Adat Law-Making Process

Abstract

Abstract This study aims to analyse the emerging need to change customary law (adat law in Indonesia) and identify the role of adat functionaries. The experience of the Mollo adat law community (indigenous people) from the south-eastern part of Indonesia, Timor Island, shows that the sudden and massive collection of haukonof (Usnea barbata), a non-timber forest product, has caused forest destruction. How do the adat functionaries respond to the situation? Is adat law sufficient to respond to the sudden change of their livelihood? If it is not, then what to do? Furthermore, what are the impacts on the functionaries? What are their difficulties, and how do they solve them? This article is based on an in-depth ethnographic study held in July—September 2021. Data are collected through interviews and observation. The adat functionaries want to restrict the people from picking and collecting haukonof, but there is no adat law specifically ruling on it. Only the adat functionaries should protect the environment. The pickers and the collectors of haukonof are the members of the communities. The kinship relation between the functionaries and the members complicates legal enforcement. The adat functionaries’ authority and the sustainability of the livelihoods are in danger. The immediate solution is borrowing state law which obliges a person who utilises non-timber forest products in the Protection Forest to hold a valid permit. It effectively reduces the number of haukonof picking and collection by the community members. Adat’s law-making process does not work in isolation. It is an interactive process that needs continuous foresight observation from the adat functionaries to find the appropriate solution to protect the environment and the people.