Government to ‘Empower’ Nomadic Tribes by Grounding Them on Reservations

Jakarta. The Indonesian government plans to move nomadic forest tribes into reservations as part of its solution for “empowering” communities threatened by massive loss of forests in southern Sumatra.

An estimated 200,000 people from various tribes that the government collectively brands “Anak Dalam” will be affected by the plan, laid out in a regulation signed by President Joko Widodo last year and which Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa is only acting on now.

The minister has allocated Rp 126 billion ($9.28 million) for the so-called Social Empowerment for Indigenous Communities program, much of it to settle the largely nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes onto reservations.

“The tribes’ nomadic tradition has been disrupted by forest fires,” Khofifah said at her office in Jakarta on Wednesday. “The forests in which they live have been converted into oil palm plantations, pushing them away. The forest fires have made their situation even worse. We have to do something [about it].”

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