POSITION OF INDONESIAN CIVIL OPEN - SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS FOR

1 WGII, The Long Struggle of Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples for Conservation and Living Space: Fifteen Stories of Indigenous Peoples; and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCAs) in Indonesia, Lamalera, Indonesia, 2022. [...] potential ICCAs 20.7 milion hectare of customary Challenges facing Indigenous Peoples and efforts to lands governed by protect Indonesia’s biodiversity Indigenous Peoples The existence and rights of Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples are recognised under the Constitution. [...] While there is currently no law or regulation that specifically recognizes the value of Indigenous Peoples’ conservation practices, there Photo: Kynan Tegar is an opportunity to include this in the Draft Bill on the Conservation of Living Natural Resources and Their Ecosystems (RUU KSDAHE), and the long-awaited Draft Bill on Indigenous Peoples (RUU Masyarakat Hukum Adat). [...] The recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ customary land rights should be the main precondition in the context of biodiversity conservation practices, particularly in Indonesia. [...] Photo: AMAN Stop criminalizing and expelling Indigenous People and local communities In 2018, human rights watchdog Global Witness reported that almost 1,000 environmental defenders had been killed since 2010 and that in 2017, at least 207 land rights and environmental activists – almost half of them Indigenous – were targeted and murdered for defending their homes and the biodiversity they protec.