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

Abstract

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.