Jakarta – Indonesia will host the Asia Land Forum (ALF) on February 17-21, 2025. The event will be attended by more than 500 participants from 14 Southeast Asian, Central Asian, and South Asian countries, including government representatives and civil society organisations, according to ALF in a press release on Friday, February 14.
Indonesia’s selection as host reflects the Asian community’s confidence in the country’s civil society movement. The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) hopes that Indonesia can set an example in accelerating agrarian reform, village development, and people’s cooperatives to achieve food sovereignty and poverty alleviation.
The forum will begin with community visits to three agrarian conflict sites: Kasepuhan Jamrud in Lebak, Banten; Gunung Anten Village, which has been experiencing agrarian conflict for 32 years; and Sukaslamet Village, Indramayu, the epicentre of agrarian conflict confronting Perum Perhutani.
KPA Secretary General Dewi Kartika stated that ALF 2025 is a significant momentum for the agrarian reform movement to demand political commitment from the new government to accelerate land redistribution and agrarian conflict resolution. The forum also highlighted the need for agrarian reform based on community initiatives (bottom-up process, people-led initiative) to ensure people’s land rights are more secure.
The Indonesian government under President Prabowo has set agrarian reform as a key strategy in realising food self-sufficiency, economic equality, poverty eradication and rural development. This policy also includes improving farmers’ welfare and protecting the environment through a more equitable approach to land governance.
ALF 2025 is a platform for the Asia-wide agrarian movement to affirm political commitment to land redistribution and land rights protection for vulnerable groups, including women and indigenous peoples. With the theme “Securing Land Rights for a Just and Sustainable Future,” the forum will discuss four main topics: agrarian reform, conflict, protection of land and environmental defenders, and women’s land rights in climate change.
International Land Coalition (ILC) Asia Coordinator Anu Verma said that the hunt for resources in Asia, including Indonesia, has increased land investments, often to the detriment of local communities. She highlighted that women in Asia only own 10.7% of the land, far below the global average, so this forum is a platform to fight for women’s land rights.
Executive Director of Walhi, Zenzi Suhadi, stated that ALF 2025 is also a place to consolidate the political-economic struggle of Asian countries in facing global geopolitics. Meanwhile, Erasmus Cahyadi from the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) said the importance of this forum as a space for discussions between indigenous peoples and the government on land and natural resource rights.
Asia Land Forum 2025 is expected to be an essential momentum in fighting for more equitable and sustainable land rights in Asia, as well as emphasising Indonesia’s position as a leader in agrarian reform efforts at the regional level. (nsh)
