Conservation as a Guise: Green Grabbing and the Acculturation Erasure in Rempang, Indonesia

This study examines how the state enacts green grabbing through forestry legal instruments and how this process intersects with the existence and cultural acculturation of the Sungai Raya community. Previous studies on state-led green grabbing have predominantly emphasized economic, political, and ecological dimensions, often overlooking the socio-cultural dynamics of affected communities. Employing a qualitative narrative research approach, this study draws on in-depth interviews and literature review to reconstruct the life histories of community members. Using the Rempang Eco-City National Strategic Project as a case study, this research identifies the unilateral designation of Kawasan Hutan Taman Buru (the Hunting Park Forest Area), facilitated by a collaboration between the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and a subsidiary of the Artha Graha Group, as a form of green grabbing. The findings reveal that Kampung Sungai Raya is a microcosm of long-standing cultural integration (Berry, 2018), in which Malay, Chinese, and Flores communities have coexisted harmoniously across generations. However, this harmony is challenged by the state's and the private sector's green-grabbing practices, as reflected in four processes introduced by Fairhead (2012): privatization, the redistributive role of the state, financialization, and crisis-response mechanisms. We conclude that green grabbing can be understood as a process of simultaneous material and identity dispossession, and that socio-cultural hybridity is constitutive of how dispossession and resistance unfold.