Selling Peatland for the Future: History, Land Management, and the Transformation of Common Land in Rantau Baru

Abstract

Rantau Baru, an old fishing village on the bank of the Kampar River in Indonesia, is surrounded by peat hinterlands. The village territory has been recognized by previous local states for hundreds of years, and the villagers have managed it as ancestral common space based on a matrilineal system and headmanship. However, since the 1990s, acacia and oil palm companies have encroached on the peatlands of the traditional territory. In this situation, many villagers have either sold or plan to sell peat hinterlands in the village territory. How has their ancestral territory transformed into tradable land, and why have they chosen to sell it? What is the relationship between the traditional values of customary space and the adoption of the perspective of land as a commodity? Based on historical research on local land governance and a present-day household survey of land use and attitudes toward peat space, this chapter argues that the privatization of peatlands has transformed a once-common space into a commodity. Villagers sell peatland to actualize its potential amid anxiety and economic difficulty to contribute to the stable future of their descendants.