Research Framework RESEARCH METHODS

III. RESEARCH METHODS

3.1. Research Framework

Sustainability in relation to forest ecosystems incorporates biophysical, economic and social aspects. The well-being of forest-dependent people cannot be neglected if sustainability is a primary goal of forest management. However, forest policymakers frequently think that local people do not have sufficient knowledge on sustainability. Forest managers use this situation as a formal reason to exclude forest-dependent people from their forest management schemes. Many forest managers believe that they will maximize their own benefits by not sharing forest management with others. On the other hand, many non-government organizations NGOs and people’s organizations are struggling to represent the interests of local people. This struggle, however, is often based on idealism and romanticism. The first hypothesis of this work - that local communities of forest- dependent people can define sustainable forest management criteria and indicators - indicates local community knowledge of sustainability. A comparison of scientific and local sustainability indicators tested the first hypothesis. If this hypothesis is accepted then rational policymakers have no reason not to include local people in current forest management schemes. Furthermore, because local people have been there for hundreds of years they should be made a priority in any new forest management scheme. Even if this hypothesis is rejected, forest policymakers still have to improve local people’s well-being and benefits they obtain from the forest, even without automatically including them in forest management. The next question to ask is how to actively involve local people in forest management if the first hypothesis is accepted? We also need to ask how to share forest benefits if the first hypothesis is rejected? Most production forests in Indonesia have been allocated to forest concession companies. Right now about 375 forest concession companies are operating. The operators have legitimate rights to manage forests. However, most of these forest managers think that the involvement of local people in their management will decrease their profit. The second hypothesis, involving local communities of forest-dependent people in the current forest management scheme would achieve better sustainability outcomes, was tested through developing a simulation model of forest actors. Scenarios of collaboration were proposed if the first hypothesis was accepted. Alternative scenarios of providing forest benefits to local people were proposed. A simulation model was used because assessing the real impact of policy options on natural forest management can take many years. Simple indicators of sustainability agreed to by forest actors were used in the simulation model to measure the impact of different scenarios. Through testing these two hypotheses, it is possible to propose a way to manage forests more sustainably. The research also proposes a way to integrate modern CI knowledge and local people’s CI knowledge, and to formulate agreed sustainability indicators among different forest actors.

3.2. Site