Resource Management under Stressed Livelihood Conditions : Changing livelihoods and management practices in the bufferzone of the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Kerinci District, Sumatra

Abstract

Poverty reduction in and around tropical forests and the reduction in speed at which natural tropical forests recede or become degraded, rank highly on the global agenda of sustainable development. The potentials of farmer-developed systems of sustainable forest management and agro-ecosystems, such as agroforests are getting increased attention in the global debate on potentials to merge conservation aims with poverty-reduction. Being mainly pre-occupied with conservation, the debate tends to overlook that rural livelihoods are no longer exclusively founded on agriculture and forest management With an increased integration into wider global networks, supra-local stresses and shocks are affecting the resilience and sustainability of livelihoods in the forest margins in different and not necessarily sustainable ways.

It is against this background and at various levels that this study explores the nature and links between the construction of resilient and possibly sustainable types of rural livelihood and the major resource use systems among several communities in the bufferzones of the Kerinci Seblat National Park in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. The complexity of these issues and the importance of not just global, but also local dynamics in the various resource use systems are studied during the economic crisis and its aftermath (1997-2003). Special attention is paid to the way agroforests and agroforestry systems are perceived and managed by the communities in the context of building livelihood security and increasing resilience.