Social Capital of the Local Community in Forest Conservation for Disaster Mitigation
Sudirman Daeng Massiri (a*), Hendra Pribadi (a), Anwar (a), Golar (a), Naharuddin (a), and Hamzari (a)

a) Forestry of Faculty, Tadulako University, Jalan Soekarno Hatta Km 9 Palu 94117, Indonesia
* sudi_untad[at]yahoo.co.id

Abstract

Local communities living around forest areas are vulnerable to hydrometeorological disasters. On the other hand, some local communities with high social capital can conserve forest areas for disaster mitigation. For this reason, the government and several donors promote community-based forest conservation programs for disaster mitigation. However, several researchers have also revealed that high social capital could not encourage collective action in forest conservation. This research applying a descriptive approach to the community of Salua Village, Kulawi District Sigi Regency, revealed that high structural social capital could not create collective action in forest conservation for disaster mitigation, even though most every year these villagers face the problem of floods and landslides. The structural social capital of the Salua village community was moderate to high in terms of forest conservation but had cognitive-social capital in the moderate to low category. Forest conservation and disaster mitigation programs have only been carried out by elite groups in the village but have not involved community groups that interact directly with forest areas. This study recommends that forest conservation and disaster mitigation programs be planned by involving community groups that interact directly with forest areas.

Keywords: Social capital, collective action, local community, forest preservation

Topic: Climate Change