Land use is changing rapidly in SE-Asia from forest to landscape mosaics with various degrees of tree cover. The upper Way Besai watershed - about 40,000 ha upstream the Way Besai hydro-power dam - covers most of the subdistrict of Sumberjaya (54,200 ha) and exemplifies the rapid land use changes. It was transformed in the past three decades from a large forest cover (> 60 %) to a mosaic of various smallholder coffee systems with rice paddies in the valleys and about twelve percent of forest cover. This happened with a simmering and over the past 10 years sometimes violent conflict. Any in-depth understanding of the changes has to be based on a historical perspective and an accurate monitoring of land use and land cover changes over at least a few decades. A systems analysis approach was used to analyze the importance of fluctuation of world market prices of coffee, population growth, migration, and road construction on land use change and watershed functions. It seems that after a phase of degradation, rehabilitation can occur, if the conditions are right. Over the past 15 years more and more former monoculture coffee farms gradually transformed into mixed systems with shadow trees. A remarkable observation is that while deforestation was still going on, a phase of ‘retreeing’ took off already. The economic crisis in SoutheastAsia, which affected Indonesia to the utmost extent since late 1997, was in fact a period of economic boom for this export-oriented watershed, although the year-to-year fluctuations of coffee prices are dramatic. This paper explores past trends of land use change, their driving factors and how farmers (and government departments) are responding to continuous changing conditions.
Tahun publikasi
2004
Penulis
Verbist, B.; Putra, A.E.; Budidarsono, S.
Bahasa
Indonesian
Kata kunci
sustainability, land use, watershed management, agroforestry
Geografis
Indonesia
