ELSAM

ELSAM has expanded partnerships with local groups on participatory legal research and advocacy. It has garnered increasing interest among local law students and graduates about critical legal advocacy. ELSAM has helped to train a group of Community Legal Assistance providers (Pendamping Hukum Rakyat), that are now synonymous with "barefoot" legal advisers on local legislation for regional autonomy. ELSAM has found as it implemented this project that regional autonomy is the viable entry point for local policy advocacy. Eighteen community legal advisors from five regions, West Papua, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Kalimantan and West Sumatra, are now testing the limits of community participation in legislating their rights and resource management control, within the regional autonomy law (Law No. 22/1999). Five draft district regulations on village governance and natural resource management have been developed with a high degree of community participation. Four of these drafts resulted from direct facilitation by the local community legal advisors, and the other was developed with intermittent guidance and facilitation from ELSAM's roving legal advisor.

The "facilitating" function of community legal advisors was an interesting development in the course of ELSAM's work. It came about from efforts to be fully accountable to local community respondents during earlier case study visits of the advisors to hone their analytical skills as law advocates. As they came back to the villages to discuss findings, communities pressed their urgent needs to take up opportunities to advocate rights recognition through decentralization. For example in Sanggau, West Kalimantan LBBT, a local partner, was initially researching adat governance institutions and mechanisms for natural resource management decision-making. While this was in progress, the local autonomy law was passed and the immediate community request was information about the law. LBBT and other local partners became the center for information on regional autonomy, facilitated multi-level discussions on its implications and finally drafted the local district regulation on village governance including provisions on natural resource management. The draft has been adopted by the district legislature, and is now awaiting final hearing.

In Donggala, Central Sulawesi, local partner LBH-Bantaya worked with Pakava village people whose territory straddle two provinces and three districts. A draft regulation on recognition and establishment of the Pakava Peoples Adat Land Rights (hak ulayat) has been submitted as model draft legislation for the Donggala District. Information about it has been disseminated to the Pakava people. Similar types of opportunities, with similar regional autonomy drafts, emerged in Central Sulawesi, West Sumatra, North Sulawesi.

In the area of skills development, ELSAM has developed two sets of community legal advisors, an advanced team and new recruits. There are at least eight members of the advanced team who are accessible and easily mobilized to continue providing services for regional autonomy legislation. There are 18 new recruits who are still trying to develop not only their skills but also their local groups. Several of the local groups like LBH-Bantaya in Central Sulawesi and Lembaga Riset dan Advokasi in West Sumatra are experiencing leadership changes and are either training new leaders or are temporarily suspending legal services. The advanced group went through a series of workshops on legal history, research, and international instruments. The Center for International Environmental Law actively assisted ELSAM in the analysis and production of a book on current challenges and status of law on natural resource management. The new recruits underwent a combined writing and training workshop and have developed 13 new case studies from field sites.

Lastly, ELSAM participation in the formation of an inter-sectoral working team for the drafting of an integrated national law on natural resources has been invaluable. It actively formed the NGO team with WALHI, YLBHI, KPA, ICEL to join with the University of Gaja Madah law faculty, to assist the Ministry of Environment's initiative to draft this law. The law is expected to address current identified issues namely:

Different laws regulate natural resources, overseen by different Ministries that do not collaborate. This "sectoral" treatment results in lack of a holistic treatment of the environment and ecosystem.
Laws on natural resources prioritize large-scale commercial extraction. They generally disregard local or adat community management.
Existing government institutions for natural resource management have been unable to stop destruction of key natural resources such as watersheds, conservation areas, lakes, etc.
These institutions charged with control and exploitation of natural resources, are still technically and administratively weak.



	FINAL PROJECT STATUS BRIEF 2001

Project	Community-based Natural Resources Law Reform in Indonesia
Partner	Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) Jl Siaga II/31 Pejaten Barat, Jakarta 12510, Indonesia P. (62) (021) 797 2662; F: (62) (021) 7919 2519 E-mail: psdhm@indo.net.id; elsam@nusa.or.id
Geographical focus	West Kalimantan, North and Central Sulawesi, West Sumatra and Papua
Biome	Tropical and sub-tropical broadleaf forests
Timing	December 1999 - March 2001
Description	ELSAM facilitated 14 legal advocates from eight local lawyers' organizations to understand and write about policies, laws and regulations relating to rights and local issues in natural resource management. The major outcome was in increasing local advocates' accountability with local NGOs and communities in their assessment of issues and planning advocacy strategies. In this grant, ELSAM will follow through activities to develop local public interest lawyers who work directly with communities in focus sites in North and Central Sulawesi, Papua, West Kalimantan and West Sumatra. ELSAM will facilitate and support local NGOs to develop a local network of lawyers, a local research agenda, and implement the activities independently. ELSAM will also pursue a national law and policy reform agenda for community-based natural resources management. There are two main objectives in this phase: 1. Policies, laws, regulations or decrees that support processes and mechanisms that recognize community rights and natural resources management systems in Indonesia; 2. Increased number of skilled local public interest lawyers participating in law reform and ready to respond to local communities' needs for legal assistance and facilitation in West Sumatra, North and Central Sulawesi, Papua and West Kalimantan.
Results	ELSAM has expanded partnerships with local groups on participatory legal research and advocacy. It has garnered increasing interest among local law students and graduates about critical legal advocacy. ELSAM has helped to train a group of Community Legal Assistance providers (Pendamping Hukum Rakyat), that are now synonymous with "barefoot" legal advisers on local legislation for regional autonomy. ELSAM has found as it implemented this project that regional autonomy is the viable entry point for local policy advocacy. Eighteen community legal advisors from five regions, West Papua, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Kalimantan and West Sumatra, are now testing the limits of community participation in legislating their rights and resource management control, within the regional autonomy law (Law No. 22/1999). Five draft district regulations on village governance and natural resource management have been developed with a high degree of community participation. Four of these drafts resulted from direct facilitation by the local community legal advisors, and the other was developed with intermittent guidance and facilitation from ELSAM's roving legal advisor. The "facilitating" function of community legal advisors was an interesting development in the course of ELSAM's work. It came about from efforts to be fully accountable to local community respondents during earlier case study visits of the advisors to hone their analytical skills as law advocates. As they came back to the villages to discuss findings, communities pressed their urgent needs to take up opportunities to advocate rights recognition through decentralization. For example in Sanggau, West Kalimantan LBBT, a local partner, was initially researching adat governance institutions and mechanisms for natural resource management decision-making. While this was in progress, the local autonomy law was passed and the immediate community request was information about the law. LBBT and other local partners became the center for information on regional autonomy, facilitated multi-level discussions on its implications and finally drafted the local district regulation on village governance including provisions on natural resource management. The draft has been adopted by the district legislature, and is now awaiting final hearing. In Donggala, Central Sulawesi, local partner LBH-Bantaya worked with Pakava village people whose territory straddle two provinces and three districts. A draft regulation on recognition and establishment of the Pakava Peoples Adat Land Rights (hak ulayat) has been submitted as model draft legislation for the Donggala District. Information about it has been disseminated to the Pakava people. Similar types of opportunities, with similar regional autonomy drafts, emerged in Central Sulawesi, West Sumatra, North Sulawesi. In the area of skills development, ELSAM has developed two sets of community legal advisors, an advanced team and new recruits. There are at least eight members of the advanced team who are accessible and easily mobilized to continue providing services for regional autonomy legislation. There are 18 new recruits who are still trying to develop not only their skills but also their local groups. Several of the local groups like LBH-Bantaya in Central Sulawesi and Lembaga Riset dan Advokasi in West Sumatra are experiencing leadership changes and are either training new leaders or are temporarily suspending legal services. The advanced group went through a series of workshops on legal history, research, and international instruments. The Center for International Environmental Law actively assisted ELSAM in the analysis and production of a book on current challenges and status of law on natural resource management. The new recruits underwent a combined writing and training workshop and have developed 13 new case studies from field sites. Lastly, ELSAM participation in the formation of an inter-sectoral working team for the drafting of an integrated national law on natural resources has been invaluable. It actively formed the NGO team with WALHI, YLBHI, KPA, ICEL to join with the University of Gaja Madah law faculty, to assist the Ministry of Environment's initiative to draft this law. The law is expected to address current identified issues namely: Different laws regulate natural resources, overseen by different Ministries that do not collaborate. This "sectoral" treatment results in lack of a holistic treatment of the environment and ecosystem. Laws on natural resources prioritize large-scale commercial extraction. They generally disregard local or adat community management. Existing government institutions for natural resource management have been unable to stop destruction of key natural resources such as watersheds, conservation areas, lakes, etc. These institutions charged with control and exploitation of natural resources, are still technically and administratively weak.