Environmental communication in community-based conservation movement: Lesson from the Masigit Kareumbi Hunting Park, Indonesia

Abstract

Environmental communication plays an important role in articulating environmental and disaster issues such as global warming, rising sea surface temperatures, pollution, and nature conservation. Not only delivering information and dialogues on environment, but it also manifests through actions such as protest, posters, movies, and concrete participation. Inevitably, the nexus of environmental communication in Indonesia should lie in its action involving community participation in the conservation movement. Therefore, this study seeks to explain the symbolic action in The Masigit Kareumbi Conservation Movement. This research used a qualitative method with a single instrumental case study strategy approach by taking a case of The Masigit Kareumbi Conservation Cadre School and benefitted from environmental communication functions and participatory communication. Data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews, direct observation, and literature study. The result is the symbolic action in this conservation movement has served two functions in environmental communication: pragmatic and constitutive. The pragmatic function is discovered through educational sessions and discussions on conservation in the hunting park for protecting wilderness area. The constitutive action is laid out by fostering relationship and worldview with nature through hiking, flora, and fauna lessons, and seeking the meaning of nature for students involved.