Exploring biological diversity, environment and local people's perspectives in forest landscapes. Methods for a multidisciplinary landscape assessment.

Sheil, D. , R. K. Puri, I. Basuki, M. van Heist, M. Wan, Rukmiyati, M.A. Agung Sardjono, I. Samsoedin, K. Sidiyasa, Chrisandini, E. Permana, E. Mangopo Angi, F. Gatzweiler, B. Johnson and A. Wijaya. 2003. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. 2nd Edition.

The characteristics of forested landscapes are usually critical to their inhabitants, but the significance of these relationships is largely hidden from the outsider. The challenge is to understand what aspects of the landscape local people care about, why they matter and how much. The groundbreaking approach reported in this book was developed during a study of seven communities in the forest-rich upper portion of the Malinau watershed in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. A village-based survey collected a wide range of qualitative and quantitative information about the judgments, needs, culture, institutions and aspirations of the communities, and examined general perceptions of the local landscape. A parallel field survey assessed sample sites and recorded soil, vegetation and other site characteristics through both 'scientific' and indigenous approaches. These field methods emphasized landscape-scale characterization through high replication of small data-rich samples, and assessments of community territories based on these samples. Two hundred research plots were established and about 2000 plant species recorded, representing a 'baseline', 'exploratory' or 'diagnostic' phase within a longer- term research strategy. Decision makers require guidance on how to deal with the needs of local communities and biodiversity in landscapes. This book for the first time brings together a suite of effective methods to address this. The techniques provide conventional biophysical descriptions of the landscape and explicitly relate this information to local needs, preferences and value systems. These methods can be used to guide future research and to make recommendations on options about land use and policy. The methods described in this report also provide a foundation for deeper dialogue with the forest communities.

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