Carbon Rights in Customary Forests (Hutan Adat)

Updated 2026-11-02 · 4 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

Hutan adat carbon explained: MK 35/2012, recognition of customary forest, Permenhut 6/2026 participation, FPIC and what developers and buyers must check.

Customary forests (hutan adat) can host carbon projects, and since 2026 the forestry carbon procedure names customary-law communities as legitimate, equal participants. The legal foundation is Constitutional Court decision MK 35/PUU-X/2012, which held that customary forests are not state forests, but a project still depends on formal recognition of the community and its forest.

What hutan adat is

Hutan adat is forest within the territory of a customary-law community (masyarakat hukum adat). Before 2012, the Forestry Law treated customary forest as part of state forest. The Constitutional Court’s MK 35/2012 decision removed it from state forest. This gave customary communities a much stronger legal claim to their forests. For a short definition, see the hutan adat glossary entry.

Hutan adat is also one of the five social forestry schemes, but its status differs from the others. Hutan Desa, HKm, HTR and Kemitraan give management rights over state forest for a fixed term. Hutan adat recognises a community’s own forest. See our page on social forestry carbon for the other schemes.

Who it applies to

Recognition usually needs two steps:

1. Recognition of the customary-law community, typically by a regional regulation (perda) or a regional head decision.
2. Designation of the customary forest by the Ministry of Forestry, which removes it from the state forest map.

The exact requirements and the forms of local recognition accepted have changed over time. Check the current Ministry of Forestry guidance and the relevant provincial or district rules before relying on any document.

Carbon rules then apply to:

• the recognised customary community as the forest holder;
• any registered partner or developer working with it;
• buyers of the resulting units.

What it requires and changes

Permenhut 6/2026, socialised on 29 April 2026, is the first forestry carbon procedure to say plainly that customary forests and communities are equal participants. The Minister described the aim as letting customary communities and forest farmers who guard forests “obtain economic benefit from carbon”. Key points from the official and press sources:

• Community projects must work with registered partners.
• Projects targeting the international market must meet principles including additionality, benefit sharing and FPIC.
• Units go through the national flow: measurement, validation and verification, recording in SRUK, then trading.

We have not reviewed article-level detail on customary forest in the full text. Read the regulation itself for any specific conditions.

What it means for developers and buyers

Carbon rights follow land rights. Indonesian law has no single statute that says who owns carbon. Developers usually read carbon rights from the forest right, so a recognised hutan adat gives the community the strongest basis to be the carbon rights holder. See who owns the carbon.

Consent is the core risk. Customary communities have their own decision-making structures. A consent process must identify the legitimate decision-makers, give full information in a language people understand, allow time, and record the outcome. International standards such as Verra VCS with CCB, and Plan Vivo, expect this. Plan Vivo in particular was built around smallholder and community land use. Our FPIC glossary entry explains the principle.

Avoided deforestation fits well. Many customary forests are intact forest under pressure. Avoided deforestation (REDD+) or improved management may suit them better than ARR. Baselines need care, because a community that already protects its forest may struggle to show additionality.

For buyers, due diligence should confirm:

• the legal instrument recognising the community and the forest;
• who signed the carbon agreement and on what authority;
• the benefit-sharing arrangement and how payments reach households;
• a working grievance mechanism;
• recording of units in the national registry.

Our buyer due diligence service covers these checks.

Practical first steps

Start with a tenure and governance assessment: confirm the recognition documents, map the customary territory against forest status maps, and document how the community makes decisions. Only then design the carbon activity and the benefit-sharing plan. Rushing to a carbon contract before this work is the most common cause of later disputes.

Open questions

• Recognition backlog. Many customary communities have claims that are not yet formally recognised. Projects on unrecognised land carry higher legal risk.
• Overlaps. Customary territories can overlap concessions, conservation areas or other permits. How Permenhut 6/2026 resolves such overlaps for carbon is not clear from the sources we reviewed.
• Benefit-sharing rules. We have not confirmed any fixed share for customary forest projects.
• Long-term governance. Carbon contracts run for decades. Communities’ internal governance and leadership change, so contracts need robust decision and grievance rules.

For a full view of Indonesian forest carbon law, start at the Indonesia regulation hub.