The Importance of Cooperation between Legal Governmental Support Structures and Local Community Stakeholders for the Preservation of Indonesian Heritage
Frank Dhont

National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

Abstract

Based on various types of Indonesian heritage and their present state, the paper discusses the importance of sound legal support structures for protecting Indonesian heritage. It predominantly focuses on threats to the cultural heritage produced throughout Indonesia^s long history of interactions with the outside world, but also includes natural heritage that formed the context for the cultural development of the archipelago. The paper uses various examples to demonstrate and highlight the importance of these heirlooms for Indonesian history and their often underestimated value for current and future Indonesian society, both as sources of economic revenue and cultural pride, in order to incentivize community support in the development and protection of this heritage within the sound legal support structure provided by the Indonesian government. The paper, therefore, not only argues for a sound legal framework for protecting Indonesian heritage, but also for the cultural and economic valorization of these assets for Indonesia^s society and local communities. This method^s success is demonstrated by several cases of successful heritage preservation, suggesting that this method should be extended to all forms of Indonesian heritage as successful route to preserve it for future generations.

Keywords: heritage, protection, law, society, Indonesia

Topic: History