Environment, Vulnerabiliy, and Local People Adaptation

Oleh : Mangku Purnomo

1. Nature of Environmental Changes: Poor People Perspective

Climate change will influences all of countries where people are highly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. Resources degradation in rural area also was caused by logging, mining, and tourism. Green revolution as a main policy to increase agricultural production has brought environmental problems such as the excessive and inappropriate use of agrochemicals pollutes waterways, poisons people, and upsets ecosystems (World Bank Report, 2008:180). In the long term, process of agriculture activities will increase the variability of climate change because of it contribution in increasing carbon deposit in the climate system. According to the prediction of four methods (HadCM3, GISS, UKMO, and GFDL), climate change will decrease 5% of Indonesian rate of yield in 2080. Furthermore, Indonesian agricultural capacity will decrease -17.9% without fertilizer and -5% with fertilizer (Cline 2007:77) [1]. In upland areas of Indonesia, there are rapid less of agricultural production affected by global climate change (BENISTON, 1994:436)[2].

The most Devastating impact of climate change in Indonesia is the loss of food security, because unusual pattern of droughts and floods combined with the warming of the earth will devastate the food crops (SAGI, 2003:214, in David Brian Dewitt, Carolina G. Hernandez 2003)[3]. In 1998, rice production is estimated to have fallen by eight percent, the biggest single-year decline in the past two decades. The crop failure and the decline in family income will see the incidence of poverty dramatically increase (DIERMEN, in DARYANTO, 2008). Additionally, increasing input per agricultural production unit in order to adjust the climate change enhance the production cost. In fact, increasing agricultural production through intensification with more fertilizer also add the carbon to the air. It is new problem. In conclusion, the property rates in rural area more danger because of the climate change phenomenon.

On the local level, appearance of climate change and it impact had been understood in certain form. It had been depend on the local culture that people give meaning to their environment. That construction had been often different with the formal inquiry because it had been constructed by local community corresponding their experience and local knowledge. Every community has the specific knowledge and practice to shape their lives in order to survive in the variability environment. It is a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, involving by adaptive processes and handed through down by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and environment (BERKES, 2008:10)[4].

Local knowledge appears in certain areas with specific form but it also have the common values and features that are (1) Cooperation, (2) Family bonding and cross-generational communication including links with ancestor, (3) Concern for well-being of the future generation, (4) local scale, self sufficiency, and reliance on locally available natural resources, (5) right to land, territories and resources which tend to be collective and inalienable rather than individual and alienable, and (6) restraint in resources exploitation and respect for nature especially for sacred sites (POSEY and DUTFIELD, 1996 in ELLEN ET. AL., 2000:36)[5].

On the practical level, there are many forms of local knowledge presented by local communities to shape the climate vulnerabilities[6]. They are depend on the kind of climate vulnerabilities. For instant, in outer Indonesia, Kalimantan Island, when the El Nino of 1997 and the 2002 drought was occurred, the farmer can survive with their local knowledge through selling the rubber latex though it had low prices. Increasing prices of the others plantation plant such as palm, pepper, coffee, cinnamon, and cocoa did not enhance local farmer to cut the rubber trees though its ware not efficient. When the Drought and El Nino occurred, they could provide cash income from that commodity (PURI, 2007:46)[7].

2. Nature of Poverty in Rural Area: Poor People Perspective

Poverty is a classic question for the scholar but still important because of it emergence in all societies around the world, not only in the developing or under developing countries but also in the develop countries. Recently, in the post modernism period in which prosperity of existence of human being increasing dramatically, poverty still important because of the rapid increasing of poverty in the recent social live in face of environment and political changes. In the same time, debate on poverty also spread in the many subject of studies.

In the past, poverty was measured in terms of the share of the population with incomes below one poverty line or another. The definition of poverty needs to be broadened beyond the traditional expenditure based measures to include access to basic services such as health, education, justice and infrastructure. Not only physical indicator, poverty also is laid to extent of opportunities for people to participate in social and political decision-making. It is needed to capture poverty more rich and precise in order to get knowledge for subsequence studies and policy planning. CHAMBERS (1989, 1992) suggest researcher to combine both material and non-material dimensions of poverty in the strategy of analysis of poverty. Poverty analysis also includes the non-material dimension such as a set of interlocking factors, including physical weakness, social isolation, vulnerability and powerlessness.

Poverty phenomenon recently had been accepted as the consequences of interactional process in society in which persons or groups are lack to access economy, political and social obligation from the community. One of the innovation concepts is social exclusion. Social exclusion may therefore be understood as an accumulation of confluent processes with successive rupture arising from the hearth of economy, politic, and society, which gradually distances and places person, groups, communities and territories in position of inferiority in relation to centres of powers, resources, and prevailing values (ESTIVILL, 2003:19)[8].

As a structural process, poverty had been influenced by some external factor created and perpetuated rural poverty is that: (1) political instability and civil strife; (2) systemic discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or caste; (3) ill-defined property rights or unfair enforcement of rights to agricultural land and other natural resources; (4) high concentration of land ownership and asymmetrical tenancy arrangements; (5) corrupt politicians and rent-seeking public bureaucracies; (6) economic policies that discriminate against or exclude the rural poor from the development process and accentuate the effects of other poverty-creating processes; (7) large and rapidly growing families with high dependency ratios; (8) market imperfections owing to high concentration of land and other assets and distortion of public policies; and (9) external shocks owing to changes in the state of nature (for example, climatic changes) and conditions in the international economy[9].

In the local level in particularly household level in rural area of Indonesia, poverty had been caused by process of colonialism and modernization in which same of group in society can not access its[10]. “CULTUURSTELSEL” was operated by Dutch colonialism in 1830 changed the occupation system from the communal to the individual. Land as main means of production for farmers was enters to the market system. As a result, land was accumulated to the some group who can make use the colonialism policy. In the same time, poor farmers who got the land from the government planted as much as 20% of their land occupation with special crop such as sugar cane, coffee, tea, tobacco, and kina. In other hand, landless worked in the colonial plantation for 75 days every year as a substitute for their personal tax (WIRADI, 2005).

In the modernization period after the independence, impoverishing was continued with different ways. For instant, increasing of numbers of farmer in the KULON PROGO Regency will raise the numbers of poor rural households. Large scale of land ownership was getting smaller that influenced by inheritance culture of Javanese that distribute land to each descent. Therefore, in the long term, the number of household member plays a significant role to decrease land size ownership in each household (ZAMAL, 2008). Poor farmers also can not access non farm economy because of their lack of capital and human resources.

Nature of poverty in rural area is created by social structure through maintenance the cultural norm that shapes the traditional heritage mechanism though the changes of rural economy demand more wide land to reach the economic scale. It is coherent with GEERZT founding in which a heritage system in Java plays an important factor in narrowing land occupation. According to these founding, scarcity resources was caused not only by environment changes that ensure the degradation of land but also the nature of social system that exclusion the poor farmers from the mainstream of local economy.

3. Local People’s Mitigation and Risk Perception

According to UN/ISDR (2004, in THYWISSEN, 2006) mitigation is the Structural and non-structural measures undertaken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation, and technological hazards. Adoption and implementation standards and codes to protect the infrastructures, people etc., from extreme event base on an analysis of probabilities of event and the cost of implementation. Mitigation is the systematic actions to reduce the impact of environment changes including developing the indicator of risk, measuring the effect of changes if occurred, developing long-term risk reduction measures, improving technologies to prevent its such as constructing stronger buildings, evacuation method, manual procedure to avoid the disaster hazard. Mitigation includes both the planning and implementation of measures to reduce the risks associated with known natural and human-made hazards, and the process of planning for effective response to disasters which do occur.

On the local level, recently in light with the rapid increasing of environmental changes, people work in complex and uncertain environments. Naturally, they can develop mitigation to the environmental practices which eventually form the overall body of local knowledge. Mitigation and local knowledge adaptation are two of many kind of local knowledge employed by scientist and planner to get the adequate adaptation system in the vulnerability world. Local people in particular their traditional ecological knowledge related with the environmental changes have notice for the environment scientist because of it role in the conjunction of people adaptation in the environmental changes. In the planning process, growing recognition of the limits of conventional science in solving ecological problems of increasing complexity and magnitude has also resulted in calls for the incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge and practices into resource management and development (Wolfe et al., 1992)[11]. For instant, in the beginning of disaster, when the formal system offered by NGO or government has not come, the local knowledge can lead people to face and respond to the situation. Mitigation means taking actions to reduce the effects of a hazard before it occurs. The term mitigation applies to a wide range of activities and protection measures that might be instigated, from the physical, like constructing stronger buildings, to the procedural, like standard techniques for incorporating hazard assessment in land-use planning.

In this research, I will explore three main aspects of local knowledge related with the mitigations process that are: (1) classification and identification of natural phenomena, (2) concepts of cause and effect, and (3) concepts of natural resource processes. Firstly, related with classification and identification, local people have their own knowledge to classify and identify the natural phenomenon such as kind of rainfall, wind, cloud, dew, land slide, flooding, and so on articulated in local term. The categories of that term often different with the scientist because of the different point of view and methodology employed to construct the definition about environment phenomenon. If scientists tend to explore with the material dimension, local people with their traditional view that developed and spread from generation to generation. In this research, I will compare local knowledge and scientist point of view in order to get more clear comprehension.

Secondly, related with the concept of cause and effect of environmental changes, local people often connect the cause of the environmental changes with their world-view in spite of the fact that it can observe with the material view. King et all, (2008:390) cosmology view of Maori tribal plays the important role in the construction process of their knowledge about environmental changes though there are no single cosmological view among MĀORI. Cosmology in the certain level shapes the meaning of environment phenomenon and the relationship between human and environment. WALKER (1990 in King et al, 2008:390-391) noted that the MĀORI model of the universe about the environmental point of view presents an intimately connected between material and spiritual world in which one that conceptualises the environment as a total, integrated system. Compared with the premise of modern science based on the direct observation to explain the natural world with empirical matters, local knowledge has the significant differences[12].

The third one, to understand the concept of natural resources process, local people often relate the process of environmental changes with the natural power as a given phenomenon coming from outside community. Nature is angry because of the humankind in the wrong track. In TNBTS for instant, SUTARTO (2008) the eruption BROMO mountain was understood by TNGEERESE as a impact of un-ideal human behaviour in which they did not obey the traditional moral wisdom such as people become stingy, arrogant, gluttonous as a sign of unhealthy community (JAMAN EDAN). Flooding for instant, despite they know damaging forest and erosion are the main causes, community sin (DOSA MASYARAKAT) is the main cause of damaging. Individual who cut the forest or make damaging in the Javanese believe only an actor as a victim of unhealthy community. As a result, to explain the process of environmental changes, local people tend to related it with the outside cause and neglected the material causes. Local knowledge about mitigation further leads the people to perceive and calculate the impact of environmental changes in their live.

W., J., AMANN (2004:5) defines risk as a produce of (1) the frequency or probability of a “cathastrophic” event/disaster, (2) the scale of damage, as measured by number of people and the value of the material damage caused at the moment of the actual causal event and accounting for the susceptibility of the affected people and asset in which the value of the damage has an ecological, an economic, or a social dimension. According to this definition, risk is potential consequences (uncertain condition) of an event or activities on the human being, building, infrastructure, and other asset. Although, it definition base on the experts calculation, every community has own knowledge to understand risk. Comprehension of risk has closed relationship with the people mode of adaptation[13].

In Indonesia context, according to LAVIGNE ET., AL., (2008), the common assumption that hazard knowledge, risk perception and people's behaviour are closely related and conditional on volcanic activity is debatable. There are no direct linkages between a hazard knowledge and risk perception. People tend to refuse or underestimate the scientifically or statistically estimated risk. Than, LAVIGNE ET., AL., (2008) noted that poor risk perception of local people is characterized by an approximate personal representation of the volcanic processes, an excess of trust in concrete countermeasures, the presence of a physical-visual obstructions, or cultural beliefs related to former eruptions. Their basic knowledge of volcanic processes, personal experience of volcanic crisis, time lapsed since the last volcanic eruption, etc. did not change their perception of risk though they live in the most dangerous area[14].

Michael R. Dove, (2008) found that villagers living on Merapi have developed a system of religious belief, and a system of agro-ecological practices, that ‘domesticates’ the volcanic hazard. Based on that point of view, the villagers view eruptions as agents of change, often change for the good. Perception of risk merely can not explain the mode of people behaviour in the changing environment. As a result, making direct relationship between perception and human adaptation especially in Javanese culture will make faulty[15]. For this reason, it is important to understand the local perception of risk with the cultural aspect that shape local people behaviour.

Gaillard (2008) work in Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines suggested to balanced risk perception of volcano hazard with others risk perceptions to capture the influences of economic context and social hardship. They perception of risk was defeated by insufficient opportunity for making a livelihood in resettlement centres and strong attachment to native villages push people back to the banks of lava channels. Gaillard (2008) noted that everyday hazards of poverty and the threat to cultural heritage weighed heavier than seasonal natural hazard[16]. Therefore, to capture that condition, in this research I will employ the cultural aspect of local people perception on the environmental changes to riches the explanation of their behaviour.

Others factor that influence the local people behaviour is the differences intention of the local knowledge among them. In fact, Knowledge and access to knowledge are not spread evenly through a community or between communities. Differences of people objectives, interests, perceptions, beliefs and access to information and resources influence their knowledge to address the environmental changes. Differences in social status can affect perceptions, access to knowledge and, crucially, the importance and credibility attached to what someone knows. As a result, the marginal group in society is often has a poor knowledge compare with the elite group. Indeed, their social economic status decreases their capacity to address the environmental changes. Meanwhile, in the adaptation process, capability is the main factor determining human ability to address uncertain condition.

4. Local People’s Perception of Vulnerability

The term ‘vulnerability’ is used in many different ways by various scholarly communities. The resulting disagreement about the appropriate definition of vulnerability is a frequent cause for misunderstanding in interdisciplinary research on climate change and a challenge for attempts to develop formal models of vulnerability[17]. Wisner et al (2004) noted that vulnerability is the characteristics of the person or group and their situation influenced their capacity to anticipate, cope with resist and recover from the impact of natural hazards (an extreme natural event or process). It involves combination of factor that determines the degree to which someone life’s, livelihood, poverty and others asset are put at risk by discrete and identifiable event (or series or “cascade” or such event) in nature and society[18].

IPCC define vulnerability as the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity (IPCC, 2001: 995)[19]. CUTTER ET ALL., (2003: 246-249) divided vulnerability on two dimension both physical refer to inappropriate material environment to support human being and the social refer to inability of human social economic aspect. The last one, CUTTER ET AL., collected several concept socioeconomic status (income, political power, prestige), gender, race and ethnicity, age, commercial and industrial development, employment loss, rural/urban, residential property, infrastructure and lifelines, renters, occupation, family structure, education, population growth, medical services, social dependence, special needs populations.

ROGER FEW, (2003:50-51) noted that vulnerability not only a natural factor such as environmental changes but it also a social product[20]. Formerly, BLAIKIE ET AL. (1994) introduced the close relationship between vulnerability with the political and economic factor[21]. How to fine the real vulnerability in the community? T. Cannon, (2006:41-47) identify six component of vulnerability that are (1) Livelihood strength and resilience, (2) initial well being or base line of status, (3) self protection, (4) social protection, (5) government, civic society and institutional frame work[22]. Firstly, initial well being or base line of status consist a nutrition status, physical health, mental health, and security and identity. These components were determined by livelihood strength and resilience and security and freedom from stresses such as conflict and intra household differences.

Secondly, livelihood strength and resilience have five sub component that are: (1) financial asset (or capital), (2) physical asset, (3) human capital, (4) natural capital, (5) resilience of linkages between people and their employment, and (6) resilience of linkages people’s asset and their income streams. Than, these sub components were determined by their liability to damage in a given type of hazard, amount and quality of asset (capital) owned and accessible to person especially to enable productive and income generating and or self provisioning (subsistence farming) activities, dependent on their employment activities and other income generating opportunities when lacking productive asset and their risk disruption by hazard event.

Thirdly, self protection consist three main sub-components that are (1) adequate income, (2) availability of suitable material and technical knowledge, and construction skill, and (3) willingness to take necessary steps. These sub-components were determined by adequate livelihood to provide finances, access to relevant technology and construction techniques, motivation, and risk awareness.

Fourth, social protection consist all of components in the self protection plus technical regulation or technical intervention by higher levels. That sub-component were determined by an adequate revenues for the local or national government to do what is needed, a political will at local and national government level; this provides the motivation to implement building codes, mitigation measures, protection of schools and infrastructure, etc., and availability of relevant technical knowledge and ability to implement. It is also including level of scientific knowledge such as characteristic of technical practices (elitist?), quality and robustness of insurance system, type of science and engineering used by government and dominant group.

Fifth, government, civic society and institutional frame work affects the distribution of risk because they are dispose the allocation of different levels of vulnerability among groups of people. Government has also power to manage a country’s economic and social resources for development. The exercise of power in the resources management sphere naturally involves component of society that are the private sector, civil society and international organizations. It means, to explain the vulnerability related with the government and civic society actor must be laid at the context of exercise power in the resources management system[23].

According to the explanation above, vulnerability is therefore a socially constructed phenomenon influenced by institutional and economic dynamics. The challenges for vulnerability research are to develop robust and credible measures, to incorporate diverse methods that include perceptions of risk and vulnerability, and to incorporate governance research on the mechanisms that mediate vulnerability and promote adaptive action and resilience[24]. In this research, I will employ vulnerability concept that be applied consistently to studies of vulnerability and adaptation in a wide range of contexts by researchers with different backgrounds, concerned with the impacts of and responses to climate variability and change within human systems. In this term, vulnerability represents the interface between exposure to the physical threats to human well-being and the capacity of people and communities to cope with those threats. Therefore, in this research I am focus on local people perspective on environmental changes and its impact on their life as a guide to improve adaptation initiatives in the household level.

5. Local People’s Adaptation of Vulnerability

The concept of adaptation has been adopted in several fields including climate impact assessment and policy development, risk management, and natural hazards research (Smith et all, 1999). In the environmental context, Burton (1992) defines adaptation as “the process through which people reduce the adverse effects of climate on their health and well-being, and take advantage of the opportunities that their climatic environment provides”. Watson et al., (1996) define adaptability as “the degree to which adjustments are possible in practices, processes, or structures of systems to project or actual changes of climate”, and note that “adaptation can be spontaneous or planned, and can be carried out in response to or in anticipation of change in conditions”. Smith et al (1999) define adaptation as “Adapt” means to make more suitable (or to fit some purpose) by altering (or modifying). “Adaptation” refers to both the process of adapting and the condition of being adapted. Thus, adaptation is the patterns of behaviour which enable a culture to cope with its surroundings or adjustment to environmental condition including adaptive strategies and processes. Although mean of adaptation contain strategies, it entails a strategic, long-term decision which changes the relationship of a society to its resource base, such as undertaking long-distance migration or introducing new technologies (BATTERBURY and FORSYTH, 1999)[25].

Adaptation as a concept has many dimension that are (1) strategies among choice, (2) capabilities both individual and system, (3) encompassing area from local to global, (4) covering level from individual to institutional. Firstly, the individual and institutional selected certain activities to alter the stressor both from the outside and outside social system in order to diminish the risk in their well being. Secondly, capabilities shape the success of strategies and it depend on their capabilities to make use opportunities from the society and their self. NELSON ET., AL., (2007) define adaptive capacity as the preconditions necessary to enable adaptation, including social and physical elements, and the ability to mobilize these elements YOHE and TOL, (2001) describes the adaptive capacity as a characteristics of an individual, household or population group which enable it to alter and structurally reorganize its activities to diminish present threats to survival while enhancing its ability to address new risks[26]. Thirdly, the adaptation is not only in the local level such as community and household vulnerability in the every day live but it also including national, regional, continental, and global level. Finally, an individual is refer to the dynamic of person to alter the stressor involving the psychological process, belief, and attitude while an institutional is refer to set of norm, custom, and value in the society which promote the strategies conducted by society individual, household, group, or other social unit. According to the NELSON ET., AL., (2007) work, in this perspective an Actor-based analysis looks at the process of negotiation and decisions, and the systems based analysis examines the implications of these processes on the rest of the system. There are interconnectivities between actor as an active agent to influence the system and vice versa.

SMITH and SKINERS (2002:93-94) introduced the characteristics of adaptation that are: (1) intent and purposefulness, (2) timing and duration, (3) scale and responsibility, and (4) form. Intent and purposefulness means that adaptation was conducted by people have spontaneously or autonomously characteristic in the management undertaken to address a climate-related risks. Base on the timing and duration of adaptation, they differentiate on the three characteristics that are anticipatory (proactive), concurrent (during), or responsive (reactive). Scale and responsibility refer to at which adaptations occur (example for agriculture are plant, plot, field, farm, region and nation) and the agents who responsible for these adaptation (farmers, private industries, and public agencies). Finally, adaptation has many forms depend on the agent, scale, and the variety of the strategies chosen by agent[27].

As a process, adaptation has an adaptation cycle through space and time which draws the sequence event including several action and reason way and how people adapt to same stressor. E.E. WHEATON and D.C. MACIVER (1999:218) introduced five questions as a sequence event in the adaptation cycle that are; (1) what do they adapt to and why (adaptation for what), (2) how do they are adapt? (The processes of adaptation), (3) what impacts result (ecosystem, socioeconomic, and integrated system)? (4) how well they do adapt? (Evaluation), and (5) who and what system adapt? (Characteristics, goals, and values)[28].

6. Next Adaptation?

In light with cycle of adaptation above, Smith et al, (2001) introduced clearer frame work to analysis the process of adaptation in the environmental changes. There are four question to describe adaptation that are (1) adaptation to what? (Climate related stimuli-phenomena and time/space scale), (2) who or what adapts? (system-definition and characteristics), (3) how does adaptation occur? (Type process and out come), and (4) how good is the adaptation? (Evaluation criteria and principle)[29].

Figure 1 Adaptation to climate change and variability (SMIT ET AL., 2000)

Success of people adaptation to vulnerability was shaped by their capacity to address the uncertain condition. According to (SCHMUCK, 2000, in TRONDHEIM, 2002), capacity encompasses potential of a given civil society (1) To determine who may use coercive power, and its capacity to restrict such use, (2) To allocate resources efficiently and distribute resources equitably, (3) To mediate and resolve disputes and conflicts between individual members as well as among groups, (3) To identify problems and issues, develop solutions to those problems, and implement the solutions, (4) To instigate and facilitate processes in which individuals and groups with diverse and competing interests excel as a result of engaging in competition; and, society’s capacity to instigate and facilitate processes in which individuals and groups with common interests collaborate to reach a common goal or goals[30]. According to the explanation above, can Indonesian rural people mitigate and adapt to those worst conditions?

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[16] Jean-Christophe Gaillard (2008), Alternative paradigms of volcanic risk perception: The case of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research
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[25] Batterbury, S. P. J., and Forsyth, T. J. (1999). Fighting back: Human adaptations in marginal environments. Environment 41: 6–30.

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Farm Household Strategies in the Changing Environment

By : Mangku Purnomo

1. Why Households?

Household refers to the group of co-resident, people who live under the same roof and typically share in common consumption. Households are not simply the product of residence rules but are also affected by demographic, life course, and political economic factors[1]. On the field of household behaviour, the systematic wide range research in social science conducted by CHAYANOV in WALKER ET., AL., (2002:170) who observed that peasant households held farms of different sizes with varying levels of surplus production in which each stage in household life circle has different labour-consumer balance. He noted that mode of household economy (peasant) was different with the logic of capitalist economy. Recently, this assumption was refused because the basic assumption that the demand of labour in household economic system relative static has no consideration in the integrated market system[2].

According to the Dictionary of Anthropology (THOMAS BARFIELD, 1997:245), household is the economics unit base on common resident. Membership comprises a family or domestic groups that also may include hired labourers, and domestic servants. As a social unit, members and household have relationship with the extra-household environment. Between the members of household divided in different role that shape the mode of relationship each others. Recently, household definition broad beyond conventional term to capture for overlapping social groupings, including family or other members who may be physically dispersed but socially interdependent as a nature of industrial society. Household also has connection with the market system in their product and labour. The household remains a useful unit of analysis, although this term should be flexible enough to include a variety of different family forms and differently related, as well as non-related, members. It should also be flexible enough to take into account of the different interests as well as individual strategies of its members and should not assume that the household strategy is based upon consensus.

Household in sociology viewpoint divided on two categories that are nuclear and extended family. In the developing countries in particularly rural communities extended families are more common than nuclear families. Extended family is the basic unit and traditional family structure where adults, children, and kinship living in the same roof. The extended family may live together for many reasons, help raise children, support for an ill relative, or help with financial problems. Sometimes children are raised by their grandparents when their biological parents have died or no longer can take care of them. In the rural area when the resources especially land are abundant, demand of children are high for serving labours in agriculture production. Recently, in the light with improving industrialization, the numbers of extended families decrease rapidly (JONES, 2002, in ROBINSON and BESSELL, 2002: 229-230)[3].

In the other hand, nuclear household family is the basic unit and modern family structure where father and mother and their children without other kinship or servant co-resident in the same unit economy activities. Recently, children are not only descent relationship but also adoption relationship. Nuclear families ware believed as impact of industrialization process in which nuclear families more adaptive with the production process. All of household members served labour for the industrial system, so the traditional role that embedded in the extended household family such as child care and domestic work must be changed. On the post industrialist society, transforming from extended to nuclear family has critics that based on individualism and post modernism paradigm in which household more variety in reality (POPENOE, 1988)[4]. In this research I use nuclear family household (refer to household which based on nuclear family) and extended family household (refer to household which based on extended family) as KERZER´S term in his article on Household history and sociological theory.

To analysis the household strategies in developing countries in particularly Indonesia had been separated with the cultural and values aspect. It has significant impact on all of household and it member behaviour because of the fact that household as a social unit related and embedded with the culture of the society. HEFNER (2000) found that TENGGERESE society remain constant though commercialization of the TENGGER economy was occurred since the middle of twenty century when Dutch introduced cash crops that has more economic value. Integrating rural economic to the international economic did not change their culture as on the others part of rural Indonesia. Although the numbers of small landowning peasant increase, relationship between landless and land ownership remain stable in which patronage usually occurred in lowland area was not occurred. It means that social and cultural factors as well as values must be taken into account if we use household strategies as a method of analysis.

Additionally, source of local power was not come from the level of household wealth. It means rich people can not make use their wealth to control social structure as common rural area in Indonesia. On this situation, role of local institution that is ritual to distribute the wealth among TENGGERESE people is important. SUTARTO (2006:10) found that more than 12 kinds of rituals which had different meaning and purpose that had been done by farmer. All of ritual had involved community depend on kind and purpose in which rich people distribute their wealth to the others. On the TENGGERE tradition, participation of household on the ritual is their manifest to appreciative tradition. Feature of TENGGERESE tradition in light with Javanese mystic that found by MULDER (1978). Although in face of rapid modernization conducted by colonialism and Government in many aspect such as politic, economy, culture, and religion, and politic, TENGGERESE people always adjust and give meaning to the society and environment changes through their own culture.

2. An Analytical Frame Works of Household Strategies

The idea of household strategies has perennially resurfaced as a concept, a method of analysis and a unit of analysis in studying social life in different parts of the world (WALLACE, 2002). It relevant because of three factors that are: (1) The more women enter into the labour force, the more household strategies are likely to become more important because household must reallocated tasks to the different household and/or family members, (2) In the rapid social change, household are forced to become reflexive and draw upon different resources in order both to thrive and to survive, and (3) Where large parts of the economy are informal or becoming informal, households have to draw upon a range of resources both within and outside the household in order to manage their economic and social reproduction. The last condition is commonly in developing countries signed by process of agrarian transition in which farmers in face of many opportunities in side and outside farming system.

The household is my main analytic unit in order to explain the people's real-life economy and give deep explanation a bout how and why the natural resources scarcity appears base on poor households perspective and what and how certain strategy chosen by household to secure their live in face of resources scarcity. Household strategies are a concept that based on the motivations and agency of actors in society to capture the social base dimension of economic behaviour through looking at the intersection of different economies in household behaviour and as a unit of analysis, with a focus on households rather than individuals (WALLACE, 2002). In this respect, my analysis will be focused on the local perspective of causes and process of resources scarcity and explanation household strategies in that condition.

As a unit analysis, WALLACE (2002:281) noted that household remains a useful unit of analysis, although this term should be flexible enough to include a variety of different family forms and differently related, as well as non-related, members. It mean household not only base on descent membership but also by other reason. Household analysis also answers the former critics in which analysis of household tend to simplify in the family that based on descent relationship. In my strategy of analysis, although households are a main unit of analysis, individual also contribute to the intra household relationship in order to create fever strategies in face of scarcity. To get no doubt interpretation, I assume the families in the research area are dominated by standard household even though the number of non-standard family and non-family households may be increasing.

Strategy in the other hand is conceived as a plan of how one would behave in all the different decision situations that might occur during the certain condition. Household strategies are those implicit principles that guide household members when seeking household goods, whether of survival or social mobility. This suggests that people can choose, and choices make a difference, despite the economic or social constraints they face. Originally, the concept of strategy has been borrowed from the military and adapted for use in sociology, business, politic, and others subjects. Strategy connoted with the plan of action, goal, tactic, and choice that arrange by individual or groups. CROW (1989) noted that the term of strategy as a concept has applications well beyond the traditional term. It has been encouraged by neighbouring disciplines such as anthropology, economics, philosophy, and political science.

Because strategies are related with the set of choices, it also involves same exercise of power as a consequence of the nature of choice action. MANN (1987 in the CROW, 1989:3) noted that where one strategy is pursued in preference to another, the choice may have involved same some exercise of power, something implicit in the use of term such as ruling class strategies. For example, SAMIN Community in Java offered passive movement (they refused to pay the individual tax without violence) to the government to avoid military pressure (RICKLEFS and WAHONO, 2005:349-350)[5].

In the household, exercise of power appears when they earn or claim resources included the influx of material goods, education, government program, or others opportunity when they must negotiate with society. Certain strategies often sophisticated when it was in face of other strategies that developed by others actors. SCOTT (2004) identify that low class farmers did not against land lords directly to get resources from them, but they damage plant or works slowly as a pattern of resistance. To articulate their resistance in face of the power full opponents, low class farmers avoided direct action. It is form of farmer resistance as a common pattern in south East Asian peasantry.

Not only exercise of power, concept of strategy also has been used at many level of society such as society as a whole, institutions such as government, education, and religion, groups, and individual. Household has relevance as a strategy of analysis because of the weakness studies that used by survey did not adequate to capture the more detail and informative about the pattern of relationship and mode of power exercise between parties on society. It also answer when informal sector as strategy of analysis is difficult to study using conventional methods of analysis, such as surveys and secondary sources, it means that sociologists have had to look in more detail at the practices of households and at the way in which economic relationships are socially embedded (GRANOVETTER, 1985, in WALLACE 2002:279).

Poor household strategies not only depend on structural aspects such as value and norm but also their capabilities to transform resources become useful for their economy. Capabilities poor households affected their bargaining power with other parties in society who occupied resources such as landlords, government, local industries, and others. It also influences their means of negotiation strategies in face of value and norm the social conditions that produce poverty to maximize opportunities for their live. In light with above explanation, BEBBINGTON (1999) noted that the importance of the concept of strategy is that it is based upon the assumption that one must ask households or individuals themselves what they are doing in order to understand how they make sense of their own environment[6].

Household analysis also involves the live circle of poor household in order to depict the process of impoverishing from generation to generation. Historical perspective gives clear illustration about the process how poor households depend their resources occupation in certain event in their household life circle. Household circle analysis also gives important information about household decision making. In many literatures, heritage system in Indonesia is one of the main causes of losing land as important resources in rural economy (GEERZT, 1963)[7]. Household strategies can be viewed in several term depend on the focus of subject studies. On the economic behaviour term, household strategies are divided in both participation poor households in market and non-market sphere. The former refer to household participation in commercial market through sell their production and including household members in labour market. The later refer to social activities that aimed to gain social obligation and non market transfer resources through social ties that facilitated by local norm and value.

In fact, household has many strategies to secure their economy such as change the domestic work division[8] (SILVER, 1993, ESTES, 2005, VANDEWEYER, 2007), re-arrange intra-resources allocation including consumption and investment (FRANKENBERG, ET AL., 1999, DUFLO and URDI, 2008) time allocation (ILAHI, 2000), family size (MILLIMET, D.L., 2000), diversification to non farm income (BEBBINGTON, A., 1999, BARRETT, ET, AL., 2001), include in labour market via gender (SMITH, ET, AL., 2002, HYMAN ET, AL, 2005, JANE GRAY, 2006,) , migration (SILVEY, 2001), access to common resources (SUNDERLIN, 1997, CARR, 2005, SCWARZE, ET, AL., 2007, VANWEY, 2007) access rural-urban commercial market (EVERS and MEHMET, 1994), access to government program (RIEDINGER, 1994, ALDERMAN and LAVY 1996, ILO, 2006, LANJOUW ET, AL, 2001, Fernando, 2007) and social obligation (NARAYAN, 1999, BUTTERFILL, 2004), and child labour(BEEGLE, ET, AL, 2006, CAMERO, 2000, LORETTA, 2008).

Poor households can make use those opportunities depend on their capabilities to confront the social conditions that produce poverty (BEBBINGTON, 1999). He cited HABERMAS (1971) that was asset as vehicles for instrumental action (making a living), hermeneutic action (making living meaningful) and emancipation action (challenging the structures under which one makes a living). In society, poor households often access directly because of their low awareness. As a result, low-income households are substantially less likely to have access to institutions created by government to facilitate them to access financial resources (BEVERLY, 1999). Case green revolution in Indonesia, rich households can make used most of government program to modernize their farming whereas poor households did not.

According to the explanation above, I will use the household as a unit of analysis and strategies of analysis in which poor household in face of environmental changes choice several alternatives. An analysis also involves dynamic interaction and exercise of power that appeared between households, household and society, household and government, and among household members. Life circle analysis is also important in order to capture the process of how resources losing from generation to generation. Capabilities of household as an active social group to maximize opportunities are also important to give reason why poor household viable and not viable in face of environmental changes.

3. Household Strategies and Sustainable Development

Household is the vital component for promoting SD. Sutcliffe (2006) suggested involving changes individual behaviour as member of household to promote sustainable development (SD). Household, both as a unit of production and consumption will influence the supply of goods and services. For instant, in macro level, it is difficult to capture problem of the high paper consumption in the industrial countries that it enhances rapid deforestation in the tropical area without involving household both in producer and consumer countries. High passion of developing countries in tropical areas where rain forest laid to improve their economy benefit endorse household to include in the production chain. Poverty, low level of education and environment awareness in developing countries simplify damaging forest. In the other hand, high paper consumption as a pattern of household member behaviour in developed countries can not be changed easily. BARR (2003 in SUTCLIFFE, 2006) insist that public participation is important to address environmental problem in which he argue that strong sustainability cannot be implemented from above (SUTCLIFFE, 2006; 2).

SD as a concept was first formulated and promoted by World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in the popular term is “BRUNTLAND REPORT” as a reaction of the fault of development via modernization to increasing quality human kind around the worlds and environmental problem following it (WCED, 1987). That concept was created to address accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development Theories and practice of sustainable development have to be discussed and developed within a broad range of actors in different areas of society (Hull, 2008).

According to the WCED definition, SD is the new development approach that integrated different spheres of human activity in order improve their quality of live not only in current condition but also future generation through connecting social, economic, and environment in the one mutual relationship. Sustainable development approach involve the wide range of dimension (moral to practise), level or scale (local to global), and sphere (social, politic, and economy). Hull (2008) pointed that effective action in the name of SD is only possible if taken globally. Then he told that local or regional undertakings in this sphere may at best be seen to ease the symptoms of the crisis, while leaving it unresolved. He suggest to globe the socio-political, economic and technological and environmental dimensions, and one that links up with interests of all groups in society, all nations and all states.

Basic principle of SD is to enhance humankind well being accompanied with environment conservation through improving mutual relationship between human activities and environment. HARTMUTH ET AL. (2008) exist that beyond the vagueness concept of SD they introduce three interdependent general sustainability goals that are (1) securing human existence, (2) maintaining society’s productive potential and (3) preserving society’s options for development and action. HULL (2008;79) exist vision of SD that are (1) be construed and implemented in an integrated fashion, and in relation to all spheres of human activity (be they political, economic or social), (2) be integrated with such widely accepted social and ethical ideals as equality, social justice, freedom and solidarity, (3) be articulated in an emotionally charged way, understandable to all and favouring the taking to heart of the values and content carried, (4) be propagated and programmed in line with a reduction of the disparities between the poor (hungry) and the rich (both globally and locally), this being first and foremost associated with people’s self limitation of their over-consumption, and , (5) be accompanied by the elimination of armed conflict and the threat of war, and hence by progress with disarmament (HULL, 2008).

As the development strategy SD has three fundamental goals and seven dimensions. The former are an ecological, economic, social and humanitarian goal (MACHOWSKI, 2003 in PAWŁOWSKI, 2008). The dimensions of SD PAWLOWSKI (2008) are the moral, ecological, social, economic and legal, technical, political dimension. These dimensions were captured on the hierarchal relationship. In the moral dimension SD has principle of “imperative of responsibility” that it refers to the existence of a future for humankind at all and the conditions prevailing in the future (and thereby to the quality of life). In ecological dimension, SD emphasize on the activities to conserve nature and the landscape in order to the shaping of spatial order. On social dimension, SD prompts awareness of co-existence of human and nature as a equal position in which they respect each other. On economic, al of economic activities must include the environment value-on business sphere as well as Gross Nation Product (GDP). In the technical dimension, al of technologies that produce to provide human being including manufacturing must ecological friendly. Then, in political dimension, government must initiative the environment friendly through incentive and legal support and they include the local people in decision making process in development in order to improve political awareness on the environmental issues.

At this point, PAWLOWSKI (2008) also divided dimensions of SD in the three hierarchal categories. The moral dimension as a highest dimension lies on first level. Than ecological, social, and economic dimension lie as second level. Finally legal, technical, and political dimension lie as a third level. That dimensions on the analysis are not separated because of interception each other. For instant, ecological dimension involve economical and political dimension when the cause of environment damage is political action. Interception that dimension will apparent particularly in policy planning and the implementation program. It means, in SD strategies, hierarchal relationships must be integrated in the strategy of analysis.

At this point, how to measure the role of household strategies in order to secure their economy promote or not promote sustainable development? According to the Ecological foot-printing analysis (EFA), it can be identified through measurement the aggregates a range of individual consumption and waste components and converts them into the bio-productive land area required to support this activity. It is the cyclical process in which energy and other good was consumed and produced in the same quantity in the one unit. This approach suggested society to limit their individual consumption in the certain level of environment capacity to support their proper live (Sutcliffe et al., 2006). Practically, the problem of environment degradation is more complex than individual support to live because it is a multidimensional problem involves many actors, cultural, political, economic, and so on.

Wide range of analysis also fault to capture the problem of environment problem even tend to generalized problem in the macro level that neglected the role of local evident (BARR, 2001, in SUTCLIFFE, 2006). In the other hand, the individual approach is not adequate to address that problem. According to the many ways of poor household strategies above, this research will impute kinds of household strategies with the SD principles, goals, dimension, and level of SD. This research will answer the main question in SD debate is that do the poor household strategies damage the natural resources?

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[1] David I. Kertzer, 1991, Household history and Sociological theory, Annual review of sociology

[2] Robert Walker, Stephen Perz, Marcellus Caldas and Luiz Guilherme Teixeira Silva, Land Use and Land Cover Change in Forest Frontiers: The Role of Household Life Cycles, INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW 25, 2: 169–199 (April 2002)

[3] Kathryn May Robinson and Sharon Bessell, 2002, Women in Indonesia: Gender, Equity and Development, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002

[4] David Popenoe, 1988, Disturbing the Nest: Family Change and Decline in Modern Societies, Aldine Transaction.

[5] Merle Calvin Ricklefs and Satrio Wahono, 2005, Sejarah Indonesia modern 1200-2004, Serambi, 2005

[6] ANTHONY BEBBINGTON, 1999, Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty, World Development Vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 2021-2044, 1999

[7] Geertz, Clifford, 1963, Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in
Indonesia. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press.

[8] Sarah Beth Estes, 2005, Work–Family Arrangements and Parenting: Are “Family-Friendly” Arrangements Related to Mothers' Involvement in Children's Lives?, Sociological perspective, Fall 2005, Vol. 48, No. 3, Pages 293–317