Back to index of 2002 reports

Back to index of forest management studies

TROPICAL RAINFORESTS AND RESOURCE-DEPENDENT COMMUNITIES AROUND THE LAMBUSANGO AND KAKENAUWE RESERVES

Aim:

To investigate the perceptions and utilisation of forest resources by communities surrounding the Lambusango and Kakenauwe reserves and assess the implications for effective conservation and sustainable use. 

Objectives:

Introduction

Indonesia contains 10% of the world’s tropical rainforests and these forests are disproportionately rich in biodiversity (Ministry of State for Population and Environment, 1992).  There is thus a global case for conservation of Indonesia’s forests, and the government has shown political commitment to this need by designating a percentage of Indonesia’s land with protected area status.  However, with rapid population growth and an economy yet to fully recover from the economic crisis of the late 1990s, there are increasing pressures on forest resources, particularly around the margins of protected areas (Sunderlin et al, 2001).  Recognising the poor success rate of top-down conservation attempts, policy makers have been forced to reconsider the social setting of conservation and the need to reconsider the role of local communities and social institutions in resource use and conservation (Agrawal and Gibson, 1999; Badola, 1998).  In order to ensure effective conservation of forest resources in the Kakenauwe and Lambusango reserves it is therefore important to assess the perceptions and utilisation of the forest by adjoining communities, as well as attitudes towards various protected area statuses. 

Methods

3 villages with close proximity to the Lambusango and Kakenauwe reserves were selected as study sites - Kakenauwe, Labundo Bundo and Talingko/Pemuda.  30 interviews took place at each site during July and August with men and women of a variety of ages. Each semi-structured interview comprised a mixture of open and closed questions, together with Likert questions elucidating a degree of agreement/disagreement with various statements, and questions asking interviewees to rank responses in order of importance.  To ascertain more sub-conscious perceptions of forest importance, a thematic apperception test was used, involving the ranking of 5 photographs of forest uses. 

Preliminary results

In terms of perceptions of resources, the majority of interviewees deemed the forest to be important, mainly for utilitarian purposes through resources for direct extraction and also ecosystem services such as providing water, air and soil.  These responses were verified in the thematic apperception test, where large proportions of interviewees cited pristine forest, farm in the forest, and tourists in the forest in their top 3 favourites, emphasising their use values.  The photo of deforestation consistently featured as the least favourite, with the justification that damaged forest no longer has any use-value to them and can adversely affect ecosystem function.   

This utilitarian-focussed perception is hardly surprising given that the majority of the population in all three villages is dependent to varying degrees upon forest resources.  Products are harvested from the forest for both commercial and subsistence purposes, and include wood (with the first class species wola as the most popular), rattan (noko, lambang and batang), honey and damar resin.  The majority of the respondents were farmers, with perhaps commercial harvesting of rattan and/or honey as a secondary activity, in addition to subsistence use of forest resources.  Talingko has the highest proportion of residents who consider they rely economically on forest resources for their livelihoods, reflecting the fact that their villages border production forest, where the rules governing extraction are more flexible than in the reserves.  An interesting observation here was that despite most respondents perceiving the overall importance of the forest, and disagreeing with the Likert question asking if they could survive without forest resources; when asked if they rely on the forest the only people to answer yes were those that harvest products commercially, suggesting incomplete understanding of the interdependency between the forest and agriculture, for example. 

This discontinuity was also noticed in the responses to questions about threats to the forest.  All of the interviewees cited deforestation as the major threat to the forest, with the main driving forces for this being logging and land clearance for agriculture.  Likewise there was widespread awareness of the problems that deforestation can bring about in terms of declining species diversity, increased conflict between animals (particularly crop pests) and humans due to habitat loss, flooding, erosion, interruption to rainfall patterns, and disruption to air quality.  However, when asked in the Likert questions if the forest was being damaged, a very high proportion disagreed or strongly disagreed, suggesting failure to connect the slow process of forest degradation (which is currently underway) with a state of complete deforestation.  Such perceptions are important in affecting responses to forest conservation efforts. 

Reflecting the recognition of the role of the forest and the consequences of deforestation, all respondents agreed with the need to protect forest resources.  However, although most had general awareness of the existence of protected forest in the vicinity of their villages that they could not enter or harvest, the actual specifics were much less known.  The majority of the interviewees could point to the general location of the protected areas and cite "behind the farmland", but very few had actually seen the marker pins at the boundary.  Likewise, only the ex-kepala desa of Labundo Bundo, the kepala desa of Kakenauwe and one man in Talingko with a Masters in agriculture were aware of the different status of Lambusango (swaka marga suarta - wildlife reserve) and Kakenauwe (cagar alam - nature reserve).  The need for increased communication is backed up by the agreement of most interviewees that the rangers could do more to protect the forest, and also better educate about forest ecology, as well as the rules and regulations pertaining to resource use. 

Further direct opinions were sought on various forest management strategies.  Very few respondents were aware of the concept of a national park, but those that were thought it would offer a better level of protection for forest resources, and could also encourage tourism in the area.  Likewise, the idea of increased local responsibility for conservation was widely favoured, and deemed to be a better way of enforcing regulations within the protected areas.  This information, together with the attitudes and perceptions determined above, will be useful in suggesting how to improve the effectiveness of protected area legislation in forest conservation.

Report

A paper entitled Forest dependence of communities surrounding the proposed new Lambusango - Kakenauwe National Park will be produced by Katharine Vincent, University of East Anglia by January 2003. 

References

Agrawal, A. and Clark C. Gibson. 1999. Enchantment and Disenchantment: the role of community in natural resource conservation. World Development 27 (4) : 629-649

Badola, Ruchi. 1998. Attitudes of local people towards conservation and alternatives to forest resources: a case study from the lower Himalayas. Biodiversity and Conservation 7 : 1245-1259

Ministry of State for Population and Environment (Indonesia). 1992. Indonesian Country Study on Biodiversity

Sunderlin, William D., Arild Angelsen, Daju Pradnja Resosudarmo, Ahmad Dermawan and Edy Rianto. 2001. Economic crisis, small farmer well-being and forest cover change in Indonesia. World Development 29 (5) : 767-782