1988 and took over the tasks of the former Directorate-General of Agrarian Affairs in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The BPN supports the President in the management and administration of the land through the State Minister of Affairs. The State Minister for Agrarian Affairs is appointed by the President and is advised by him in land policy matters. The State Minister for Agrarian Affairs is simultaneously the head of the National Land Agency. The dual function enables the person holding office to fall back on data drawn up by BPN and simultaneously to development and implement land policy in Indonesia as a member of the cabinet and as a member of the National Development Planning Board (BAPPENAS). The main activities of the BPN are: land registration, cadastral measurement, land use mapping, land certification and land granting. Likewise, the BPN functionally carries out the issuance of location permits and land consolidation in cooperation with the local Government.

14. Uneven distribution of land is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. The first statistical data, from the findings of a study conducted in 1905, shows the uneven distribution of control over land in West Java. The results of the Agricultural Census have continued to reflect the imbalance which exists in control over land. According to the agrarian census of 1993, there are about 19.7 million land-holding farm households in Indonesia (from a total of about 42 million households). Of these, around 9.6 million land-holding farm households have less than 0.5 ha, and 14 million land-holding farm households have less than 1 ha of land. On Java, the land holdings are even smaller on average. In 1993, for example, more than 40 % of the farms on West Java had an area less than 0.2 ha, and about 73 % of the farms had an area less than 0.5 ha Only 0.2 % of the farms on West Java have an area of more than 5 ha.

15. Access to land for landless households is frequently only possible through tenancy arrangements. Various forms of tenancy exist in Indonesia. Sharecropping is the dominant tenancy form in many parts of Indonesia with the exception of Central and East Java, East Kalimantan and a few eastern provinces of Indonesia. Alongside sharecropping, fixed rent tenancy and pawned tenancy also exist. The majority of households in the rural areas of Java do not have sufficient land to be able to support their existence. Not only the marginal landowners but also the landless tenants and agricultural workers belong to this majority. Amongst them, the particularly poor households are those which also have no chance of taking up extra-agricultural activities because the principal workers of the household are chronically ill, invalid or aged, or because they are single women households (widows, divorcees) with children.

16. Numerous marginal people migrate seasonally or permanently to other rural regions or urban centers. If the search for employment is unsuccessful, the only way out is frequently seen as the "illegal" acquisition of land. This is mainly the illegal occupation of land belonging to large landowners, or of communal or state land. Encroachers in the forest frequently occupy marginal areas which are endangered by erosion and which become degraded through improper maintenance. But "illegal" land acquisitions also exist in the urban centers, and this in growing proportions. Numerous conflicts which deal with the recognition of the rights of "illegal" land takers, and deal in particular with the question of compensation when expulsion occurs, are pending on Java.

17. It becomes clear from the agrarian structure that agriculture could only provide a part of the livelihood of many rural households and that they have to increase their income by taking employment outside agriculture. They are more interested in new employment opportunities and training in non-agricultural jobs as a way of gaining additional income. Multi-employment is widespread in Java.

18. In the growth regions of Indonesia, land is becoming more and more strongly a commercial commodity. Land sales of individual private property can be found now almost everywhere on Java. Following the introduction of the BAL and with it the subsequent conversion of land rights to hak milik, a period began in which more and more parcels of land were sold not only within the community or to peasants in neighboring villages, but also to "outsiders", although this is illegal according to the BAL. Nonetheless, every private owner tries to hang onto his property, and sales are frequently a result of emergencies.

19. An important problem is the de facto existence of two parallel legal systems: adat law and statutory law. In many regions of Indonesia adat law persists and the local population orients itself towards ways of dealing within adat law, which is more transparent and easier to understand than statutory law which they frequently do not know about or do not fully understand. How far are adat rights taken into consideration in Basic Agrarian Law? The BAL recognizes the rights to the Adat community under hak ulayat (right of disposal). In principle, hak ulayat allows every member of the adat community to use the land and the products of the land. The Basic Agrarian Law recognizes communal as well as individual adat rights as long as they do not come into conflict with the State legal system. However, it makes no regulations for the documentation and registration of communal rights. If adat rights cannot be proven, the land is automatically looked upon as State land. "National" interests carry more weight than adat rights.

20. In the past 35 years after the Basic Agrarian Law was put into action, innumerable amounts of land under adat rights have been bequeathed, sold and divided up without one single registration or any other formal type of documentation taking place. So the question of what the exact origin of these claims to rights today is frequently cannot be answered. Are these rights, as one may presume, predominantly ones which are derived from hak ulayat, or are they old individual rights which were granted in colonial times? This means that the often-used term "adat rights" is not necessarily always clear. Thus, for example, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between land under traditional landholders from land which has been worked for centuries by farmers and their offspring as so-called outsiders.

21. Customary rights (adat), in particular in the so-called "outer islands", are of great importance in many areas of interpersonal life. They are not only effective for land rights, water rights and inheritance rights, they are also influence other laws as marriage law and criminal law. At the same time, adat not only preserves ethnic identity, it is also important for upholding a moral and cultural legitimacy in the face of a dominant external state and culture. Rural clans and tribes believe that land is God-given and inalienable. Land is not only a basis for production; it is also a form of worship to ancestors and a connection to the spirit world. Many rituals and festivals are enshrined in the cultivation of land and the cultivation cycle.

22. The variation of adat law in the different law areas makes it difficult to establish generalized aspects of community-based law. The community has the right of disposal. One specific aspect of this right is to be found in the interaction of communal rights and individual rights under hak ulayat. This distinction between individual rights and communal rights cannot, however, be clearly drawn. A whole spectrum of rights which cannot be distinctly looked upon as the equivalent of individual or communal rights can be present here, such as anything from pure communal rights (which may be available for land lying fallow) up to pure individual rights (which for example exist in West Java).

23. To what extent is hak ulayat still significant today? In some regions, the process of dissolving hak ulayat in favor of individualization already began in the 19th century, and in some regions of West Java, Aceh and Madura, the individualization of land ownership was virtually complete by the turn of the century. The exact extent of the non-forest areas under adat law is just as unknown as the extent of the forest areas claimed by adat communities. It is estimated that most of these land rights exist on forest land. But forest land is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Forestry and not of the BPN. This means as a rule that no formal land titling and registration can be carried out for this land. Since several Government authorities (Ministry of Forestry, BPN, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Transmigration, Ministry of Mining, etc.) may be involved here, a consistent and transparent plan of action is further made difficult.

24. How can the adat communities acquire secure rights to these non-forest as well as forest areas, and how can these rights be embedded in the Indonesian land registration system? An application for adat rights registration is almost never made by the members of the adat communities. A registration is usually only made when another party wants to acquire that land and wants to obtain a Basic Agrarian Law right to it. If adat communities live in forest areas, the two following possibilities exist for securing land rights: (1) The adat community, its subsistence economy and its tenure patterns must be recognized and a long-term, sustainable, multiple use forest management system must be created which is advantageous for both the local people and for the State institutions (long-term utilization rights). (2) The extent of adat land in forest areas and the individual or communal legal claims to this land must be investigated. These areas, which have been under Basic Forestry Law, must be "converted" into agricultural land so that they come under Basic Agrarian Law and can thus also be registered.

25. In urban and peri-urban areas, other land tenure issues are more important. Here the need for land for non-agricultural purposes is starkly growing due to increasing urbanization and industrialization. The urban population is growing more quickly than the total population of Indonesia. The increasing urbanization affects land rights and land markets in urban and rural areas, since urban life is encroaching more and more into the villages. Thus one can hardly distinguish the borders of the centers previously far removed on the urban fringes any more. This is particularly the case in the conurbation JaBoTaBek. In this urban fringe alone, there will be a population of around 30 million people in 2010. With an assumed growth of the urban population of 4 % per year, Jakarta needs around 70,000 new dwellings per year, at least 25 % of which are needed for low income categories with an income of US-$ 30,- per month and person.

26. More and more agricultural land is being converted to non-agricultural uses. The land used for agriculture has been reduced from 6.4 million to around 5.5 million hectares in the last ten years. Particularly painful for agriculture in this case is the high percentage of highly productive sawah which has been taken out of agricultural production in this period of time. All in all, the amount of the reduction of "sawah" was more than 400,000 hectares within the period 1983 - 1992. This is equal to an average loss of more than 40,000 hectares per year and an estimated loss of more than 500.000 tons of rice per year.

27. In response to population pressures and poverty in the "inner islands", the Indonesian government has also promoted resettlement programmes. The transmigration programmes already began in Indonesia in 1905 and after that they developed into perhaps the most extensive State-planned settlement programme world-wide. The purpose of the transmigration programme is to contribute to the solution of a diverse set of objectives: reduction of the pressure of population on the inner islands (Java and Bali); economic development of the outer islands; securing and / or increasing food production; integration of ethnic groups within the framework of "nation building" and the strategic securing of border regions. Although it was for example not possible to reduce decisively the population pressure with the extensive transmigration programme of 50 - 60,000 families (200,000 - 240,000 people) per year, the influence of the migrants in particular regions can be quite significant for some regions. In some kabupaten, transmigrants represented more than 40 % of the total population after resettlement. In general it can be said that the ambitious objectives and expectations of the transmigration projects could so far only be insufficiently fulfilled because of financial, administrative and executive constraints.

28. Various settlement programmes have been put into action by the GOI in rural areas in recent years. The central core of the PIR programmes (Perkeburan Inti Rakyat or Nucleus Estate Scheme) is a State Nucleus-Owned Estate which support surrounding small-farms in cultivation, processing and marketing. For the resettlement of transmigrants, special transmigration programmes such as the Perkebunan Inti Rakyat Transmigrasi (PIR-Trans) and the Hutan Tanaman Industri Transmigrasi (HTI-Trans) programmes have been developed. The Ministry of Transmigration (MoTM) also developed a concept of "Pola Hutan Rakyat Transmigrasi" or PHR-Trans for the transmigration of 1.7 million "Perambah Hutan" (so-called forest squatter) families. Pilot programmes for the PHR-Trans were supposed to be started in East and West Kalimantan in 1995 where 4 ha were to be used for reafforestation, and 2 ha were to be used for cash crops.

29. The Government of Indonesia supports the registration of land in urban and rural areas. But often the costs of registration, alongside the lengthy and complicated process is the main reason why the landowners hesitate to register their land in spite of the advantages for them. They cannot use their land without registration as collateral, and in the case of land acquisition by the government, they would only receive little compensation. So as to quickly raise the numbers of registrations, the Government introduced a special land project (Proyek Operasi Nasional Agraria (PRONA)) in 1981. It is estimated that nearly 900,000 titles have been issued under PRONA. A Land Administration Project has been running in Indonesia since 1995. The main objective is to foster efficient and equitable land markets and alleviate social conflicts over land. In the first years of the project, the main points of focus of the project will be in Java, in particular in West Java. It has been planned for a later stage that land under "hak ulayat" on non-forest land (e.g. in West Sumatra) will be integrated in the Land Administration Project. Along with the promotion of systematic and sporadic registration, the systematic review of land laws and regulations will be striven for in this project.

Potential fields for development cooperation

30. Some conclusions can be drawn from the study for fields of development cooperation in the area of land tenure. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that land tenure and its changes must be seen not in isolation, but rather in a socio-cultural, political and economic context.

Policy Dialogue

31. The policy dialogue could contribute to the awareness of the existing problems and the need to change land policy. Existing information gaps need to be closed and the flow of information needs to be improved. Centrally organized bureaucracies are too little aware of local structures and institutions for resource allocation and for the resolving of land disputes. The institutional communication and the institutional cooperation between the heterogeneous local institutions and the centralized state are so far insufficient. The flow of information from the local basis to the central powers has to be improved and the closer cooperation between local level institutions and the national level has to be strengthened.

32. The policy dialogue could further contribute to the promotion of inter-institutional dialogue and close cooperation between the relevant departments at the national, regional and local level. The areas of competency of the various departments involved are often unclear and lead to conflict potential. The dialogue between the departments involved for exchanging information and improving cooperation should be improved. One example is the "Consultative Group on Indonesian Forestry" (CGIF) in existence since 1993 which brings international donors (the GTZ amongst them) together with Government Departments. The inter-institutional dialogue of a "Consultative Group on Land Tenure Development" (BPN, MoF, international donors) should be promoted.

33. The policy dialogue could further contribute to the encouragement of decentralization. The interests of the actors involved towards a stronger decentralization are diverse. The redistribution of State power to the various regional administrative bodies also means a redistribution of resources. A decentralization of state responsibility is a prerequisite for locally efficient land tenure institutions.

Training and Research

34. One important field of development activities is training and research in the area of land tenure. To this belong amongst others: short and medium-term courses and / or training on the job in Indonesia or overseas in specific fields for personnel from the BPN, MoF, etc. These courses could be in the areas of rural land consolidation, urban land consolidation, GIS, etc. Education and training should be promoted for members of NGO’s, foundations and community organizations in areas such as organizational development and legal consultation.

35. (Electronic) conferences on specific topics (administrative, legislative, management aspects) with relevant national and international research and decision-making bodies (BPN, MoF, MoA, ICRAF, CIFOR, CASER, universities - in particular the agricultural, forestry and law faculties), donors, NGO’s, etc.) could be conducted for information exchange and the identification of main focal points of research as well as the investigation of starting-points for the aimed promotion of national and international research projects.

36. Support should be given to curriculum development and establishment of land and resource tenure in the curriculum for agricultural, forestry and law students in the S 1 (Bachelor level) and S 2 (Masters level) of education, e.g. in the agriculture faculty (IPB), forestry faculty (UNMUL).

Specific Initiatives in rural areas

37. The securing of ownership and usufructuary rights is a necessary but not always sufficient precondition for substantial agricultural and forestry production. The security of landownership can be achieved with land registration. With this, the question arises of whether or not further privatization of land alone through the land registry or also through other pragmatic and less formal approaches is possible. It still must be made clear how communal rights are to be secured. Can, for example, the existing upper limit for landownership lead to problems in land registry for shifting cultivators? And how should the rights of the local inhabitants to classified forest land be secured? The procedures for individual land registrations should be made more simple and less costly. The institutional structures at the national, regional and local level for land registration ought to be improved. Pilot efforts for community-based forest management such as the Participatory Forest Management Approach of the SFDP which secure long-term utilization rights should be initiated and supported.

38. A huge amount of land, forest land in particular, is under customary land rights. The awareness and recognition of these Adat rights have to be improved. Since many people live on land controlled by the Forestry Ministry, the Adat rights of these local people have to be respected. The current "sectoralist" approach should be replaced by an approach towards the needs of local communities. The resource use strategies of adat communities should be recognized so as to avoid the problems concerning "vacant" lands, for example. The local people’s land in forest areas should be reclassified because classified forest land is state land and this land cannot be registered by an individual.

39. Too little information is available about which land policy options are desired by the local people. Is there a natural development from communal to individual lands, when the economic value of the land or of the production of the land rises? To what extent is communal ownership of land desirable to the local people? The communal group should have the freedom to choose from available options and should not be forced into an "individual" registration system.

40. For the participation of communal groups, etc. in the law making process, the making of written laws and regulations available and disseminating them in local languages should be encouraged. Encouraging community legal education programmes can support the local people in understanding the formal laws and procedures and in being aware of their land rights. This would also be an important step for political recognition of the legitimacy of participation by all affected actors and interest groups. The Government must acknowledge that it should not be the sole arbiter of land policy. It should be ensured that the local communities, for instance, also have a say in policy decisions.

41. Cooperation and network building should be supported with governmental and non-governmental institutions for capacity building for land tenure development: e.g. the Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, the Institut Pertanian Bogor and other Universities and research institutions, the Legal Aid Institute and individual Indonesian consultants could participate in such undertakings.

42. A land tenure and resource documentation programme cannot only increase public access to information but can also make land information available to decision makers at the regional and national levels. The documentation programme can undertake a survey of existing documents about land tenure matters in particular the "gray literature" at the various institutions. The existing documents (studies, laws and regulations - in particular at the province level), court reports can be collected and made available to the public. Studies and research work on land tenure aspects (for example an inventory of communal land rights) which will be carried out should be designed in such a way that compatible data will be produced. When setting regional priorities, one should concentrate on the regions in Indonesia (e.g. Kalimantan) in which the main focal point of German technical cooperation in the field of agriculture and forestry is to be found and in which the beginnings in land tenure through networking with existent projects (e.g. SFDP, KUF, SFMP) are thus more likely to succeed.

43. The legal regulations in the BAL and the BFL as well as Government and other regulations are sometimes inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. Laws and regulations have to be reviewed and revised (for example the BFL) at the national and provincial levels. A consistent and transparent legal system should be created so that the regulations, provisions, directives, etc. are also consistent with the legal framework. The access to the regulating framework of Indonesian land law should be less difficult.

44. Rural land consolidation is a multi-functional and multi-sectoral activity for the improvement of production, conservation, resettlement, etc.. A rural land consolidation programme could be a possible model for a combined technical and financial cooperation programme. Support can be given in the fields of training, planning and management, legal aspects and regulations, technical execution (e.g. techniques for land valuation should be improved; for surveying and mapping, advanced equipment should be used; consideration of environmental aspects should be introduced), monitoring and maintenance, credit for new infrastructure and new farming systems.

Specific Initiatives in urban areas

45. The rapid urbanization process in Indonesia will lead to a growing number of people who are settling informally or illegally in the cities without a basic infrastructure. The informal sector provides shelter for a huge number of people. But the legalization of tenure, which is a prerequisite for having access to formal housing finance institutions is hindered by complicated, bureaucratic and costly registration procedures. Pragmatic approaches related to the support of basic and most important functions of land management and municipal administration such as the registration and titling of land or the levying of fees and taxes have to be found. The introduction and support of the Land Information System can be helpful for the provision of information and improving the securing of tenure.

46. For the settlement of the rapidly growing urban population, large scale land requirements are necessary. This can be done by direct land acquisition combined with land banking. It can also be done by Land Consolidation or Guided Land Development. Land acquisition is getting more and more difficult without land disputes and land acquisition involves high costs. Land Consolidation can not only lead to a more controlled and planned urban growth, but also contribute to the costs for providing the infrastructure being recovered.