<![CDATA[Government Regulation No. 18 of 2021 and Regulation of the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (BPN) No. 18 of 2021 allow customary land to be designated as Management Rights (HPL), promising legal certainty for indigenous communities in oil palm plantation investments. Previous studies have assessed HPL from the perspective of harmonization or registration, but have not examined it article by article throughout the HPL cycle and linked it to plantation agreements and disputes. This article analyzes the inequalities in investment agreements on customary land, critically examines HPL regulations, and formulates a reconstruction of its protection. This normative legal research uses legislative, conceptual, and case-based approaches, using the Jambi case as the primary source and comparisons from West Sumatra, Riau, Central Kalimantan, and Papua. The results show that HPL creates subjugating recognition: original customary rights are constructed as a transfer of control rights to the state. Indigenous communities' control is eroded through spatial planning, cultivation rights (HGU) that can last for almost a century, and multi-layered procedures. The lack of a mechanism to resolve overlapping rights also whitewashes HGUs issued without legal customary land release. This article's novelty lies in the reconstruction of HPL as a vehicle for benefit sharing without land release, with free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) as a sustainable agreement, and a hierarchical, integrative dispute resolution process. The article recommends derivative regulations that make HPL a voluntary option, establish minimum standards for agreement content, and unify customary land registration.]]>
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