Background

Ecotourism is a relatively new concept but is one that has begun to be used regularly in the world if environmental management and conservation. Throughout developing countries, protected areas have often been viewed merely as a source of income, especially with regards to the use of timber, as well as providing the basic needs to the local people of the area. However, as many of these areas have increasingly become areas of restricted access, this has often resulted in many negative attitudes towards conservation by local residents, and this can of course lead to further management problems.

In order to gain support for protected areas and for a certain degree of conservation to take place, the local people must be able to understand why conservation and protection is needed, and that with their participation and involvement, they can gain just as many benefits from protecting their forest, than if they do not. As previously shown in other literature, there are many case studies where local residents had little understanding of the concept of a national park, and inadequate effort had been made to involve them in the process.

Operation Wallacea is an ecotourist operator, working in SE Sulawesi, Indonesia, however, it deals more with research tourism. Operation Wallacea have yet to do any work on the environmental awareness of local people and whether Operation Wallacea has had an influence in any way. Therefore, the objective of this project is to see how environmentally aware the local residents of Labundo-bundo, and the surrounding villages of Toruku, Lawele and Kakenauwe, are in regard to the forest reserves of Lanbusanga and Kakenauwe. This will enable the project to determine whether or not Operation Wallacea has had any influence on their level of environmental awareness.

Aims

The aims of this project were therefore to ascertain local residents’ attitudes towards the environment and to determine the level of environmental awareness of local residents of Labundo-bundo, Toruku, Lawele and Kakenauwe. This will enable an assessment of how people value the forest, and whether the local people think that it is important that the forest is protected for future generations. A comparison between villages will be made in order to determine whether Operation Wallacea has had any influence on the environmental awareness of the local people of Labundobundo and compare this to the people of the villages of Toruku, Lawele and Kakenauwe. Finally, the project will examine the level of environmental awareness of the schoolchildren of Labundobundo and compare to schoolchildren in Lawele and Kakenauwe.

Methodology

A semi-structured interview was set up for local residents of the four villages, asking a variety of questions covering what they know about deforestation in general, how they value the forest here, whether they would like to become more involved in the conservation side of the forest, and what they know about what Operation Wallacea does. The same questions were asked to fifteen people in each of the four villages.

A Likert-type scale was also used as a method of trying to identify the environmental awareness, and is an excellent way of being able to do some statistical analysis. Statements with ecocentric attitudes and anthropocentric attitudes were asked to all the same people as the semi-structured interview. The statements covered aspects and opinions of the forest such as, ‘it is important to protect the forest for our children’ and ‘we have the right to change the forest to meet our needs and the way we live’. A scoring system from one to five, with one as disagree and five as agree, was used as the way for local residents to answer. There were a total of ten statements. The results can later be used for statistical analysis.

For a lot of the interviews and Likert scales, there was more than one respondent, maybe two or three, however there was always one that was dominant. Houses were picked at random by walking down the street and seeing who was available or willing to answer. A mixture of men and women of all ages were asked. Each complete interview lasted about thirty minutes each.

To assess the environmental awareness of the schoolchildren, questions were designed to see how much they knew about the environment and see how much they got taught. The elementary schools in Labundo-bundo and Lawele were used so that they could be compared. Class six were chosen as the sample, since this is the year that they begin teaching about the environment. Questions were asked, asking them to name animals found in the forest, the kind of crops grown on farms, whether they knew that there was a protected area in the forest, what they learnt about the environment in their lessons, and what they would like to learn more about. Questions were asked and then translated to the children. The children responded at random and all the answers were written on the board in Indonesian and English for them then to copy down. The questions were designed to let the children dictate how the interview went.

Initial findings

Everyone seemed concerned about deforestation, however many were aware that so many people cut down the trees because there was not enough understanding about the forest. Most understood the consequences of deforestation to be flooding, erosion and migration of animals. Many knew it occurred because they had heard the chainsaws and seen the trucks of wood passing through the village. However, it happens more in Toruku and Lawele than in Labundobundo because the forest here is protected. One interviewee even mentioned an increase in climate since there will be no trees to create a breeze. Environmental awareness was also shown by the knowledge of catching fish and sea pollution as making the coral reefs disappear.

Most know there is a forest reserve and few know its boundaries, from the rangers and the government. Most do not know the rules and regulations of the forest except that there is a Rp10 million fine or 10 years maximum in jail for cutting down the trees.

Many of the people did have a significantly high awareness of the forest and environment. However, Operation Wallacea has increased this awareness further. They have had community meetings with Operation Wallacea and employees of Operation Wallacea also speak to them at the beginning of each Operation Wallacea season. Many people also mentioned that if people come this far from Europe to protect their forest, then it must be important.

Most were concerned about deforestation and was especially concerned that the damage to the forest would decrease the water supply needed to irrigate the land. They were also aware of flood and erosion. They do not see deforestation as a great problem though because it is a community job that they all do for their livelihoods, so the Forestry Department and government cannot stop it. Many did mention planting new trees, however these are only ever cash crops.

Most do not know about the forest reserve at all, other than that there are boundaries somewhere and that they are not supposed to cut down the trees.

They knew nothing about Operation Wallacea, except a few who knew they were in Labundobundo but did not know what they were doing, and very little about protecting the forest. This could largely be because many are Ambonese refugees and have only been in the area for a matter of months. Therefore they do not know enough about the need to protect the forest, and as far as they are concerned, their first priority is to build their houses, maintain their livelihood and make money.

The people of Lawele do have an awareness of the environment and notice the problems of deforestation. However, they all want farms next to the village, so they deforest the area. This causes a lot of erosion and flooding which is very difficult to prevent, since there are too many underground streams, as well as the river and land is very low and flat.

No one is allowed to exploit the forest and then sell his or her crop of trees. All were aware of the forest reserve and ranger but few really knew much about either.

Most had heard of Operation Wallacea but had no idea what they do. Therefore whilst their environmental awareness is high, it is due to their experience of flooding, not because Operation Wallacea has had any influence. However, they are all aware that Operation Wallacea could make the people of Lawele realise more about their environment and how important it is to them.

The people of Kakenauwe also had a very similar kind of environmental awareness to those in Lawele. They knew about deforestation and were aware that flooding and erosion were consequences. Another major environmental problem that occurs in Kakenauwe is the damage to the seafront and houses, when storms occur resulting in big waves crashing against the front. They were all very much aware of the forest reserve since many had originally had land inside it which they had had to give up to the government when the reserve officially became a protected area.

No one had any knowledge of Operation Wallacea except from the meeting and posters given out over the last week by our visit. Many people also said that they wanted to conserve the forest for future generations.

Final report

The results of this project will be collated into a report entitled The influence of Operation Wallacea on the environmental awareness of local residents in Labundobundo and surrounding villages, Buton, southeast Sulawesi  by Lauren Smith, University of Portsmouth.  This will be completed by May 2002.