Sibetan's Salak Forest: How Bali Aga Farmers Sustain Varieties, Water and Livelihoods
Original Chinese title: 印尼Sibetan村的蛇皮果森林：Bali Aga農民如何用五層農法守住品種、水與生計
On 21 October, the UN Committee on World Food Security presented the first HLPE report focused on Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems. It includes the salak agroforestry system of Sibetan customary village in Bali, where farmers connect multilayer planting, cooperative water management and customary rules.
Sulangal
Puyuma | Veteran cultural and visual practitioner with a long-standing focus on Indigenous digital representation, language communication and cultural safety
On 21 October 2026, the UN Committee on World Food Security presented HLPE-FSN Report No. 21 at its 54th plenary. It is the first HLPE report to address Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems as a full subject. The report treats food not as a production figure alone but as inseparable from territorial rights, governance, knowledge, culture and provisioning. One of its cases is the Bali Aga salak agroforestry system around Sibetan customary village in Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia.
FAO and Indonesian government materials describe a system involving about 2,800 farmers around Sibetan. Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports more than twelve local salak varieties, while the FAO GIAHS page lists fourteen; the figures may reflect different dates or classification methods, so this article preserves the difference. Farmers do not grow a single crop. A five-layer structure combines salak with bananas, coconuts, vegetables, herbs and tubers, distributing light, retaining water and reducing exposure to pests, disease and a single market.
A fruit garden is also collective governance
The key is not only intercropping technique. FAO explains that Subak Abian farmer groups make cooperative decisions about crops, harvests and water infrastructure, and jointly maintain channels and drainage. Indonesian public materials also describe Sibetan's awig-awig customary rules as limiting farmland conversion and sales to outsiders. Varieties, water, land and livelihoods are therefore held within a shared decision structure instead of receiving a cultural explanation only after products reach the market.
Salak supports fresh-fruit sales, processing and agritourism, but markets bring pressures as well as opportunities. Indonesia's intellectual-property authority reported in 2026 that the area still faces youth outmigration, landscape change, origin labelling and organizational governance challenges. If recognition and tourism grow while farmers, the customary village and young people lose authority over land, varieties, prices and knowledge use, heritage status can remain an external label.
A useful comparison for Indigenous Taiwan
Taiwan should not copy Bali Aga philosophies, ceremonies or customary law, and Sibetan's variety names and cultural narratives must not become packaging for unrelated local products. What can be compared are governance functions: whether local varieties continue to be propagated, multilayer farming and water care are treated as skilled work, young people can access land and viable income, market evidence returns to the community, and outside research or AI use begins with purpose-specific consent.
An Indigenous crop initiative in Taiwan could begin with a community-controlled list of varieties and allowed uses. Its public layer would include only approved names, cultivation traits and product information, while exact locations, exchange relations and restricted knowledge remain separately governed. AI can help record harvests, pests, processing batches and price trends. It cannot decide what knowledge is public or impose an Indonesian cultural model on a Taiwanese people.
The value of Sibetan is not a salak recipe ready for export. It shows how crop diversity, multilayer agroforestry, water management, customary rules and markets can support ecology and livelihoods when the same community coordinates them over time. The relevant lesson for Indigenous Taiwan is to ensure that traditional knowledge still has decision-makers, land on which it can be practised, and young people able to carry it forward.
Sources
- UN CFS HLPE | Report No. 21 on Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems (2026).
- UN CFS | Report No. 21 presented at the 54th plenary (21 October 2026).
- FAO GIAHS | Salak Agroforestry System in Karangasem, Indonesia.
- Embassy of Indonesia in Rome | Sibetan customary village, local varieties and customary rules (31 October 2025).
- Indonesia Directorate General of Intellectual Property | Five-layer cultivation, origin governance and youth succession (2026).
AI use and content-safety disclosure
AI assisted comparison of public UN, Indonesian government and local sources, plus copy editing and this English draft. No field interview was conducted. The article does not transplant Bali Aga philosophy, ceremony or customary rules into Taiwanese Indigenous contexts.