The Long Struggle of Indonesia's Indigenous Peoples for Conservation and Living Space

Published in 2021 by Working Group ICCAs Indonesia (WGII) as the English translation of Jalan Panjang Masyarakat untuk Konservasi dan Ruang Hidup (2016), this volume presents fifteen narratives of indigenous and community conserved areas from across the Indonesian archipelago. Translated by Irfan Kortschak and designed by the Lamalera Publishing creative team, it makes WGII's landmark documentation work accessible to an international audience.

Opening with two powerful epigraphs — one calling on government to recognise indigenous peoples as conservation subjects, not objects, and the other describing ICCAs as systems of good governance that enhance transparency, accountability, and equity — the book frames its fifteen stories within a rights-based conservation paradigm. Communities from Merauke to Haruku, from South Sulawesi to Banten, narrate their own histories of territorial governance, resistance to encroachment, and advocacy for legal recognition.

The English edition brings Indonesia's rich ICCA landscape to global attention at a critical moment in the development of international biodiversity frameworks. It demonstrates that the long struggle of Indonesian indigenous peoples is not peripheral to global conservation but central to it — and that the solutions to the biodiversity crisis already exist in the governance systems these communities have maintained for centuries, if only they receive the recognition and support they are owed.