The 33th Indonesia Update

Land and development in Indonesia: searching for the people’s sovereignty

18-19 September 2015

HC Coombs Lecture Theatre, ANU

View conference program.

Rural development, food security, land reform and infrastructure are high on the agenda of President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi’s) administration. Many experts regard formalisation of land tenure as key to economic development and more efficient use of resources. In Indonesia, land registration, titling and formalisation remain problems. Policy debates continue about how to recognise customary rights, pursue land reform, and support infrastructure development and capital investment, including in plantations and mining. Practices of nature conservation and carbon sequestration also require resolving property-rights questions in Indonesia’s extensive forests.

The Indonesia Update 2015 examines land law and its administration in decentralised Indonesia. From large-scale land acquisitions in Merauke, Papua, to asset ownership in the villages of Sulawesi and Java, to the tenure conflicts associated with the oil palm and mining booms in Kalimantan and Sumatra, papers will consider Indonesia’s many land challenges. Presenters will also examine the environmental implications of land management. In light of international debates over agrarian reform, tenure formalisation and ‘land grabbing’, this year’s conference will discuss the many possibilities for progress.

Speakers include Adriaan Bedner, Nancy Peluso,Chip Fay, and Suraya Afiff.

Conference convenors

John McCarthy
The Australian National University

Kathryn Robinson
The Australian National University

Conference administrator

Indonesia Project
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA