A reasoned reinterpretation of Indonesia’s constitution recognizes and protects indigenous community-based property rights (CBPRs) and systems of governance. These provisions have been obscured by broad claims of state authority to control natural resources and village governance, ostensibly for the national interest. Article 18 implicitly guarantees legal entitlement by local people to participate meaningfully in managing natural resources they directly rely on for their lives and livelihoods. As such, the ongoing unconstitutional failure of the Indonesian Republic to recognize community-based adat property rights must end, and past crimes in which community resources were seized without due process must be rectified.
A move toward environmental justice in Indonesia’s natural resource laws and policies will require the creation of new formal management arrangements that ensure meaningful involvement by natural resource- dependent groups (including indigenous, mixed, and non-indigenous peoples) and more equitable distribution of resource benefits. New laws based on old assumptions will not adequately alter the present unsustainable course. A move toward an environmental justice paradigm requires legal reform and repeal, as well as more democratic interpretations of existing laws.