NEWS

The Relationship between Humans and Nature in Indonesia

4 March 2022

 

 

Written by Dwi Any Marsiyanti

Ecological crises threaten communities around the world, from overpopulation to unsustainable practices of resource depletion and waste disposal. A glance at the major environmental problems facing the planet reveals humankind is directly responsible for much of the recent destruction of the world’s ecosystems. With human activity damaging the natural world, this begs the question how do humans view nature?

The Human and Nature Research (HAN) project is being conducted in various parts of the world. This research aims to discern people’s views on the relationship of humans and nature. These views fall largely into four categories: humans as masters over nature, humans as stewards of nature, humans as partners with nature, or humans as participants in nature. In 2007, research was conducted in Canada and the article published for this research is “Humans, Nature and God: Exploring Images of Their Interrelationships in Victoria, Canada” (de Groot and van den Born, 2007:324-351). While in 2012 the survey was conducted successfully in the Netherlands, France, and Germany (de Groot, 2012: 1-9). The latest research was in Vietnam (Duong and van den Born, 2019: 9-21).

In 2022, the HAN project resumes in Indonesia. This is a collaborative research project between the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), a consortium of the Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sunan Kalijaga Sate Islamic University, Duta Wacana Christian University, and Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Originally scheduled for 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project.

The HAN research in Indonesia is considered different from the previous research in Canada, Europe, and Vietnam. In Indonesia, the initial idea was that HAN research would scrutinize the four HAN categories by adding religious aspects to the questionnaire to account for Indonesia’s religious diversity. In addition to adding religious items to the four existing categories, the HAN research team in Indonesia and the Netherlands agreed to include two additional categories as regards humanity’s view of nature, namely the interdependence of humans and nature and nature as a threat.

HAN research in Indonesia will be conducted in ten areas (Aceh, Jambi, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Kupang, Samarinda, and Denpasar).  Project leaders chose the ten research sites based on demographic considerations and specific social, cultural, and religious issues. For instance, Aceh was chosen because it is an overwhelmingly Muslim majority area; it is distinguished from other regions for its sharia law-based administration. Jambi has a population of Orang Rimba, indigenous groups with their own unique beliefs. Researchers deemed Jambi potentially interesting and wanted to see how the people in the area view the relationship between humans and nature, and if their perception differs from other groups. Meanwhile, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya are the five largest cities on Java Island that each have their own particular problems from flooding, sea level rise, volcanic threat, pollution, and overpopulation. Samarinda is the capital of East Kalimantan, which is problematic due to its socio-cultural context and ecology-related mining issues. Kupang is a Christian majority area while Denpasar is Hindu majority.

From 19–21 January 2022, local researchers from the ten research areas spent three days together for a preresearch workshop at the Sambi Resort, Kaliurang, Yogyakarta. The profile of local researchers was crucial. Most of the local researchers hold master’s degrees in social science, anthropology, history, psychology, and other social studies majors. All of them are locals in respect to their research sites. The locality issue is considered prominent as a strategy for eliciting as many variations as possible for the survey respondents.

During the workshop, materials needed by the local researchers to conduct the research were shared and taught. The workshop began with the session on “the introduction and research overview”.  In this session, all local researchers were given the opportunity to get to know each other. It was then followed by an introduction and an overview of the project, including the information on the background of the research and why the ten areas were chosen. This session was led by Dr. Samsul Maarif, the director of CRCS.

The next session was “Introducing Religion and Ecology”. ICRS has an academic course on Religion and Ecology. The Indonesian research team thought that the content of this course could be useful for local researchers to grasp the current issues on religion and ecology. Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir, the director of ICRS, led this session. The research remains in its direction to seek the vision of humans in imagining the relationship between humans and nature.

The final session for the day was “Humans and Nature” led by Prof. Frans Wijsen from Radboud University. Before the workshop, local researchers received academic articles from HAN projects in Canada, Europe, and Vietnam. In this session, the nature of the HAN project was discussed with the local researchers.

The second day of the workshop started with a session on quantitative research methodology. Dr. Mohammad Yusuf from the Cultural Science Faculty of UGM provided the group with the knowledge needed for conducting research using quantitative methodology. The HAN research in Indonesia uses a mixed methods approach. Local researchers will need a minimum of 100 respondents who answered all questions in the survey. This will be followed by in-depth interviews with a minimum of the 12% of participants.

The following session was “Introducing HAN Scale Research”. The original HAN scale that the Indonesian team received was in English. To be applicable to the Indonesian community, it had been translated into Bahasa Indonesia. This process took place long before the preresearch workshop. The original HAN Scale was then adapted to Indonesian circumstances by adding several questions and creating the two additional categories mentioned above. The survey and selected interviews will be conducted until mid-2022. The results of the research will be published as an article by the end of 2022.