Your biodiversity in my backyard : key local stakeholders' perceptions of biodiversity conservation in Gorontalo, Indonesia

Abstract

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) has been the key national strategy in biodiversity conservation, through preserving the unique wildlife and ecosystems in Indonesia. As well as their status as sites rich in biodiversity, PAs are also important for socio-economic interactions. Hence the management of PAs has been fraught with technical, social and economic problems. To ensure greater local participation and support in tropical forest conservation initiatives, it is vital to understand how local stakeholders perceive them. This research was undertaken in Gorontalo Province by examining the views of local stakeholders through a combination of qualitative interviews and quantitative ranking exercises. The findings revealed that respondents only understood the concept of biodiversity on a general level. Most respondents defined biodiversity in terms of its elements; only a few were able to describe the interactional attributes, by which biodiversity functions within the ecosystems. Their appreciation of forest biodiversity was primarily due to economic and ecological benefits they derive from local forests. Accordingly, respondents ranked the provision of ecological services from the forests as the strongest reason for protecting it. Using Wood et al. (2000) analytical framework to examine the root causes of biodiversity loss, the findings indicated respondents’ familiarity with human-induced forces resulting in the degradation and loss of natural forests, and they understood how these affect local biodiversity, both within and beyond the forest. Some critical disconnections between national policy in forest conservation and the reality of the local use of forest resource became apparent. At the core of these disconnections was an unequal share of benefits of such policy to local stakeholders. They identified extraction of species and physical alteration of the forest ecosystem as direct drivers of forest loss; these were perceived as rooted in poverty, institutional failures in forest management, ignorance of the wider forest functions, and conflict of development policies at the local level. The main reason for biodiversity loss can be summed up as widespread and persistent failure to properly understand, quantify, or value the goods, services, functions and capital value of the natural forests, at both national and local levels. Overall, most respondents held negative attitudes towards protected forests and their positive attitudes towards conservation activities were linked with tangible benefits they enjoy from the forest. A key finding of this study is that the conservation of biodiversity cannot be considered in isolation from broader patterns of natural resource use and the socio-political context in which people carry out their lives. This study suggests that the implementation of the centrally-controlled and preservationist conservation approach in Gorontalo has been ineffective in achieving conservation goals. This is due to the lack of a clear connection between this policy and the reality of local forest users.