People’s Perceptions about the Importance of Forests on Borneo

We ascertained villagers’ perceptions about the importance of forests for their livelihoods and health through 1,837 reliably answered interviews of mostly male respondents from 185 villages in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. Variation in these perceptions related to several environmental and social variables, as shown in classification and regression analyses. Overall patterns indicated that forest use and cultural values are highest among people on Borneo who live close to remaining forest, and especially among older Christian residents. Support for forest clearing depended strongly on the scale at which deforestation occurs. Deforestation for small-scale agriculture was generally considered to be positive because it directly benefits people’s welfare. Large-scale deforestation (e.g., for industrial oil palm or acacia plantations), on the other hand, appeared to be more context-dependent, with most respondents considering it to have overall negative impacts on them, but with people in some areas considering the benefits to outweigh the costs. The interviews indicated high awareness of negative environmental impacts of deforestation, with high levels of concern over higher temperatures, air pollution and loss of clean water sources. Our study is unique in its geographic and trans-national scale. Our findings enable the development of maps of forest use and perceptions that could inform land use planning at a range of scales. Incorporating perspectives such as these could significantly reduce conflict over forest resources and ultimately result in more equitable development processes.本研究通过对印尼婆罗洲与马来西亚婆罗洲185个村落的1837份有效访谈，调研获悉当地村民对于森林在其生计与健康层面重要性的认知。经分类与回归分析显示，这类认知的差异与多项环境及社会变量存在关联。整体趋势表明，婆罗洲地区居住于现存森林周边的民众，尤其是年长的基督教居民，对森林的利用程度与文化价值认知水平最高。民众对森林开垦的支持态度，高度取决于森林砍伐发生的规模：一般而言，用于小规模农业的森林砍伐被普遍认为具有积极意义，因其可直接提升民众的生活福祉。而针对工业油棕种植或金合欢人工林建设等大规模森林砍伐行为，其认知则更具场景依赖性——多数受访者认为这类砍伐会对自身造成整体负面影响，但部分地区的受访者则认为其利大于弊。受访村民普遍意识到森林砍伐对环境的负面影响，且高度担忧气温升高、空气污染以及清洁水源流失等问题。本研究的独特之处在于其覆盖的地理范围与跨国尺度。本研究的结果可用于绘制森林利用与民众认知的相关地图，从而为不同尺度的土地利用规划提供决策参考。纳入此类民众视角的考量，可显著缓解森林资源相关的冲突，并最终推动更具公平性的发展进程。