Traditional knowledge of land management in Maybrat District, West Papua Province, Indonesia: implication for agriculture development

Abstract

Abstract. Sagrim M. 2022. Traditional knowledge of land management in Maybrat District, West Papua Province, Indonesia: implication for agriculture development. Biodiversitas 23: 4145-4152. Traditional concepts of land management have been part of the local people in Maybrat, West Papua, Indonesia for generations. On the other hand, the governments, either at central, provincial, or local levels, promote agricultural development to enhance the well-being of the community in Maybrat and Papua in general. Thus, it is interesting to look at whether traditional knowledge and practices of land management in Maybrat can be aligned with development policies enacted by the governments. This research aimed to investigate the traditional knowledge of land management in Maybrat District to support agricultural development using an application of the socio-cultural approach. A semi-structured interview was applied for data collection representing communities of 24 sub-districts in Maybrat District. In total, 200 informants were selected purposively to obtain perceptual knowledge of the land-use system. The results showed that the local people benefit from natural resources in terms of social prominence, ecological prominence, economic prominence, medicinal prominence, energy prominence, and construction prominence. Agriculture is the main land use in Maybrat where it supports the livelihood of local people, especially in terms of economic benefit. Furthermore, the local people in Maybrat have been conducting their local wisdom to preserve the natural resource by using the traditional concepts where the local people have realized the function of vegetated land. Hence, development programs in the agricultural sector promoted by the regional or national governments could accommodate the local knowledge in land management. Yet, assessing the biophysical factors is necessary to monitor the dynamic of land management to achieve sustainability in socio-cultural, economic, and ecological aspects.

Abanfan matilon, a local wisdom in marine ethnoconservation system on the coast of Liki Island, Sarmi District, Papua, Indonesia

“…Subsequently, the socio-cultural values and institutions of the Papuan people in Indonesia became known as local wisdom, which was applied and practiced in many different aspects of life (Zebua and Waluyo 2016;Borelli et al 2020;Sujarta et al 2020;Sonbait et al 2021). This local wisdom includes research on natural resource management using a traditional knowledge method in the Arfak Mountains Nature Reserve in West Papua (Sonbait et al 2021), knowledge of sago ethnobotany by the Marind-Anim Merauke Tribe in Papua (Kadir et al 2022), traditional knowledge of land management in the Maybrat District of West Papua (Sagrim 2022), and hunting of wildlife by the Saubeba community in Manokwari West Papua (Sawaki et al 2022), and traditional harvesting of wild plants in a sustainable manner (Borelli et al 2020;Merritt et al 2021).…”