Customary Rights, Legal Pluralism, and Natural Resource Governance in Papua

Abstrak

Papua, one of Indonesia’s most resource-rich regions, continues to face a persistent paradox in which abundant natural resources have not translated into equitable welfare for indigenous communities. This condition is rooted in fragmented and sectoral governance regimes in mining and forestry, overlapping licensing practices, and the marginalization of customary rights, which have contributed to recurring agrarian conflicts. This study aims to analyze the disharmony between central and regional authority, examine the role of customary rights as reinforced by Constitutional Court Decision No. 35/PUU-X/2012, and formulate a hybrid national–customary co-management model. The research employs a normative doctrinal method using statutory, conceptual, jurisprudential, and limited comparative approaches. The study reveals that governance conflicts in Papua stem from a fundamental tension between state legality and customary legitimacy, intensified by centralized control and the weak operationalization of Special Autonomy. Although constitutional recognition of indigenous rights exists, its implementation remains largely symbolic and inadequately integrated into licensing and governance practices. The novelty of this study lies in integrating mining law, forestry law, Special Autonomy, and customary rights into a hybrid co-management framework that functions as an operational governance model rather than merely a conceptual proposal. This model promotes more equitable, participatory, and context-sensitive natural resource governance in Papua.

Kata kunci

• Legal Pluralism
• Customary Rights
• Governance
• Papua