Paper short abstract:

to follow

Paper long abstract:

This presentation departs from the observation that Buginese resource tenure regulations have failed to ensure sustainable use of resources in the delta of the Mahakam River. Over the last two decades, deforestation and extensive shrimp farming have caused sedimentation and pollution as well as a sharp decline in shrimp pond productivity. Declining shrimp harvests now increase social tensions and are becoming a particular concern of local people who moved to the region to profit from the high shrimp prices following a boom in shrimp sales following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The shrimp rush has created a volatile situation with previously relatively worthless land now privately owned with the single purpose of producing a high-value portable resource. In that situation there are few, if any, relations between people and the natural world that may be classified as reciprocal. The use of the natural environment for sustaining the livelihood of a growing amount of people whose hunger for modern wealth is mounting can hardly be sustained. In my presentation I analyze the failure of Buginese resource tenure regulations in terms of its distance to nature and spirits, increasing antagonism between older settlers and newcomers, mounting individualism, and declining trust in customary regulations. Many feel that there is an urgent need for the kind of legal certainty that one should expect from the state. The absence of such a responsive state protracts a tradition of frontier culture bringing about specific acts of owning and appropriating land and water resources.