Locations
Accelerating the Determination of Indonesia's Customary Forests
In Indonesia, Hutan Adat (Customary Forests) protect diverse biodiversity, safeguard critical ecosystem, balance climate and support community livelihood.
Serving as guardians of these lush canopies are Masyarakat Hukum Adat (Customary Law Communities), who maintain an unbreakable, ancestral bond with every leaf, wildlife and sacred site within their traditional territories.
Indonesia is currently laying the groundwork to reaffirm its strong commitment in advancing the recognition of Masyarakat Hukum Adat, as well as the determination and the confirmation of Hutan Adat.
In early 2025, The Ministry of Forestry (MoFOR) issues a pivotal policy of Ministerial Decree No. 144 of 2025, establishing Task Force (Satgas – Satuan Tugas) of Hutan Adat to accelerate the determination of Hutan Adat.
Run by Directorate of Tenurial Conflict Management and Customary Forests (Penanganan Konflik Tenurial dan Hutan Adat -PKTHA) under the Directorate General of Social Forestry of the Ministry of Forestry, the Task Force brings together representatives from various ministries, local governments, Adat community organizations, civil society groups, and development partners, achieving the country’s broader vision of truly inclusive and sustainable forest governance.
The primary target of the Task Force is to achieve the determination of 1.4 million hectares of Hutan Adat throughout Indonesia by 2029.
The Roadmap for accelerating the determination of Hutan Adat is developed transparently and inclusively and is facilitated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).
Across Indonesia’s archipelago, generations of Masyarakat Hukum Adat have lived in harmony with the forests. A living heart of Indonesia’s green future, Hutan Adat, is a home, a space rooted in belief and tradition that holds their sacred, spiritual collective lives.
Masyarakat Hukum Adat interact continuously with their forests as a source for fulfilling daily needs and as a foundation for social values related to nature and the environment, guided by local wisdom that originates from knowledge regarding balance and harmony.
Local wisdom (kearifan lokal) in customary forests (hutan adat) is manifested in the form of customary rules, ecological wisdom, and cultural rituals whose purpose is to preserve the forest and ensure its benefits are sustainable for the community.
Ancestral values guide Masyarakat Hukum Adat to treat the forest not merely as an economic resource, but as a sacred, living heritage. In other words, local wisdom is a collective intellectual heritage that plays a vital role in sustainable development and the preservation of both cultural and biological diversity.
Indonesia is a home to 1,331 distinct ethnic groups with 694 local languages recorded in the 2020 BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik – Statistics Indonesia) Census, distributed across 76,655 villages throughout the archipelago. Of those villages, 25,383 villages are located within and around forest areas. According to data from AMAN (Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago – Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara), there are about 2,161 Masyarakat Hukum Adat registered as their members per 9 August 2022.
Masyarakat Hukum Adat possess ecological knowledge that is deeply interwoven with their identity, social structures, and long-preserved practices. For Masyarakat Hukum Adat, local wisdom (kearifan lokal) constitutes the core of their identity and social order. This local wisdom is reflected in their customs (adat istiadat), unwritten rules, rituals, and social institutions (pranata sosial) that have been long preserved.
Definition of Masyarakat Hukum Adat (According to Law No. 32/2009):
“A group of people who inhabit a specific geographical territory ancestrally (or for generations), due to a bond to ancestral origin, a strong connection to the environment, and the existence of a system of values that determines economic, political, and social institutions (pranata), which are regulated by custom (Adat) and its customary governance apparatus within a legal framework that specifically includes customary justice (or customary judiciary) that is still obeyed”.
The regulation that defines Customary Territory (Wilayah Adat) is Government Regulation (PP) 23 of 2021, Article 1, number 70, which states:
Customary Territory is customary land consisting of land, water, and/or waters, along with the natural resources on it, with specific boundaries, that is owned, utilized, and preserved generationally (or ancestrally) and sustainably to fulfil the livelihood needs of the community, obtained through inheritance from their ancestors, or a claim of ownership in the form of communal customary land (tanah ulayat) or customary forest (hutan adat).
Masyarakat Hukum Adat has territorial boundaries authorized to regulate and manage the interests of the local community, based on the local origin and customs, within a geographical and social unit that has been inhabited and managed for generations by the Customary Law Community as a pillar for livelihood resources inherited from their ancestors, or through agreement with other groups of Masyarakat Hukum Adat.
Hutan Adat is a forest area located within Wilayah Adat that is an inseparable part of the life cycle of the customary law community, which also shapes the institutions and norms (pranata dan norma) that govern it.
The recognition of Hutan Adat within forestry regulations, specifically Government Regulation No. 23 concerning the Implementation of Forestry, in Article 15, is crucial because forest status is classified into State Forest (Hutan Negara), and Titled/Private Forest (Hutan Hak). Hutan Adat is part of Private Forest (Hutan Hak). Meanwhile, forest areas are divided into two categories: State Forest and Customary Forest.
This distinction implies that State Forests and Hutan Adat hold an equivalent status, differing only in their custodian/authority (pengampu). The function of Forest Areas according to the regulation consists of Conservation, Protection, and Production. This requires a harmonization with the functional zoning that exists within the knowledge system of the customary law communities.
A number of government policies also support the role of local wisdom in customary forests. Through the Social Forestry program (Perhutanan Sosial), for example, the Indonesian government recognizes customary forests as one of the schemes (in addition to village forest, community forest, and others) to involve local communities in forest management.
Since 2016 to 2025, 164 Hutan Adat Decrees have been released through Social Forestry programme, with total area approximately 345,257 hectare, involving 87,963 households.
During COP 30 in Bélem, Brazil, Indonesia's Minister of Forestry, Raja Juli Antoni, pledged to achieve the determination of Hutan Adat up to 1.4 million hectares by 2029.
UNDP supports the Task Force with technical assistance, funded by Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) under the UN-REDD Programme. The collaboration strengthens data integration, policy coherence, and capacity building — ensuring that recognition of rights is matched by the tools and systems to implement them. It is a rare and inspiring alignment between local wisdom, national policy, and international solidarity.