<![CDATA[The national agrarian law system relies on land registration as a crucial tool to guarantee land rights are protected and to provide legal certainty. In Indonesia, land tenure is still frequently based on traditional evidentiary instruments such as girik and communal land rights (hak ulayat) of indigenous communities that have not been fully integrated into the national land registration system. Government Regulation Number 18 of 2021, as an implementing regulation of the Basic Agrarian Law, strengthens the direction of agrarian legal policy toward accelerated land certification and simplified evidentiary mechanisms by establishing 2026 as the normative deadline for the use of former customary land documents. The legitimacy of girik and hak ulayat as proof in land registration and conversion procedures, and the state's legal safeguards for such evidence, are the subjects of this study. Evidence of land ownership, such as girik and hak ulayat, is now seen as indicative evidence that needs to be backed up by physical possession, witness statements, and administrative verification; this is according to the results of a normative legal study that used statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. On the other hand, as long as indigenous groups are recognized legally, Government Regulation Number 18 of 2021 offers legal protection via a cautious, transparent, and progressive process of converting land rights, which includes acknowledging community land rights. The land registration policy toward 2026 reflects the state’s effort to balance formal legal certainty with the protection of traditional land rights within the framework of agrarian justice.]]>
