Asian Program

Japanese

Data

Former Fellows

Dissertation Abstracts

Indonesia

Name	Budhi GUNAWAN
Position	Researcher Institute of Ecology, Research Institute, Padjadjaran University
Japanese Advisor	Kazuhiko TAKEUCHI Professor,The University of Tokyo

  Involvement of the communities in natural resources management through a community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is considered an appropriate institutional arrangement for promoting sustainable use of the resources. However, in order to develop this management system, the communities must be interested and willing to participate. In this relation, an understanding of socio-ecological dimensions of the communities-the human-nature relations-including their perception and willingness to participate in natural resource management is important to carry out. For this reason, this study assessed the socio-ecological dimensions of establishing community-based natural resources management system.
  The study was carried out in the upper Citarum watershed, a degraded watershed in West Java. To identify variation of the dynamics of socio-ecological dimensions, the study selected four different communities that utilized different natural resources: forest, agroforest, agricultural land, and reservoir (fish cultivation). The study is expected to contribute to the development of community-based natural resource management, particularly in the upper Citarum watershed.
  The study interviewed 511 households from 4 study sites located in the upstream and down stream area of the upper Citarum watershed. The four study sites are Taruma Jaya village, Pangauban village, Cihawuk village and Saguling reservoir. In addition to interviewing the sampled households, the study also interviewed some purposively selected key informants. Field observations were also made to cross check data as necessary. The collected data was then analyzed by using the following non-parametric test. The Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis-test were used to compare differences between independent groups for some socio-economic variables. The chi-squared test was used for bivariate tabular analysis between the socio-economic and the biographical and psychological narrative data.
  The analysis showed that dependency of all communities on the local natural resources was high. This was indicated by the high percentage of household in Taruma Jaya (72%) and Pangauban villages (74%) that used fuel wood as the only source of energy for household consumption collected from the forest or agroforest (bamboo gardens). The high dependency on the resources was also indicated by the high percentage of household utilized the state forest for crops cultivation before such illegal activity was terminated by the government in 2003. In Taruma Jaya, 44% of the sampled households practiced this illegal cultivation while in Cihawuk was about 54% of the sampled farmers. In Taruma Jaya, 41% of the sampled households collected fodder mainly from the forest for their dairy cattle. In the case of Saguling reservoir, 70% of the sampled fish farmers relied only on reservoir fish cultivation as source of income.
  Despite this high dependency on the utilized resources, the study showed that the communities which depended on the state properties were likely to utilize the resources without proper management; such resources utilization and management might cause the resources to be unsustainable. In reverse, the communities that utilized their own resources were likely to manage the resources in more sustainable manner; however, the economic pressure forced the communities to intensify resource utilization resulted in problems such as decreasing soil fertility or to convert the considered sustainable land use type, such as bamboo gardens, to another more vulnerable land use type such as cropland for economic reason.
  In relation to the idea of sustainable use of the natural resources, majority of the sampled households perceived that the resources they utilized were degraded. They revealed indication of the severe soil erosion in the illegally cultivated forestland, the decrease soil fertility in the agricultural land, or the degradation of water quality in the reservoir.
  Responding to the problem of environmental degradation and to the environmental conservation and management, all communities were willing and or interested to participate in conservation and management of the resources. The different users of forest resources revealed their willingness to participate in the management of the forest. Majority of the bamboo garden owners intended to retain or were interested to modify their bamboo gardens to mixed gardens. Willingness to participate in resource conservation and management was also revealed by the fish farmers although they were reluctant to share the benefits of investment.
  In general, the study implied the importance of the property rights (tenure security) and collective action in the utilization and management of the natural resources, particularly if the natural resources will be collaboratively managed by involving local communities through the so-called community based natural resource management.
  With regard to the property rights, as indicated by the cases of forest resource utilization and fish cultivation, analysis showed a similarity that when the state property was failed to manage in effective manner, it might become de facto open access; the absence of effective management and enforcement might simply turn a resource into one that can be exploited on a first-come-first-served basis. In this regard, the case of forestland cultivation indicated that insecurity of tenure did not motivate the farmers to practice any conservation measure. This was concomitant to the case of agricultural land management wherein the tenure security motivated the farmers to manage the agricultural land in relatively sustainable manner. Different from this issue, however, the case of fish cultivation showed that tenure security did not automatically motivate the fish farmers to practice appropriate utilization of the reservoir. Almost similar finding was also shown in the case of utilization and management of bamboo gardens. The findings of the four study cases suggested that tenure security was an important factor but tenure security alone was not enough for effective and sustainable utilization and management of the natural resources.
  With regard to collective action, as indicated by management of irrigation, the study showed evidence that community was able to collectively manage the resources for the benefit of all community members. Despite this, other cases showed the non-existent of collective action in resource utilization and management, for instance the case of pest management in Cihawuk which was carried out individually. Regarding these, collective action was likely to be related to the interest of community member in utilizing the resources. The case of irrigation showed a common interest of the farmers in utilizing water for their cropland while the case of pest management showed different individual interest of the farmers in cultivating different kinds of crops. Different interest in utilizing the resource was also shown in the case of utilization of bamboo gardens for rotation system.
  Based on the socio-ecological dimensions of the four case studies and a comparative analysis that focused on property rights and collective action the study suggests that involvement of the communities is a precondition for better utilization and management of natural resources in the upper Citarum watershed. The essential of community involvement in natural resource management, on one hand, is not only because, with certain condition, the community is considered having ability to collectively manage the resources appropriately but also because their dependency on the resources for subsistence is high; on the other hand, it is also driven by the failure of the state to manage the resources appropriately.
  In relation to the involvement of the community in natural resource management through the CBNRM, policy of certain tenure rights provision over the natural resources should be implemented. The resources which tenure rights are provided to the communities should be treated as "common properties" of the user community which implies exclusion of non-member of the community. These property rights should be well-defined otherwise open access losses will occur. In addition to this, the CBNRM should also offer attractive economic returns and the communities should be encouraged to practice collective action in utilizing and managing the resources.
  For the success of the collaborative management system, the role of government is crucial, particularly in establishing supportive legal rights and authority framework in the management of the resources. Institutional or policy reorientation related to environmental conservation and management should also be implemented. It is not only focused on rehabilitating the degraded resources but also maintaining and protecting the less received-attention natural resources, such as bamboo gardens, from being disappeared.