YBAW

FINAL PROJECT STATUS BRIEF 2001

Community Based Natural Resources Management in the Adat Areas of Walesi and Ibele, Papua

Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi (YBAW)
Jl Habema KM2, PO 265
Wamena, Papua
P: (62) (0969) 32 557 Fax: 32 557
Email: ybaw@jayapura.wasantara.net.id

Geographical focus

Walesi and Pelebaga Valleys, Jayawijaya District, Papua

Tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests

Commencing February 1998

The northeast of Lorentz National Park borders the large Baliem valley inhabited by Dani communities. The customary lands of the Dani living along the Walesi and Pelebaga tributaries overlap with the Lorentz National Park. Dani peoples are working with WWF Indonesia to develop a management plan for the boundary areas of the park. In this plan, they are promoting the recognition of the Dani peoples' traditional resource use system and customary rights, while at the same time improving the ways in which the community can assist in the conservation and protection of the park. Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi (YBAW) was established by Dani peoples themselves in 1992 to assist villages in improving their skills and capacities, strengthen friendships and commitment to maintain Walesi forests and lands and defend its customary land rights, culture and traditional practices. YBAW has been working with three Dani clans located in Walesi, Heatnem and Ibele. These clan groups are also known as confederation areas. YBAW has several longer-term objectives, listed below. During the course of this one-year grant, they expect to achieve a number of specific outcomes for each objective.

The main objectives of this project are:

Organizing of adat communities, through inter-clan meetings and adat deliberation. Main target is to socialize the vision and mission of YBAW to the head of clans in the three adat regions (Walesi, Heatnem and Ibele)
Build consensus to enforce adat rules in natural resources management. The targets are to identify adat values and rules related to natural resources' conservation in the three confederation areas; preparing Adat Conservation Agreement for Ibele adat regions; disseminating the Adat Conservation Agreement of Ibele to communities in Walesi and Heatnem; and hold a meeting of the clan in Ibele to determine how this consensus will be implemented.
Build consensus for community-based natural resources management systems and implement it.The target is organizing community mapping in Habema to gear up the process of Ibele adat region management plan.
Strengthen human resource capacity of YBAW. Targets are organizing skills and capacities needs assessment training for YBAW staff and the community members, developing and implementing training plan, and arranging visits to other parts of Papua to show successes and failures of adat communities in natural resources management.

YBAW has presented and discussed their organization's vision and mission in five villages in Walesi and Ibele. In collaboration with the adat leaders, they organized a series of inter-clan meetings. These meetings are mostly held at YBAW's community center and office, which was built on land donated by customary owners as a symbol of support for the work of YBAW. As this center is seen as a neutral place, the venue encourages large inter-clan meetings required for collective action. These are important in order to build a foundation for more effective formal collaboration between YBAW and the adat institutions and among the adat groups themselves.

With assistance from WWF-Sahul, YBAW have worked with community members to survey Walaik and Okilik customary lands, with a combined area of about 500 km2. They organized a village sketch mapping exercise in Ibele, as a preliminary activity before community mapping, and conducted resource inventories. Management agreements have now been reached in Walesi, Heatnem, and Ibele. They cover:

confederation areas boundaries as well as clan-based adat areas;
local landuses;
protected areas (sacred areas);
limitation of land selling to outsiders; and
mechanisms for planning and development of public facilities and infrastructure, such as road construction that should involve adat institutions.

Actors that actively promote the agreements are adat elders, YBAW, WWF-Sahul, and heads of villages within the Walesi, Heatnem, and Ibele areas. Local communities have expelled outside hunters as well as orchid gatherers in their area. Particularly in Walesi and Ibele adat elders oblige tourists to have local guides. This prevents outside hunters and orchid gatherers going around their areas. Local government has neither shown their disagreement or agreement to the processes and results occurring in the field.

YBAW and WWF-Sahul monitor the implementation of the agreements using their six "benchmarks":
(1) agreement among adat institutions to collaboratively manage the adat areas;
(2) agreement among adat institutions to assign an independent organization as coordinator and communicator;
(3) agreement among adat institutions to delineate boundaries for joint management;
(4) information about resources potential of the managed area;
(5) agreement among adat institutions to establish local use regulations that accommodate both adat rules and the official state regulations; and,
(6) outsiders' recognition of the jointly managed territory, the local use regulations, and the coordinating body.

YBAW finds that all the local stakeholders still respect, recognize and apply the agreements up to this time. YBAW now uses the six enabling conditions to help build constituencies particularly from other large Jayapura-based organizations, such as LPPMA, YPLHC, and Konpenma, as well as local legislative members.

[ Bantaya ] - [ ELSAM ] - [ FPK ] - [ Hualopu ] - [ JKPP ] - [ Jaring Pela ] - [ KalBar SHK ]

[ Kemala ] - [ KonPenMA ] - [ KPA ] - [ KPSHK ] - [ LATIN ] - [ LMAA ] - [ LPPMA ]

[ Pancurkasih ] - [ PLASMA ] - [ Pro Plasma ] - [ PUTER ] - [ RMI ] - [ Telapak ] - [ WWF Sahul ]

[ YBAW ] - [ YLBHI ] - [ YPLHC ] - [ YTM ]



	FINAL PROJECT STATUS BRIEF 2001

Project	Community Based Natural Resources Management in the Adat Areas of Walesi and Ibele, Papua
Partner	Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi (YBAW) Jl Habema KM2, PO 265 Wamena, Papua P: (62) (0969) 32 557 Fax: 32 557 Email: ybaw@jayapura.wasantara.net.id
Geographical focus	Walesi and Pelebaga Valleys, Jayawijaya District, Papua
Biome	Tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests
Timing	Commencing February 1998
Description	The northeast of Lorentz National Park borders the large Baliem valley inhabited by Dani communities. The customary lands of the Dani living along the Walesi and Pelebaga tributaries overlap with the Lorentz National Park. Dani peoples are working with WWF Indonesia to develop a management plan for the boundary areas of the park. In this plan, they are promoting the recognition of the Dani peoples' traditional resource use system and customary rights, while at the same time improving the ways in which the community can assist in the conservation and protection of the park. Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi (YBAW) was established by Dani peoples themselves in 1992 to assist villages in improving their skills and capacities, strengthen friendships and commitment to maintain Walesi forests and lands and defend its customary land rights, culture and traditional practices. YBAW has been working with three Dani clans located in Walesi, Heatnem and Ibele. These clan groups are also known as confederation areas. YBAW has several longer-term objectives, listed below. During the course of this one-year grant, they expect to achieve a number of specific outcomes for each objective. The main objectives of this project are: Organizing of adat communities, through inter-clan meetings and adat deliberation. Main target is to socialize the vision and mission of YBAW to the head of clans in the three adat regions (Walesi, Heatnem and Ibele) Build consensus to enforce adat rules in natural resources management. The targets are to identify adat values and rules related to natural resources' conservation in the three confederation areas; preparing Adat Conservation Agreement for Ibele adat regions; disseminating the Adat Conservation Agreement of Ibele to communities in Walesi and Heatnem; and hold a meeting of the clan in Ibele to determine how this consensus will be implemented. Build consensus for community-based natural resources management systems and implement it.The target is organizing community mapping in Habema to gear up the process of Ibele adat region management plan. Strengthen human resource capacity of YBAW. Targets are organizing skills and capacities needs assessment training for YBAW staff and the community members, developing and implementing training plan, and arranging visits to other parts of Papua to show successes and failures of adat communities in natural resources management.
Results	YBAW has presented and discussed their organization's vision and mission in five villages in Walesi and Ibele. In collaboration with the adat leaders, they organized a series of inter-clan meetings. These meetings are mostly held at YBAW's community center and office, which was built on land donated by customary owners as a symbol of support for the work of YBAW. As this center is seen as a neutral place, the venue encourages large inter-clan meetings required for collective action. These are important in order to build a foundation for more effective formal collaboration between YBAW and the adat institutions and among the adat groups themselves. With assistance from WWF-Sahul, YBAW have worked with community members to survey Walaik and Okilik customary lands, with a combined area of about 500 km2. They organized a village sketch mapping exercise in Ibele, as a preliminary activity before community mapping, and conducted resource inventories. Management agreements have now been reached in Walesi, Heatnem, and Ibele. They cover: confederation areas boundaries as well as clan-based adat areas; local landuses; protected areas (sacred areas); limitation of land selling to outsiders; and mechanisms for planning and development of public facilities and infrastructure, such as road construction that should involve adat institutions. Actors that actively promote the agreements are adat elders, YBAW, WWF-Sahul, and heads of villages within the Walesi, Heatnem, and Ibele areas. Local communities have expelled outside hunters as well as orchid gatherers in their area. Particularly in Walesi and Ibele adat elders oblige tourists to have local guides. This prevents outside hunters and orchid gatherers going around their areas. Local government has neither shown their disagreement or agreement to the processes and results occurring in the field. YBAW and WWF-Sahul monitor the implementation of the agreements using their six "benchmarks": (1) agreement among adat institutions to collaboratively manage the adat areas; (2) agreement among adat institutions to assign an independent organization as coordinator and communicator; (3) agreement among adat institutions to delineate boundaries for joint management; (4) information about resources potential of the managed area; (5) agreement among adat institutions to establish local use regulations that accommodate both adat rules and the official state regulations; and, (6) outsiders' recognition of the jointly managed territory, the local use regulations, and the coordinating body. YBAW finds that all the local stakeholders still respect, recognize and apply the agreements up to this time. YBAW now uses the six enabling conditions to help build constituencies particularly from other large Jayapura-based organizations, such as LPPMA, YPLHC, and Konpenma, as well as local legislative members.