A story of community resilience : seeing beyond the success and failure of community-based conservation in Jambi and Papua

Description

The story of community resilience that we told in this book does not aim to offer a doom-andgloom situation to forest conservation or community livelihood. On the contrary, we acknowledged that shocks and crises in Papua and Jambi come in various forms. Nonetheless, we found that resilience is well developed in Papua and Jambi, which is reflected in two important aspects: the adaptability of communities in developing diverse livelihood strategies and their perspective on the future.

The way communities move flexibly rom one economic mode (market economy) to another (subsistence), from global value chains to local food systems, is shown to reduce their vulnerability to shocks. People also see their gardens, livestock and especially their vast forests as savings, which are not always clearly valued, but which they believe will always be there as a safety net in times of uncertainty. Over time, these communities have experienced several major shocks – falling commodity prices, economic crises, external pressure on forests, as well as pests, diseases and extreme weather due to climate change. At the same time, they have proven to be resilient to these shocks.

Our message, however, should be clear: a resilient community does not mean that the state is free of its responsibility. On the contrary, the government should provide as much space as possible for these communities to build a balanced and healthy relationship with their ecologies. The politics of care (Gibson-Graham 1997; Mol et al., 2010; Puig de la Bellacasa 2011) means that we should listen more to what the local people need and to believe in their ability to care for the forest. This includes revisiting some of the indicators used to measure the success and failure of forest conservation. So, instead of focusing on the hectares of social forestry created and the number of households involved, we can see better through indices such as diversity of income, quality of life, access equality, social capital, and trust.

Ultimately, resilience is built like a love story – between spouses, parents and children, leaders and commoners, older and younger generations, and between people and nature. Resilience is built through strong social (ecological) bonds, mutual openness and respect, and a positive outlook on the future. The values inherent in this love story help the community survive and thrive in the face of shocks – and thus build into a strong conservation action. When people are asked about what the most important things in their lives are, their answers include their family, children, loved ones, and their home and land. It is this love story that hold people together in the face of shocks and crises, and build into their resilience. In the end, it all boils down to answering this question: What do you consider most important in your life?