Unfinished Business: The Customary Land Individualization in Olilit Village Tanimbar Islands

Abstract

"This paper discusses the transformation process of customary land tenure in Olilit village, Tanimbar Islands . The main feature of customary land in Olilit community is the marga control the access to the land by employing specific officer acting as land supervisor. The groups of marga (clan) will ensure that the land accessible for the whole community. Under this arrangement, land tenure is communal in nature but also recognized individual claim on the cultivated land. Thus, the marga control the land in a way that communal access and individual access work simultaneously.

"While the lands are manage under customary law it doesn't prevent the land being individualized. The process took place when the land is transferred to the outsiders in many ways through commercialization and appropriation by the local government. Several factors affect customary institution to change. They are local government policy regarding to land use for local economic development, the growth of demand for land especially in the urban periphery and access mechanism which highlight the roles of various actors and how the actors. who mostly the elites usurp the benefit of land individualization. Moreover, this paper visualizes the important aspect regarding the impact of the land individualization to the life of the people in Olilit. The benefit might not be distributed evenly in the society. Yet, the livelihood of the people after land individualization remains a question."