IN WEST JAVA, INDONESIA
Kusnaka Adimihardja
Introduction
The Mt. Halimun region in West Java is a complex of mountain ranges consisting of Mt. Kendeng, Pangkulahan, Perbakti, Sanggabuana, Halimun, Sangiang, Bengbreng, Beser, Suren, Talaga, Putri, Bodas, Kasur, Bancet, Surandil, and Herang. The elevation of these mountain ranges is between 600-1992 m. The size of the area is around 122,000 ha, consisting of a conservation forest of 82,000 ha, and a natural preserve of 40,000 ha. The natural preserve in the Mt. Halimun region is the largest in West Java, and was established by the Ministry of Forests in 1979.
The complex of Mt. Halimun belongs to the area of tropical rain forests in Java which still remain relatively "undamaged." In this area there still exists the possibility to preserve various kinds of plant-habitats which are quite complete. Forest conservation in the Mt. Halimun complex has been managed by the National State Forest Corporation, Unit III West Java, called "Perum Perhutani" since 1978. At the regency level, the management body is called the Forest Management Unit (Pemangku Kesatuan Hutan, KPH). The forest conservation area in the Mt. Halimun complex is managed by three KPHs, namely KPH Serang for the Banten area, Bogor, and Sukabumi.
The management of all the natural preserves is the responsibility of the Dorectorate General of Forest Protection & Natural Preserve (Perlindungan Hutan dan Pelestarian Alam, PHPA) of the Dept. of Forestry. At the provincial level, the management is carried out by a body called the Natural Resource Conservation Agency (Konservasi Sumberdaya alam, KSDA). Accordingly, West Java belongs to KSDA III with its centre in Bogor. The field officials of PHPA are called "forest policemen," whereas the KPHs of Serang for the Banten area, Bogor, and Sukabumi are in charge of the management.
The Mt. Halimun complex is an important habitat local for flora and fauna and thus the protection of the complex is a key to the conservation of these species as was implied by FAO (1978: 2). In area, around 4500 species of flora and 465 fauna and aves were noted reference. As well, the area of Mt. Halimun plays an important role in the management or the steering of the hydroulic system of the River Flow Region (Daerah Aliran Sungai, DAS) in the valley and lower parts of the Mt. Halimun area. Mt. Halimun is the watershed for many large rivers which flow nortward and southward from the complex (see Map 1).
The future of the Mt. Halimun environment will be determined by several
groups namely the Perhutani, PHPA, and the "forest people" whose descendants
have lived in the region for generations.
Kasepuhan: The Forest People
Surrounding Mt. Halimun, there is a social group who still follow a traditional way of life. They are called the kasepuhan. They live in small groups in the southern areas of Banten, Bogor, and Sukabumi on the slopes of Mt. Halimun (see Map 2). They earn their living by collecting forest products, gardening, and rice planting both in wet rice fields (sawah) and in dry swidden fields (huma or ladang). This still constitutes their main method of livelihood today.
Kasepuhan comes from the word sepuh meaning "old." Kasepuhan
thus refers to a community or social group in which all the members
or the group base their social activities on old or traditional customs
(Adimihardja, 1993). Their daily pattern of life is strongly linked to
the forest ecosystem. They practise a pattern of forest management which
is implemented by each subsequent generation, in accordance with its natural
environment, social economic conditions, and socioculture rules. This is
illustrated by their farming activities which are followed by various traditional
ceremonies (Adimihardja, 1992). However, their management of the surrounding
forest has undergone many changes due to various endegenous and exodenous
factors, such as the influence of outside agriculture technology through
extension programs, better education, the influence of Islamic teaching,
the influence of the peddlars of daily needs from outside the village,
the influence of radio and TV programs, etc. These influences have had
impacts of the loca socioeconomic, and sociocultural systems as well as
the forest ecosystem. However, the basic traditional values of the kasepuhan
so far are still showing the characteristics of land exploitation system
around Mt.Halimun.
Kasepuhan: Perception of the Forests
The kasepuhan way of preserving the forests is revealed in their perception of the forests. Based on their knowledge and belief systems of the forests as the source of life, they recognize three forest types. The three types of their forests perception are as follows:
Sampalan Forest: Biodiversity and Traditional Land Use
In accordance with their perception of the traditional forest, the process of land utilization around the sampalan forests by the kasepuhan people who live in the village of Sirnarasa in south Sukabumi used to happen as follows :
The kasepuhan people traditionally cultivated land as huma
or ladang. The species planted were seed (pare gede or cere
and angsana variety) mixed with millet (kunyit: Panicum
viride L.), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.), sesame (wijen:
Sesamun orientale L.), and job’s tears (Hanjeli: Coix lacryma jobi
L.) as a boundary around the huma or ladang. To enrich
various kinds of food, they also cultivated various kinds of wild plants,
and nowdays they use cultured plants, such as arbila (roay: Dolichos
lablab L.), cucumber (mentimun: Cucumis sativus L.), cucurbitous
plant or a climbing plant (emes: Luffa acutangula), vegetable with
very hard pea or bean (jaat: Phaseolus tetragonolobus), pumpkin
(waluh or labu: Cucurbita moschata), egg-plant (terong:
Solanum melongena), cayenne pepper (cengek or cabai rawit:
Capsium frutescens L.), red pepper (cabe beureum or cabai merah:
Capsicum annuum), corn (jagong or jagung: Zea mays L.), its
fruits is like roes of fish (turubus or trubus: Saccharum
edule Hassk.), yam (boled or ubi jalar: Ipomoea batatas
(L) L.), cassava (sampeu or singkong: Manihot escullena Cranzt.).
A recently abandoned huma or ladang is called jami and
can be developed into a mixed garden, gardens or wet-rice field (sawah).
A mixed garden is an area planted with various species, it is a distance
from the village and the frequency of cultivation is not intensive. Reuma,
is a jami area which has become covered in bushes and is
planted by with seasonal trees. Most of them are fruit trees, such as (peuteuy
or petai: Parkia speciosa Hassk.), the name of the tree
and its fruit, which is a concatenation of large round beans in a black
pod or stinky stuff (jengkol: Pithecelobium jeringa), fruit with
pungent smell and taste (kadu or durian or duren:
Durio zibethinus Murr.), mango (buah or mangga: Mangifera
indica L.), banana (cau or pisang: Musa paradisiaca L.),
coffee (kopi: Coffea canephora Prierre ex Frolhner),
clove (cengkeh or cengkih: Syzygium aromaticum (L) Merr and
Perry). Establishing the trees is a sign the land was cultivated
by someone. If someone else re-opens the land for huma, the products
remain the property of the previous farmer. The integration of wild plants
and cultured ones forms a mixed garden. The pattern of planting and harvesting
in the huma or ladang or (or swidden agriculture) of the
kasepuhan people is shown in Table 1. A jami area not far
from the village that they cultivate intensively with dominant plants for
food medicine and sale usually is called a kebun (garden). This
garden is usually situated close to the village. According to an expression
of the Kasepuhan of Sirnarasa, undeureun keur deungeun
sangu "a garden is a place for picking vegetables to make food tasty."
Various kinds of plants found in the garden are shown in Table 2. Sawah
or wet-rice fields can be developed when there is water flow to the
fields. The kasepuhan people also cultivate fish in the wet-rice
fields during the three month-interval after harvest. Also found in the
sawah are wild plants that can be eaten as such as genjer, eceng,
gelang, whereas on the edge of sawah, they plant such species
as such as roay, kacang panjang, mentimun (see Table 3). When
people come and stay in an area of the jami on establish a new settlement
it is called ngababakan (pioneer settlement) and if more
people come and stay in the new settlement then it may develop into a new
village (kampung). Forest land use leading to the perception and
practise of kasepuhan people is shown in Figure 1.
Kasepuhan: Strategy of Polyculture
A mutual understanding in the system of forest management between forestry government officials and the kasepuhan people about forestry management practices is very important for the conservation of the Mt. Halimun forest ecosystem. Forestry officials today have begun movely away from the forestry management system which has existed since the colonial time which can be simply understood that "the forest is only for the lives of flora and fauna." This perception is, of course, not valid for the people living in the forest generation to generation, such as the kasepuhan who live around Mt.Halimun. The old system was not in keeping with the sociocultural traditions of the local people. The differences in perception between the forestry officials and the local people resulted in conflicts in the past. Nowdays the forestry officials around Mt.Halimun have started trying to understand the sociocultural tradition of the kasepuhan people. They are working cooperatively to maintain the integrity of the forests, by developing a regreening program to repair the damage forests areas by means of the so-called tumpangsari or "inter cropping." The forestry officials are trying to mobilize the kasepuhan people to intensify their farming as it is socioculturally, economically, and environmentally useful to their community. In this way, swidden can still be done through "inter cropping." The mixing of subsistence production of rice and commodity production is more likely to extend the basis of farmers productivity (Evers, 1988: 173; Adimihardja and Iskandar, 1993). As well, the forest officials with the support of local NGOs have offered support to increase the quality of the local handicrafts, and to supply young plants for the re-greening programs.
Shared activities between the forestry officials and the kasepuhan people may help develop a common view about the situation around Mt. Halimun and can be seen as an effort to support the community’s role to maintain the integrity of environment. The dynamics of the people are a form of social energy (Soedjatmoko, 1986; Adimihardja, 1993) which can the develop the rational creative action which grow through the changing process management as a social learning process. In this context, the interaction between human beings, culture, and environment can be perceived as a progressive contextualization process (Vadya, 1969; Purbo, 1986; Adimihardja, 1993).
Hence, to prevent a lack of food without destroying the environment through the exploitation of land in a certain limited ecosystem, the kasepuhan people developed a plant diversification strategy aimed to intensify the area. In this way, they can cultivate various kinds of plants to support their daily needs. As well, they also cultivate several seasonal plants and vegetables which have a high economic value, such as clove, coffee, petai, durian, bananas, red-chili, sawi, pond-fish, etc. These efforts are very profitable for the people of kasepuhan, and conserve the forest. These happen because the diversity of plants does not change the forest characteristics, it is even enriching the forest biodiversity.
