By J. D. Langston and R. A. Riggs, August 2022
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What does the future hold for state & local institutions in North Seram?
In June 2022, we made the long trip to North Seram, visiting friends in communities we had not seen since 2019. Before the covid pandemic, we made regular trips to the villages of Sawai, Masihulan, and Melinani as part of previous work funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. We learnt of complex traditional governance existing in each village, emerging government interventions that threaten to destabilize these systems, and the resilience of local people made possible by diverse agroforestry and marine-based livelihoods. Our trip in 2022 was an opportunity to reconnect with the landscape, continuing our interest in the development pathways for remote resource-dependent communities. We arrived with two questions on our mind: What impact did the Covid-19 pandemic have on life in these villages? And, knowing the tensions that existed between formal and informal governance on the island – are customary institutions surviving and delivering wellbeing in modern times?
Entering Manusela National Park
Of course, there are no short simple answers to the questions we sought to answer. The people of North Seram would likely be classified as IPLCs (Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities). Families, which grew into clans, settled into their mixed agro-forestry gardens and fishing systems a long time ago. Listening to village leaders, youth, women’s groups, and our long-term contacts, we realized the pandemic did not distress, or cause calamitous impacts on most people’s lives, as much as we thought possible. There were fewer tourists to buy high-value fish products, fewer jobs in the nearby cities and companies – people were forced to return home to their farms. Yet everyone, as far as we could tell, had adapted and moved on. New markets sprung from scarcity, jobs returned, and cash-transfers and family networks ensured households could continue to meet their daily needs. We were not surprised; religion, tradition, and diverse sources of income had meant these villages scored high on indicators of resilience. But we were still unsure whether this translated across other dimension of resilience – institutional resilience.
 Melinani village community forest |
 Sawai village |
Governance in North Seram is complicated. It is slowly changing and opaque to outsiders. Most villages claim their land as their ‘negeri’, have a village head (representing the ‘state law’), Adat head (representing ‘customary law’), and saniri (a committee combining both state and Adat laws and leaders). Tensions between state and Adat institutions have existed since the Dutch colonial era due to the enforcement of uniform political structures that did not accommodate traditional systems. Many tensions were resolved by the 2004 Village Law and subsequent 2006 Regional Law, which incorporated traditional governance structures into formal systems. Each village has interpreted these laws in their own way, creating unique village governance that reflects traditional and state systems.
Masihulan village
Listening to local perceptions of village governance, we were repeatedly told that state and Adat systems were integrated and harmonious – ‘one and the same’. Customary institutions existed because they always have, and formal village regulations were developed from pre-existing customary rules. But when we began to enquire about changes coming from outside the village, there were signs that village governance did not always match formal systems. Land claimed by customary institutions does not appear on any state maps, purposefully unaddressed by the adjacent National Park in a self-proclaimed effort to maintain good relations. We heard from frustrated villagers that a logging company had been ‘messing around’ (tree-tagging) in the forest claimed by Masihulan village. The head of the forest management unit informed us that an old company (Talisan Emas) has a concession in the area and did not intend to log (but maintained activities on the landscape to keep their permit). These little but significant disruptions to the local sense of tenure security and stability indicate what might happen if investment were to arrive.
The lack of cohesion between provincial and local governance was evident when we inquired about recent changes to forest and marine programs. Local fishermen reflected on the MPA (the Marine Protected Area legalized in Sawai Bay in 2021), explaining how its introduction made no difference to the local rules or behaviour affecting fishing groups. In Masihulan, we struggled to find anybody who knew about the recent formalized social forestry program (Hutan Desa), including among those named as the head of enterprises on official documents held in provincial offices. Melinani was an exception – the community forest setup in 2017 was functioning, although members noted a lack of satisfactory or useful support from government. When we asked the Adat leader if the community forest adhered to traditional environmental regulations (known as sasi), he suggested a gradual decline in customary rules. We saw similar trends across all villages – whilst Adat was perceived to be strong, the implementation of Adat rules to marine and forest systems was sporadic and inconsistent, evolving differently as leaders and conditions changed.
A wicked age-old problem of development emerged. If Adat and traditional institutions (like sasi) fade and formal institutions grow, will customary land claims and associated traditions be gradually buried under state rule? Without official recognition of customary territory, villages are vulnerable to land investments that are moving eastward across Indonesia. But official recognition may challenge contemporary ideals of equity and transparency. As an example, some Adat systems would not score high on normative development indicators – all women are excluded from positions of leadership or to hold ‘office positions’, regardless of their capabilities. Interventions to revitalize customary institutions are widespread but are struggling to reconcile trade-offs. In Maluku, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries is funding kewang (sasi enforcers) to support the implementation of MPAs. In Sawai, Ibu K showed us the nice new speed boat for the kewang, remarking that Sawai has never had a kewang or any Adat governance of marine resources. Managing these trade-offs is a widespread challenge across Indonesia: progress and prosperity at the cost of rich diversity of deeply held cultural traditions.
 Home gardens in Masihulan village |
 Tourist accommodation in Sawai village |
In the provincial capital Ambon, government leaders and university professors lament unmet development needs in these landscapes. They talk about tourism potential and inadequate infrastructure. Eastern Indonesia is where some of the last large tracts of locally claimed lands might be allocated for production to meet national strategic intents. High-value mineral and extractive resource industries are already colliding with IPLCs. There is the double-edged sword of increased state capability and macroeconomic market forces that compromise rights and respect for local peoples. UNPATTI researchers say there are scores of languages on the verge of extinction – the head of saniri in Sawai also expressed his fear of losing their language. The head of Masihulan village told us of the compromise the village had made with the bordering National Park. They are no longer able to harvest gaharu and the village feels pride in their responsibilities to protect the forest. But they ‘need to see real benefit’ for that relationship to work. So far, they see social forestry, their Hutan-Desa, as not yet a fair trade.
The promise of a bright future for North Seram rests in the pace of life – change is gradual, institutions slowly adapt. In North Seram, investments in oil palm, cacao plantations, and prawn processing have not yet dramatically disrupted local institutions. Locals are mostly unconcerned with government interventions – they are seen as distant and separate to their local Adat management. The MPA to regulate fishing is just one example. But there are new uncertainties. Climate change is becoming a real threat to the centuries old spice trade. Instead of timber, farmers are looking to new markets such as coffee and vanilla – keeping an eye out for anything that might grow their forest-based incomes. It is hard to tell if customary institutions of North Seram are ahead or behind the government – maybe it is a little of both. It took 16 years of difficult muddling through for Sawai to decide on a village head after the introduction of the state village law. Looking at the trajectory of change in Eastern Indonesia, institutions may need to confront some difficult choices about their evolution towards what comprises a just and prosperous future.
Birdwatching look-out above Masihulan on the border of Mansuela National Park