SECURING LAND RIGHTS THROUGH BOTTOM-UP LAND REDISTRIBUTION IN MANGKIT, INDONESIA

Location: Indonesia

principal organisations: National Land Coalition Indonesia

In Mangkit, Village, Belang District, Southeast Minahasa Regency, the Minister of Agrarian Affairs issued 1,050 Certificates of Redistribution of former plantation lands over 515 land parcels covering 444 hectares. The support of civil society organisations, the central and local governments, and the signing of the Agrarian Reform Presidential Decree No. 86/2018 contributed to the redistribution and certification of former concession lands in favour of the Mangkit community, ending a prolonged land rights struggle spanning 30 years.

National Land Coalition Indonesia (NLC Indonesia), referred to as the Joint Committee for National Conference of Agrarian Reform (KNPA), is a civil society platform working to improve land-related policies and practices at the local and national levels. It strengthens local and global advocacy efforts, including women’s land rights. NLC Indonesia significantly enabled the Mangkit community to coordinate their advocacy work for just agrarian reform. Their activities included participatory land mapping, advocacy for agrarian policy reform and women’s land rights, and the redistribution of an abandoned coconut plantation formerly held under a land use concession (Hak Guna Usaha – HGU) by PT Asiatik. The success of the agrarian reform in the Mangkit village was significant in overcoming land ownership inequality, resolving agrarian conflict and strengthening community land rights.