A law on traditional community or indigenous people is crucial as it serves as a legal umbrella for the allocation of land to be used for economic activities.
Jokowi also asked the local administrations to issue regional regulations for the traditional communities in their respective regions.
"I know that the traditional community has the right to several areas such as forests. In fact, under their protection, forests are better preserved, sustainable, and even taken care of ," the president stated.
The Head of State encouraged local administrations to speed up the verification process of land areas that traditional community is entitled to.
Indigenous people are denied not only the rights to certain land areas but also the rights to receive clean water, medical services, nutrition, education, and financial capital necessary to support them.
The government has allocated 12.7 million hectares of forest area for indigenous people and farmers.
In Dec 2016, the government gave 13.1 thousand hectares of forest area to 5.7 thousand families of traditional people across Indonesia.
In the Fifth Congress of AMAN held recently in North Sumatra, Hein Namotemo was elected as the chairman of AMAN Council and Rukka Sombolinggi as secretary general of AMAN.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
