This session of the 2014 IUFRO World Congress focused on the relevance of traditional knowledge, practices and social/governance institutions in the conservation, management and restoration of forests and sustainable use of forest biodiversity. Seram Island, Indonesia was used as a case study.

1. IUFRO 2014 WORLD CONGRESS
Salt Lake City, 7 October 2014
Forest for People: Value of Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Forest Management
Can local wisdom be used in forest conservation
around national park?. The case in Seram
Island, Central Moluccas, Indonesia
Nining Liswanti
1
, Yves Laumonier
2
, Marthina Tjoa
3
and
3
Thomas M. Silaya
1
CIFOR,
2
CIRAD – CIFOR,
3
University of Pattimura

2. WHY SERAM?
 Highly strong in the cultural and customary – applied traditional
forest management practices for long time
 Traditional land ownership (village, clan, individual territory)
 Manusela National Park to protect an area of 1,890 km² (established
in 1997), High B/D richness (117 birds & 38 mammals)
 4 Ecosystem types (coastal, swamp, lowland, mountain rainforest)

3. Current issues & threats
 Traditional LU for mixed gardens and
collection timber and NTFP is forbidden inside
the park.
 The village boundaries are in close proximity
to the MNP, caused of conflict over land and
resources
 Lack of agricultural land & livelihood option,
oil palm plantation, mining and logging
concessions, population growth and migration
– illegal logging and illegal wild bird trading
(Salmon-crested Cockatoo) inside the park
To identify the forms of local wisdom for the
communities adjacent Manusela National Park for
conservation and sustainable forest management of
the park

4. Site Location
Population living inside and outside the park:  91.000 people

5. Social organization &
governance
• Social Organization village
keluarga/
family
Mata rumah/
number
of family
clan
soa/
number
of clan
negeri/
village
• Governance
 Customary law regulate the customary
rights (hak ulayat)
 Customary land tenure types  Land
owned by village (negeri), clan group
(soa), and family (keluarga)
• Additional social structure (groups of
villages)
• Patasiwa & Pataliwa (Sub-ethnic
Wemale & Alune)
• Pela/Gandong

6. Important forest and agriculture products
 Crops: cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), coconut
(Cocos nucifera), cocoa (Theobroma cacao), banana (Musa sp.), sweet
potatoes (Ipomoea batatas)
 Fruits: durian (Durio zibethinus), kweni (Mangifera odorata), langsat
(Lansium domesticum), manggo (Mangifera indica), mangosteen (Garcinia
mangostana), rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)
 Timber: ironwood (Intsia bijuga), gofasa (Vitex cofassus), canary (Canarium
spp), samar (Homalium foetidum), lenggua (Pterocarpus indicus), benuang
(Octomeles sumatrana)
 NTFP: rattan, sago (Metroxylon sagu), dammar resin (Agathis damara),
bamboo, palm tree, honey
 Animals: pig (Sus scrofa), deer (Cervus timorensis ), cuscus (Phalanger
maculatus ), cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis) , nuri bird (Alisterus
amboinensis)

7. Local Wisdom Practices
 Forest is important for subsistent (food,
medicine, construction, firewood etc) and
livelihoods (NTFP)
 Applied in all traditional villages in Seram
 The forms of local wisdom: sasi, sacred
places (taboo), dusung, and krois, salele,
matakau, nanaku, kewang

8. The forms of Local Wisdom
1. SASI
A management system used by the community for sustainable natural
resources management where collection of certain forest product (economic
or subsistence value) is prohibited.
Sasi Gereja
(church) Sasi Adat
(customary)

9. Sasi Hutan (forest)
 Prohibited to collect forest products
for certain period at certain forest
area (Seli kaihatu/ anapoha)
 Animals (cus-cus, deer, wild pig),
timbers (litsea, makila, lenggua,
iron wood, ficus, diospyros), NTFP
(Metroxylon sago).
Sasi tanaman (plantation
crops)
 A harvest prohibition on fruits that
are unripe for certain crops before
harvesting (3-6 months), e.g.
coconut, cocoa, durian, nutmeg
 King determines area for sasi (1-3
ha)
 To obtain a maximum harvesting
of certain commodities

10. 2. Natural sacred sites or "taboos"
 The community’s
effort to protect the
forests from internal
and external user that
caused of forest
damage
 Prohibited to collect
forest products at
certain forest areas
that have
supernatural agencies
(ancestor spirits and
natural spirits)
 People believe that
those spirits monitor
human conduct and
impose punishments
on violators (bad luck
or demon possessed)

11. 3. Krois (a cross)
 A cross "X" made
from two pieces of
bamboo or wood that
placed surrounding
the fruit trees
garden to protect the
fruits from a thief
 People believe that
using krois, their
garden is filled up
with sharp items
(dodesu) and
ignoring ‘Krois’ will
make the thief feel
hurt

12. 4. Dusung
 A knowledge for planting techniques
by applying agroforestry system
 Planting timber trees and various
crops (seasonal and annual crops)
e.g. lenggua, jabon, walnuts, Albizia
sp, dammar resin, clove, nutmeg,
sweet potatoes, banana, yam etc
 Sasi is used before fruit harvesting
Durian (Durio zibethinus)
Damar resin (Agathis dammara)
Salawatu (Albizia sp)
Banana (Musa sp)
Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

13. Other forms of local wisdom
 Matakau is an effort to
protect natural resources by
giving a red mark from fabric
material on certain area. It is
believe that ignoring
Matakau will cause of bad
luck or disaster.
 Kewang, is a
traditional
village's
institutions that
used to monitor
and to protect
forest resources
in the village
territory
Nanaku
 Nanaku is used to
protect certain forest
areas – put a sign inside
the dusung or forest
Salele
 Salele is applied to
protect wild fruit trees
from destruction or
stolen before
harvesting by wrapping
the trunk tree with
coconut or sago leaf
Kewang

14. Local wisdom for conservation
Manusela National Park?
 The forms of local wisdom have showed
traditional forest management to protect
the community’s forest and used in
sustainable way – acknowledged by the
park management
 The park management could adopted and
implemented this system by integrating
this system in to park management such as
sacred places and sasi forest - Involving
the community for conservation of national
park
 This local wisdom give implication to the
current regulation of national park for
sustainable forest management without
damaging the forest.

15. Some efforts…  The park management proposed to revise the
NP spatial planning to exclude all villages and
agricultural land inside the park as enclave
areas in the forms of traditional use (sasi
forest) & cultural zoning (dusung) (2011)
 Agreement between the park and community
in Masihulan to protect the forest from illegal
timber extraction (2012) - the community
obtained legal permit to collect dammar resin
inside the park
 In 2012, local wisdom has been considered
for forest conservation of Manusela national
park, in order to respect indigenous peoples,
to give an opportunity for local people to
utilize their traditional land inside the park, to
build collaboration partnerships with
communities around the park, and to
strengthening the capacity of local people
 Promoting traditional forest management for
ecotourism in Manusela national park

16. Thank you
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org

17. Village profile
Description Sawai Saleman Horale Roho Kanikeh Manusela Kaloa
Village
establishment
1800s 1800s 1910 1953 1800s 1920
Land areas per HH
(mean)
2.52 2.6 37 8.75 3.685 29.07
Religion Moslem,
Christian
Moslem Christian Christian Christian Christian Christian
Total inhabitants
(people)
4,517 527 368 232 1868 499
Total HH 653 116 85 61 372 124
Original (HH) 568 102 78 61 342 122
Migrant (HH) 85 14 7 0 30 2
Σ person per
HH/mean
2-13 (6) 2-9 (5) 2-10 (5) 2-8 (4) 2-9 (4) 2-12 (5)