PROTECTION OF ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE ON THE INDIGENOUS FORESTS OF THE YEI TRIBE FROM EXPLOITATION

Resumen

Papua has the largest forest cover in Indonesia, home to a wide variety of plants and animals as well as a source of livelihood for indigenous peoples. These forests are threatened with exploitation or even destruction due to the ecological impact of degradation and deforestation under the pretext of food estates. However, the Yei tribe in South Papua, as the indigenous community directly affected, firmly rejects this agenda on their customary forests. The focus of this research is to explore the ecological knowledge of the Yei indigenous community in protecting their customary forests. This research is socio-legal research using an ethnographic study approach. The results show that the Yei indigenous community is highly dependent on their forest. Apart from being a symbol of identity and animistic/spiritual connection between humans, nature, and ancestors, the customary forest is also a source of livelihood, which they represent as mama. This ecological knowledge is also considered to contain a cosmological cycle and sustainable management of customary forests from generation to generation. Today, the Yei community has begun to stage traditional demonstrations to reject the government’s food estate programme, which threatens the ecology of their customary forests, because if the forests disappear, their identity will also disappear. Moreover, state policy should be directed towards protecting their customary forests in accordance with the mandate of the constitution, the special autonomy system of government, the promotion of culture, the regulation of communal intellectual property and customary law, and not the other way around.