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Research Review
Research Review
Much of the global concern about tropical rainforests derives from fears of major impending
extinctions. In This considerable efforts have been focused on identifying the most important
sites for sensitive management.
What is needed in research is a practical method, or indeed a suite of methods, that can reduce
the understanding gap, to provide a comprehensible summary of what actually matters locally:
to determine what is important, to whom, how much and why, and a means to make these
local preferences more relevant to the decision making process.
LOCATION
When CIFOR (The Center for International Forestry Research )was established in 1993, the Indonesian
Government committed itself to providing a forest area where CIFOR could conduct long-term
research. An area in East Kalimantan was finally selected.
The area is about 3 degrees north of the equator in a block 2º45’ to 3º21’ North and 115º48’ to 116º34’
East, adjacent to the Kayan-Mentarang National Park, and lies in the heart of the largest more or less
continuous area of rainforests remaining in tropical Asia.
THE AIM of the CIFOR research program in Malinau is to contribute to achieving forest sustainability
for a ‘large forest landscape’ in the humid tropics, where diverse, rapidly changing and often
conflicting land use demands exist.
Approaches to achieving ‘sustainability’ on a larger landscape level are needed. As a whole, CIFOR’s
initial efforts could be said to represent an ‘exploratory’ or ‘developmental’ phase, within a longer-term
research strategy.
THE OBJECTIVE is to achieve long-term forest management for multiple uses, integrating social,
environmental, biodiversity and silvicultural objectives. The first phase of the project has consisted
mainly of gathering baseline information on the bio-physical, social and economic situation of the area.
INTRODUCTION
They did not want to examine biodiversity information in isolation, but within a broader
framework where its relevance to real decisions is apparent. Hence, the methods also include
factors such as agricultural options and the location of cultural sites. There are several reasons for
suggesting that this information increases relevance.
The researchers worked with seven communities and established two hundred research plots
between November 1999 and November 2000.
INTRODUCTION
The research in the area can continue with the same basic three-pronged
approach outlined in overall research strategy:
1) finding out what occurs where,
2) assessing to whom it matters and in what way, and
3) Identifying what steps are needed to maintain this biota in the
future.
INTRODUCTION
IMPACT OPPORTUNITIES
During the Suharto era in Indonesia, concessions were granted with disregard for local peoples and
their claims to land and natural resources, though concession holders were expected to ‘gain
permission’ from affected villages and make contributions towards community development.
For Indonesia, this message requires a revolution that must impact all the institutions and processes
related to forest management.
PARTICIPATION
Depend on participation of community members as research assistants and field guides, and relied on
their knowledge of the landscape to help us determine sample sites. The feedback we received was
immensely important and had a strong influence on our final methods. Participation is relative; it can
cover a range of local involvements in defining objectives, selecting methods, application, analyses
and interpretation.
THE METHODS
Two specific methods are described in more technical detail than the rest:
1. The scoring approach (pebble distribution method or PDM) and
2. The variable area sample unit.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
Team
The village team collected a wide range of information about the judgements, needs, culture,
institutions and aspirations of the local communities, and examined their perceptions of and
relationship with the local landscape. The field team collected biophysical and ethnographic data
at specific geo-referenced sample points.
This included
one or two botanists;
a field plot coordinator,
a soil scientist,
two field (plant use) interviewers,
two to four village-based interviewers/researchers, and
one or two logistics coordinators who also helped with other tasks as the need arose.
The field team also included local experts from each ethnic group: usually a man and woman plant expert, and a
male soil expert, with usually, two additional local assistants.
Non-tree transect
The 40-m transect was subdivided into ten
consecutive 5-m-wide subunits, where the
presence of all herbs, climbers with any
part over 1.5 m long, and other smaller
plants was recorded.
Trees
They used a new and versatile sample unit suitable for rapid assessments of tropical forest in
heterogeneous areas. The method generally collects information on about 40 trees with a diameter
≥10 cm dia. The method used multiple applications of variable area subunits, in which the area
was defined by simple and objective rules.
Plant names, uses and preferences
These data were collected for all plants recorded in the plot-based survey. The botanist’s group
recorded each new plant species and gave it a reference number.
FIELD-BASED ACTIVITIES
Soil assessments
The field procedures for studying soil linked a biophysical and an ethnographic approach. A profile of
approximately 1 m in length, 0.5 m in width, and 0.6 m in depth, was dug in the center of the plot.
CONCLUSIONS
• Systematic assessment of local attitudes to landscapes using a range of techniques make it possible to consider
those values in any decision-making that affect the area.
• The project has already demonstrated site-specific information that helped guide policies on local forest
management and land use. The initial surveys show, for example, that many people in the region are troubled by
a perceived decline in some highly valued resources, especially the animals they hunt for food and the plants they
rely on for their daily needs.
• Unlogged ‘forest’ is considered the ‘most important land’ for the communities. Wild pigs and timber trees are
amongst the most important species. Both are associated with good forest. Logged over forest is given a low
preference by local communities.