To fulfill their daily basic needs, these people make use of almost any natural resources found in their surroundings. Whereas beneficial species and varieties will be maintained and promoted, less beneficial ones from human perspective will be neglected and replaced by more beneficial introduced species or varieties. The processes of introduction, selection, and substitution are likely to occur at a broad scale as well as a local scale. Consequently, anthropogenic forests are gradually transformed into more productive agricultural systems with lower biodiversity. In Indonesia, agroecosystems play a crucial role in the national production system and are generally dominated by either wetland or dryland agriculture. In the case of West Java, bamboo-tree gardens are among the most common traditional dryland agroecosystem. Bamboo-tree gardens are locally known as kebon tatangkalan and in parts of West Java as talun, village gardens, or forest gardens. They have a multi-layered structure predominantly composed of a variety of bamboos and tree species, and they tend to have been developed and maintained by rural farmers through many generations. This agroforest has been in existence before 1900s, but nowadays in much of Java, particularly West Java, the area of bamboo tree-gardens has been declining because of the increased use of more intensive market-oriented agricultural practices. In most cases, studies on the bamboo-tree garden system have focused on biophysical aspects of this element of the agricultural landscape. This paper describes the perceptions of bamboo-tree garden owners in two villages of contrasting agroecological conditions within the upper Citarum basin with regard to the management of this traditional agricultural system. Perceptions relating to bamboo-tree garden management are important to the future sustainability of this socioeconomically and ecologically important traditional system.
Parikesit et al.pointed out the ecological importance of this agroforestry system by the fact that, nearly 80% of the bird species encountered in the study sites were found to use bamboo-tree garden patches as habitat. Some of the species found in bamboo-tree gardens are protected by the Indonesian law because of their rarity,hydroponic bucket ecological importance, and/or endemicity. In addition, bamboo-tree gardens also perform as a direct and indirect socioeconomic function such as providing food, fiber and fuelwood for local people. We expect that the results of the study described in this paper could and should be used to guide policies on the conservation of bamboo-tree gardens in the upper Citarum basin. Conservation efforts are necessary not only because this landscape element has an important ecological role and high biodiversity, but also because many low income rural people depend on the bamboo-tree gardens for fuelwood as their only source of energy.For each question, the answer was scored from 1 to 7, ranging from very negative to very positive perception . The score for every answer inevitably contained an element of subjectivity on the part of interviewers. Therefore, a probing questioning technique was used during the interviews. Where doubtful scoring occurred, the interviewer had to return to the respondent to clarify ambiguous answers. A single interview could last more than 2.5 hours. Information on agricultural land ownership and social parameters such as education level and main occupation were also collected. The questionnaire was divided into several categories related to the owner’s perceptions of their bamboo-tree garden or, in some questions, bamboo tree-gardens in the village . These categories were garden ownership; the socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological functions of the garden; management of the garden; recognition of any decline in bamboo-tree gardens in the village and causes for that decline; and the outlook for preservation of the gardens. Some of these categories consisted of several subcategories . For example, the first category, about the general attitude to owning a garden, consisted of three subcategories pertaining to socioeconomic status, cultural meaning, and economic benefit. The 56 questions were classified into each subcategory, and 33 major questions were chosen to reflect the major aspects of each category or subcategory. The codes used for the 33 major questions and a brief explanation of each major question are shown in Table 2. The remaining 23 questions were to provide supporting information related to the major questions and/or additional perceptions of the respondents. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with former owners and other relevant informants, such as the village leader, local farmers, and fuelwood gatherers, to cross check the answers given to particular questions by bamboo-tree garden owners.
Secondary data were collected from various sources including previous studies conducted at the present study sites. Data on the general characteristics of the villages were obtained from the village office. We performed principle components analysis of the perception scores. Eight respondents from Wangisagara did not answer all of the questions, so the answers of 58 respondents were available for analysis. The respondents’ scores on each PCA axis were correlated with external factors such as the area of agricultural land owned and education level obtained to determine causal relationships between perceptual rankings and external factors. Kendalltau rank correlations, a nonparametric measure of the degree of correspondence between rankings, were also calculated. The trends in respondents’ perceptions obtained from the PCA differed between Wangisagara and Sukapura. We tested differences in perceptions of the bamboo-tree garden owners between the two villages using the Mann-Whitney U-test on the responses to the 33 major questions as well as to some of the supporting questions. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 10.0 .The principle components analysis on the data set with 33 variables and 58 samples yielded five principle components or axes that had eigenvalues > 2. The eigenvalues for the first to the fifth axis, in order, were 5.25, 4.31, 2.90, 2.41, and 2.23 . Together, these five axes accounted for more than half the total variance . Factor loadings for each variable or question in the five axes calculated by PCA are shown in Table 4. Correlations between the five principle component scores and agricultural landownership are shown in Table 5. The size of bamboo-tree gardens was significantly positively correlated with the first axis and negatively with the third axis. The size of paddy fields was significantly positively correlated with the first axis and negatively with the second axis. The area of paddy fields was significantly positively correlated with the area of bamboo-tree gardens and negatively correlated with the area of upland fields. The latter correlation is understandable because respondents who owned paddy fields were predominantly in Wangisagara where there were relatively few upland fields . Figure 1 shows the factor loadings for the 33 questions and the principle component scores of the 58 respondents for the first and second components although the cumulative explanation of variance was about 30% for these two components. The scatter patterns of the respondents were different for the two villages; respondents from Wangisagara had larger scores on the first axis and smaller scores on the second axis than those of Sukapura.
Although the difference in the scores of the two villages for the first axis was not significant , the scores of Wangisagara tended to be higher, and there was a significant difference between the villages for the second axis . There were no significant differences for the third and fourth axes , but the fifth axis was correlated with the size of upland fields,stackable planters where Sukapura had higher scores . Regarding the relationship between social parameters and principle component scores for each respondent, there was no significant relationship for the three educational levels: no education, completed primary school only, and completed higher school . The PCA scores of respondents whose main occupation was farmer were significantly higher on the second PCA axis than those whose main occupation was non-farmer . Since all seven non-farmers belonged to the village of Wangisagara, we compared the relationship between the scores of the second axis with occupations of respondents of that village only; there was no difference. This means that the perceptions of respondents were not influenced by either educational level or main occupation. Along the first axis of correlation with the area of bamboo-tree gardens, perceptual categories such as economic and ecological functions of the gardens , management knowledge to improve productivity of the gardens , and willingness to preserve the gardens, especially with economic improvements , had higher values. The axis reflected generally positive perceptions on the existence of the gardens and indicated an economic dependency on the gardens. Regarding the second axis, perceptual categories having higher values were those that referred to management frequency, especially of the more intensive activities such as pesticide input, weeding, and tree management . Other categories with higher scores included the amount of time spent on maintenance , social functions , and awareness of the decline in the garden through conversion to cash crops . Scores with lower values were for socioeconomic status of the garden’s owner , maintenance cost , need for marketing support to increase produce values , and need for governmental support programs . The second axis would therefore indicate intensification of the management of gardens. Respondents who had higher scores along the axis presumably managed their own gardens intensively, while those who had lower scores were likely to depend on sources of income other than their bamboo-tree garden. For the third axis, which was significantly negatively correlated with the area of bamboo-tree garden, the questions with the five highest factor loadings were E2-1, B1-2, D3, E1-2, and D0, whereas the five lowest were A1-1, A1-2, A3, B1-3, and E1-1 . Since there were positive perceptions on garden ownership in a negative direction, the axis explained the degree of negative perception for social and economic categories. For thefourth axis, the five highest categories were C3-1, C1-5, C1-3, C1-1, and E2-2, whereas the five lowest were B3-2, B3-3, B2-2, B2-1, and D0 .
The association of perceived garden decline with positive perceptions on frequent management activities or with positive perceptions on social and ecological functions could indicate a perceptual contrast between whether the garden is seen as a part of nature or a part of the agricultural system. Finally for the fifth axis, which was significantly positively correlated with the area of upland fields, the five highest perceptual categories were D2, B3-1, D1-1, B3-4, and D3, whereas the five lowest were D0, A2-1, A2-2, B2-2, and B2-1 . Considering that the respondents of Sukapura had significantly higher scores on this axis than Wangisagara, it would appear to explain a perceptual difference. The farmers in Sukapura appear to recognize and accept a general garden decline for economic reasons, whereas those in Wangisagara appear to be alarmed by the decline because of the gardens’ longstanding role for subsistence and particular social functions.The responses to the two questions probing the self-perception of wealth and social status of bamboo-tree garden owners had consistent factor loadings on each axis for the first 2 PCA axes. For both questions, the mean values of the responses were higher in Wangisagara than in Sukapura . This difference suggests that the owners in Wangisagara village had more positive perceptions on the value of bamboo-tree gardens as an important asset indicative of their socioeconomic status within the village. Their perception was also confirmed by direct observation of their material possessions during the interviews and statements from key informants that bamboo-tree gardens are usually owned by families of the property owners of their village for generations. From the perspective of traditional and cultural perceptual categories, respondents in both villages had strong positive perceptions of the bamboo-tree garden as an important family asset inherited from their ancestors and that they in turn should leave as an inheritance to their descendants . On the latter question, the score was higher in Wangisagara . The income from the gardens in both villages was not large enough for most respondents to accumulate savings. Despite this, owners in both villages still had positive perceptions about the economic benefits of theirbamboo-tree gardens . Moreover, all respondents regardless of village provided a rank of seven to a supporting question about whether the amount of garden products was sufficient for their own consumption needs. The economic importance of owning the gardens was particularly well recognized in relation to subsistence.