Frequently Asked Questions

Why was CRU Indonesia established?

1. Significance of handling agrarian and natural resources conflicts and KADIN initiatives

  • The occurrence of agrarian and natural resource conflicts is often attributed to developmental models that prioritize economic growth. Such models promote land expansion in order to meet the rising demand for raw materials and technological advancement, resulting in heightened competition for land due to population growth and consumption. The excessive exploitation of land in this manner also causes significant damage to the environment, surpassing its natural ability to recuperate. If left unmanaged, this competition for land can escalate into conflicts.
  • Agrarian and natural resource conflicts can often arise due to the rapid changes in regulations and policies, which are often influenced by political-economic dynamics at the national, regional, and global levels. These frequent policy changes can create instability in the rules surrounding land and resource use, resulting in uncertainty and potential conflicts. Therefore, there is a pressing need for more consistent and coordinated policies to help mitigate the risk of conflict.
  • If left unaddressed, agrarian and natural resource conflicts become a burden, risk and cost for local and indigenous communities, private and state-owned enterprises, and the government. Conflicts can disrupt and even halt businesses and cause losses in the form of social, ecological and economic costs, as well as lost opportunities for future business development (opportunity costs).
  • To reduce the risk of agrarian and natural resource conflicts, there needs to be an integrated conflict prevention and management strategy in the governance of production and consumption. This involves implementing fair, transparent and sustainable policies, as well as clear land use arrangements. These efforts ensure that the production and consumption of natural resources is done responsibly, reducing the potential for future disputes and conflicts.
  • Therefore, several prominent figures of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) initiated the Conflict Resolution Unit (CRU) in 2015 with the aim of improving the business and investment climate in Indonesia by addressing agrarian and natural resource conflicts. The initiative aims to create a more stable and transparent business environment, and minimise potential disputes related to land use. As such, the CRU helps ensure that investments and business activities can run more smoothly and sustainably.
  • CRU is a strategic project of KADIN because it is an expression of the business community’s commitment to the importance of efforts to address agrarian and natural resource conflicts as an important prerequisite for improving the business climate, as well as for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.

2. What efforts have been made by various parties to address agrarian and natural resource conflicts in Indonesia besides the CRU initiative by KADIN in 2015?

It has long been recognised that agrarian and natural resource conflicts are a serious problem in development and must be addressed. Several initiatives have been undertaken, among others:

  • MPR Decree No. IX of 2001 on Agrarian and Natural Resources Management Reform.
  • The National Commission for Agrarian Conflict Resolution (KNUPKA) was proposed by Komnas HAM in 2005. It is hoped that KNUPKA can oversee and initiate efforts to resolve land conflicts in Indonesia.
  • The proposal of the Draft Law on Natural Resources Management (RUU PSDA) by the PSDA Working Group, a coalition of civil society organisations, academics and the Office of the Minister of Environment and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) in 2002.
  • Proposal for the establishment of a special agency under the President to handle agrarian and natural resource conflicts by ADKASI (Asosiasi DPRD Kabupaten Seluruh Indonesia) on 2015.
  • KADIN’s initiative through CRU to improve the business climate and efforts to address climate change related to land and natural resources in 2014.

3. How are agrarian and natural resource conflicts linked to climate change?

  • Agrarian and natural resource conflicts are closely linked to climate change, through deforestation, land use change, property rights insecurity, social vulnerability and governance issues. These conflicts exacerbate climate change by encouraging unsustainable land practices and exploitation of natural resources, while climate change also increases tensions over land use. Managing and resolving these conflicts is critical to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  • Agrarian and natural resource conflicts are important contributors to tenure insecurity, which has led to rapid land use/land cover change and deforestation.
  • Conflicts over agrarian and natural resources are often caused by tenure uncertainty. Unclear land rights make it an open access area, utilised without long-term responsibility due to a lack of incentives for conservation. As a result, this can contribute to climate change.
  • As the world’s third-largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, Indonesia faces increasing global scrutiny of its forest management practices. These emissions mainly come from the land use and forestry sectors. Effective resolution of agrarian and natural resource conflicts is essential to achieving sustainable development and emission reduction targets as committed by Indonesia in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris climate agreement

4. Why did CRU as a KADIN project transform into CRU Indonesia as an independent organisation?

  • Independence, impartiality and neutrality are basic prerequisites in building the trust of the partners served. While CRU as a Kadin project adheres to these three principles, CRU’s association with Kadin could potentially be interpreted as favouring business.
  • CRU’s conflict resolution activities have been funded by donors in the form of projects. This becomes a problem when project management requires a fixed schedule of activities and budget while conflict resolution activities demand high flexibility in order to be responsive to conditions at the site level that are not only unknown in advance but also change frequently.
  • Another part of institutional transformation is the development of funding capacity, particularly for conflict resolution financing. Apart from the difficulties of project funding management described above, this is also necessary because the cost of conflict resolution cannot be borne by the parties to the conflict. The huge disparity in financing capacity between the parties to the conflict will lead to the perception that the process will be biased in favour of those who contribute the most to the cost of conflict management
What is CRU Indonesia’s strategy and approach in handling agrarian and natural resource conflicts?

1. CRU Indonesia Strategy

  • Building stakeholder trust or constituency building towards CRU Indonesia’s Vision and Mission through engagement, both in the form of outreach, engagement and cooperation.
  • Sensitising stakeholders to the inevitability of agrarian and natural resource conflicts and the importance of preventing and addressing agrarian and natural resource conflicts through the promotion of a Conflict Sensitive Strategy Approach, related to up-stream and downstream work.
  • Build a strong national network and professional association involving the conflict mediation community from across Indonesia. This is important to enhance cooperation, share experiences, and strengthen conflict mediation capacity. With a solid network, conflict mediation can be more effective and responsive to the various issues faced in different regions.

2. CRU Indonesia methodology and approach

  • CRU Indonesia’s main approach is non-confrontational and dialogical conflict resolution using alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methodologies, particularly mediation.
  • In conducting mediation, CRU Indonesia always upholds the principles of confidentiality, neutrality and impartiality, and considers other aspects such as the values held by the parties, the condition of the parties or others and is free from the substance of the solution. Because CRU strives for a solution to be found and then mutually agreed upon by the parties to the conflict through mediation.
  • The mutual learning approach is a method where all parties involved share knowledge and experience to learn from each other. In this context, neither party is solely a teacher or solely a learner; instead, each party plays an active role in providing and receiving insights. The goal is to increase mutual understanding, enrich perspectives, and find more effective solutions through collaboration. This approach encourages openness and participation from all parties, making the learning outcomes richer and more relevant for all involved.

3. How does CRU Indonesia implement its strategy in handling agrarian and natural resource conflicts?

In general, CRU Indonesia’s strategy includes the following initiatives:

  • Establish and maintain relationships with various partners and stakeholders, including government, business and civil society
  • Establish conflict management processes within the corridors of applicable laws and regulations in Indonesia
  • Establish and develop CRU Indonesia as an independent, trusted and legitimate conflict resolution service institution
  • Publish and disseminate relevant thematic information materials targeting the mediation community, government agencies and civil society organisations
  • Implement and manage shared learning activities among the conflict resolution community and relevant stakeholders
  • Encourage and build the commitment of the parties to collaborate in dialogue by respecting the principle that solutions are the autonomy of the parties.

4. Program

CRU Indonesia’s work programme to carry out its mission includes the following activities:

  • Conflict Handling
    • Handling land and natural resource conflicts is a core activity of CRU Indonesia that is carried out at the request of conflicting parties or third parties trusted by the parties. In conflict handling CRU Indonesia can act as a convening agency or directly as an assessor/mediator..
  • Knowledge Management
    • While the idea of “musyawarah untuk mufakat” is part of the Archipelago’s culture, how conflict resolution should actually be done in the context of land and natural resource management is still a challenge. For this reason, each CRU Indonesia’s experience in service delivery and conflict management is treated as a source of learning that is reflected upon, documented, and shared with a wider audience through a knowledge management programme.
  • Capacity Building
    • Conflict handling and conflict-sensitive approaches require knowledgeable and reliable human resources who can act as assessors, mediators, or development planners who can recognise conflict risks and mitigate them. For this reason, CRU Indonesia initiated various learning activities in the form of training, internships, workshops, and the development of reference materials.

5. Services

The issues CRU Indonesia addresses are also faced by various development actors, including government agencies, businesses, and civil society organisations. For this reason, CRU Indonesia also provides services at the request of those in need. These services are provided in the spirit of mutual learning based on mutual trust (confidentiality) and according to specific needs identified together. The services can be in the form of:

  • Advisory and Consultancy
    • Consultation and advisory services in the context of conflict-sensitive approaches and conflict management include professional assistance to government, businesses and communities that wish to use conflict-sensitive approaches in their development efforts or are facing land and natural resource conflicts.
    • It provides advice, guidance and support for assessing the risk of conflict and planning to mitigate that risk in effective and sustainable ways.
    • The consultation process begins with the joint identification of the partner’s problems and needs, followed by sessions of talks or meetings to jointly explore the issues at hand and seek adequate solutions.
  • System Review and Audit related to UNGP’s and Sustainability
    • Systems audit and review services in the context of conflict management involve a thorough evaluation of an institution’s structures, processes, and policies to identify potential conflicts, deviations, or weaknesses that might trigger or exacerbate conflict.
    • The results of the audit and review will be used as a basis for developing recommendations and conflict management strategies tailored to the needs of the institution. This may include developing new policies, improving procedures, training staff, or implementing alternative conflict resolution systems.
  • Capacity Building
    • Capacity development services in the context of conflict management and/or conflict-sensitive approaches are a series of activities designed to improve the knowledge, skills and capacity of individuals or institutions in managing, preventing and addressing conflict.
    • The capacity development process generally begins with the identification of the needs and objectives of partners and their working context, followed by the design of activities that are tailored to the characteristics of a particular institution or environment. Then, the programme is implemented through a series of structured activities according to the agreed design.
What activities does CRU Indonesia carry out related to work at the upstream level?

The experience of dealing with various conflicts and considering the broader context of land and natural resource management has made CRU Indonesia realise that conflict resolution at the site level, although important for the conflicting parties in the context of broader wealth management, is not sufficient. For this reason, CRU Indonesia endeavours to explore potential conflicts upstream, namely in the policy realm.

1. Policy Assessment and Outreach

  • Ketika kebijakan pemerintah atau perusahan ditengarai berpotensi menjadi sumber konflik, CRU Indonesia  dapat berprakarsa melakukan kajian, sebagai upaya mencegah perluasan dampaknya. Salah satu langkah penting dari kajian ini adalah dengan mencermati linimasa dinamika perubahan kebijakan dan pengaruhnya terhadap subjek dan objek konflik. Hal ini penting untuk memahami relevansi dan konteks terkait konflik yang terjadi.

2. Development of Indicative Conflict Prone Map

  • Indicative maps of conflict-prone over land and natural resources are instruments used to identify potential conflicts that may arise related to land and natural resource utilisation. Indicative maps of areas prone to land and natural resource conflicts that illustrate the level of conflict will be strongly influenced by central and/or regional policies, plans, programmes (KRP), investment plans, and regional expansion. For this reason, it is important to identify things that can change the level of conflict.
  • Indicative maps prone to land and natural resource conflicts are maps that combine official geospatial parameters or variables that are then analysed using scenarios that can become vulnerable and prone to land and natural resource conflicts.
  • The general objective of developing indicative maps of conflict-prone land and natural resources is to develop sensitivity to social, economic and ecological risks, including conflicts, in land and natural resources-based development and investment planning as an effort to continuously improve the quality of public services, regional competitiveness, and community welfare.
How does CRU Indonesia receive and acquire cases to handle?

1. Case intake system 

  • So far, CRU Indonesia has handled conflicts at the request of other institutions authorised to resolve the conflict. In the future, CRU as an independent organisation will develop its own case acceptance system and conflict parties can directly contact CRU Indonesia.
  • As not all cases can be handled, the case intake system also includes a method of screening and assessing cases through pre-assessment using several conflict eligibility criteria, including the readiness and commitment of the parties; the adequacy of information, the distribution, extent and intensity of the conflict; the strategic value and potential benefits and positive impact of resolving the conflict in question, etc.
  • If a conflict cannot be resolved, CRU Indonesia will refer the conflict back to the parties with recommendations for other methods of resolution, with the final decision being the authority of the complainant.

2. Case Tracking Management System

  • Once a case is received and started, the case information is entered into a case tracking system that helps CRU Indonesia’s management to follow all stages and steps of the case and assess the managerial interventions required.

3. How many conflict cases has CRU Indonesia handled, and in which areas? What was the outcome?

  • During its work in the last five years CRU Indonesia has handled 30 cases spread across several regions in Indonesia, with the following details: Jambi four cases, East Java nine cases, South Kalimantan two cases, East Kalimantan five cases, West Nusa Tenggara seven cases, South Sulawesi one case, Southeast Sulawesi one policy case, and Papua one case.
  • The results were mixed; most cases were resolved with an agreement between the conflicting parties, some cases were returned to the conflicting parties with recommendations for resolution other than mediation. There were also cases where CRU Indonesia’s mediation efforts stopped when the parties decided to negotiate directly.
  • It should be noted that CRU Indonesia realizes that reaching an agreement between the parties is only half of the journey as a conflict can only be truly resolved when the agreement is actually implemented.

4. Cases that CRU Indonesia cannot handle (Negative list of case handling)

Not all types of cases can be handled by CRU Indonesia. It is CRU Indonesia’s policy not to handle the following conflict cases:

  • Cases related to serious criminality. Such cases require the involvement of law enforcement officials and may only be dealt with after the criminal case has been resolved.
  • Cases relating to National Strategic Projects (PSN), Special Economic Zones (KEK), National Strategic Zones (KSN), and Industrial Zones (KI).
  • Cases relating to mining license areas
What capacity building activities does CRU Indonesia implement?

1. How do capacity building activities in the Program differ from CRU Indonesia Services?

  • Capacity building as part of the Program is an important element of the strategy of expanding conflict-sensitive constituencies through decentralization of capabilities in risk reduction and conflict case management, especially in conflict-prone areas. Participation in this program is free of charge.
  • Meanwhile, capacity building as part of the Service is a response to requests from parties or partners related to certain skills according to their needs, whether they are companies, governments, donor agencies or civil society organizations. For this capacity development, the activities are funded by the party requesting CRU Indonesia’s services.

2. What are the other services of CRU Indonesia?

  • CRU Indonesia assists governments, businesses, and communities with a conflict-sensitive approach. This approach includes the development of grievance systems, conflict handling and monitoring, policy improvement, system audits, and advisory. The conflict-sensitive approach emphasizes that conflict is part of natural resource management. Therefore, there needs to be preparedness for potential conflicts, supportive policies, available grievance systems, and respect for human rights.
How to get services from CRU Indonesia?

First, please contact us via email [email protected] or through our contact person, [email protected]. Include information about your basic needs or requests such as the type of services required and your business activities.  Our team will then schedule an exploratory discussion and contact you to select a time. In the exploratory discussion, we will explore more about your needs and the right services to help you in more detail. Based on the outcome of this exploratory discussion, we will develop a more detailed written proposal or service offering from CRU Indonesia. Once the proposal or service offering is approved, then you can obtain services from CRU Indonesia.

How can you get involved in CRU Indonesia?
  • Engagement as a CRU Indonesia member: register as a CRU Indonesia member→ become a member of Perkumpulan Cipta Rukun Upaya, have specialized or specific skills and fill out the registration form.
  • Engagement as a CRU Indonesia partner: contact us.