Teminabuan - Pushing for the status of village forests to become customary forests, the Knasaimos indigenous community held a consolidation with the Maluku-Papua Social Forestry and Environmental Partnership Agency (BPSKL) which took place in Manggroholo Village - Sira recently (September 2, 2024).

This consolidation brought together the Knasaimos indigenous community spread across two districts, namely Saifi District and Seremuk District, covering 18 villages and 52 clans with the BPSKL Team and accompanying NGOs Greenpeace and Bentara Papua.

Chairman of the Knasaimos Indigenous Community Council (DPMA) Fredrik Sagisolo said that the struggle to own and manage the sovereignty of the Knasaimos customary area was not over until there was recognition, protection and respect from the state for the indigenous community.

"The state must recognize the rights of us indigenous people to manage our own forests," said Sagisolo. This was confirmed after several months ago (June 6, 2024) the Knasaimos indigenous community received a Decree (SK) from the Regent of South Sorong regarding the recognition of an area of 97,441 hectares belonging to the Knasaimos indigenous community from the Tehit Tribe in Teminabuan.

According to Frederik Sagisolo, the area of the Knasaimos indigenous community has long been a hot target for companies, so to thwart the company's covert actions, he hopes for support and commitment from the Knasaimos indigenous community, BPSKL and accompanying NGOs to be astute and serious in following every process of submitting the Knasaimos customary forest to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia.

"We, the indigenous community, are ready to follow the existing regulations or rules," said the Chairman of the Knasaimos Indigenous Community Association Council. He further said that the unfortunate incident experienced by the Awyu and Moi Tribes to their customary forests should not happen to Knasaimos. In principle, the Knasaimos indigenous community wants to submit the status of the village forest that was determined in 2014 to become a customary forest scheme.

Meanwhile, Willy, a representative of BPSKL Maluku-Papua, explained that in order to propose forest status, it is important to understand the five social forestry schemes, including village forests, community forests, community plantation forests, customary forests and forestry partnerships. "These five schemes have advantages and disadvantages," he added.

Technically, the assistance process willy be carried out by BPSKL and the accompanying NGO, but Willy reminded indigenous people to prepare all submission documents such as tribal profiles, area maps and several other documents. Given that the process of changing forest status village into customary forest will take quite a long time if the completeness of the files is still lacking.

"There must be a mutual agreement in the clans in the 6 sub-tribes in Knasaimos, don't let it be that just because one person disagrees, this proposal can be canceled," explained Willy.

It should be noted that this consolidation activity is in line with a series of thanksgiving services for the acceptance of the Knasaimos customary area decree on June 6, 2024. Also present at the thanksgiving service and consolidation of indigenous communities were the Director of Greenpeace Indonesia, the Director of Greenpeace Asia, the Director of Bentara Papua, DPMA Knasaimos, and the entire Knasaimos indigenous community.