アーカイブ

Despite this indigenous authority, the Wa people are in danger of losing their traditional culture. Major reasons include the remoteness of the region, the extreme linguistic diversity among the Wa, and the negative stereotypes outsiders hold on the Wa (such as they are headhunters and drug runners). Other reasons include the priorities of the Wa leaders, who often follow the Chinese model, using Chinese currency, Chinese phones, and having Chinese serve as the language for Wa official business. Related to this is the expansion of rubber cultivation in the area, often by Chinese investors in joint ventures with Wa leaders. Besides having a negative impact on the environment, rubber cultivation contributes to the “deskilling” of the Wa by which they lose their traditional way of life. A distrust of outsiders as well as the disinterest in Wa culture by the Wa leaders contributes to the loss of Wa ways of life.

The result may well be that the last Mon-Khmer indigenous culture will have lost its way. This could easily impede efforts to develop the region economically as well as scholarship on minority cultures in this part of the world.

TIn the rural areas of West Java, agriculture is still one of the most crucial sectors in supporting the daily life of rural people where the problem of resource-poor farmers mostly remain. Today many rural areas in West Java, especially in the upland, face serius problem such as environmental degradation and resource depletion. Agroforestry systems such as homegardens and bamboo-tree gardens have a potential role as rural ecosystem components to address such problems. These agroforestry systems are often touted as efficient and sustainable and can meet divers ecological, economic, and social functions. Homegardens and bamboo-tree gardens also help to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels by sequestering carbon in the biomass and soil. Yet in Indonesia and in West Java in particularly, the policy makers and local scientists have neglected these land use systems. Moreover in view of the recent trends of land use in West Java, these systems are under severe pressure. Many farmers have already converted homegardens and bamboo-tree gardens into cashcrop gardens. Using data from research on agroforestry in the upper Citarum watershed West Java-Indonesia and literature review, in this presentation I will examine these traditional land use systems, their current status and future prospects as a component of the rural ecosystem in search of sustainable rural development for natural resource management.