The impacts of changing nature management upon the people in three villages at the Ciremai Mountain, in Java, Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian government commissioned nine national parks to be established in 2004. One of them was Ciremai Mountain (15.500 Ha), which is located in West Java Province. The management practice for the Ciremai Mountain has changed at least three times: a limitation production forest management project, community forest management (In Indonesian: Pengelolaan Hutan Bersama Masyarakat (PHBM)), and the last one is a national park. This research was conducted in three villages: Trijaya, Linggasana and Pajambon. They were chosen because those villages are located at the foot of the Ciremai Mountain. The locals in three villages are dependent upon the forest, and accesses to forest resources are important for their incomes and livelihood. Also, this research indicates the different opinion from the locals. The locals in Trijaya at the beginning was disillusionment, however, the locals in Linggasana and pajambon have different perception. It is because the locals in Trijaya are not trust their leader, it has impact of the information they got. In conclusion, the roles of the leaders are very important in any organization, whether in high levels such as a regent or in lowest level such as a village. Good leadership and appropriate communication is a pre requisite for building of trust between leaders and their constituency and is a requirement for local people to understand, accept and adapt to changing management. Also, Leadership on higher levels, i.e. in this case at the level of the Kuningan regent, is also important. The replacement of Kuningan’s Regent in 2003 had consequences for the status of the Ciremai Mountain.