Licensing
Licensing is associated with the granting of concessions, a process that transfers formal land possession to investors, often despite the fact that it is already under customary (informal) ownership or use.
During the New Order (1966-1998) the state utilised its eminent domain power (Davidson 2017) to alienate land on behalf of capitalist land-extensive enterprises (mines and plantations). The state justified its actions through its ideology of development (pembangunan). During this period, the military and police were responsible for intimidation, generating a pattern of persistent human rights abuses against local communities protesting their land's alienation (Human Rights Watch 2003). In Indonesia, licensing allowed for permanent alienation of subsistence and smallholder land. This occurred because, at the conclusion of the license, the territory returned to the state instead of the original owners.It is important to note that there are several steps before concessions fully extinguish community rights. Concessions could include business licenses for forest product utilisation (Industrial Plantation Forest or IUPHHK-HTI) and plantations (Hak Guna Usaha or HGU). In areas with overlapping and complex property rights regimes, investors obtain exploitation, location, plantation, and even formal concession licenses under problematic conditions. Under these conditions—according to the state's frameworks—theland is not ‘clearandclean'ofvarious irregularities (berstatus “Non CNC” atau masih dikategorikan bermasalah). The state often provides licenses and leaves investors with the responsibility of resolving problems on the ground. Thus, many companies operate in areas where various licenses continue to overlap with local land uses or claims. Formalisation processes in these cases tend to be problematic, contested, and only partially realised. Investors do not necessarily escape the uncertainty created by the overlapping state-issued licenses and local property rights. Hence, in many cases, land grabbing remains “virtual” (McCarthy, Vel, and Afiff 2012).