Komering wathersed land conservation under The Marga System

Abstract

In the 1980s, efforts to integrate regions across Indonesia, especially South Sumatra, led to the elimination of customary law and customary government. Before the introduction of the Undang-Undang Desa (Village Government Law), South Sumatra’s customary government had adopted a customary government system known as the Marga system. This study employs a spatial methodology, combining historical maps and satellite pictures as data sources, to examine the level of deforestation in the Komering watershed from before the Marga government was dissolved till after it was abolished. In addition, the purpose of this study is to determine the function of customary law in preserving environmental sustainability in the Komering watershed. The results of processing the topographic map from 1910 were then compared to the results of processing the Sentinel-2 satellite image to see how the level of the land had changed over a century. The annual average rate of deforestation is around 274,944 ha per year. That is, there have been significant changes in land usage for 109 years. Part of the forest is converted into fields and plantations, while the majority of the swamps and marshes are converted into rice fields. The impetus for this transformation began in 1983, when the Marga government system was abolished. Long in charge of South Sumatra, the Marga Government System has already established regulations for conserving its natural resources. The system is a successful method for managing watersheds because of its pattern of limited land cover on slopes and along rivers. The inhabitants of South Sumatra are ruled by a system of Marga, and their daily lives are guided by the customary law. The Simbur Cahaya Customary Law controls sociopolitical connections between communities. The management of these relationships appears to be an effort to safeguard shared resources, such as forest timber plants and riverbank land. Consequently, customary law plays a vital role in protecting the environment, especially forest land and njurung land (mid-channel bar).