New ARMAD mapping effort links Asmat culture and conservation

IPCA is launching the Asmat Resource Mapping and Documentation (ARMAD) project, an important new initiative to map rainforests in the Asmat region of southwest Papua, Indonesia. It will also document the local Asmat cultural traditions that are closely linked to their forests, rivers, and seas, and which may otherwise soon be lost.

ARMAD reflects IPCA’s cultural approach to conservation, which understands that the most appropriate and most effective way to achieve conservation success in Papua is to strengthen the local traditions that have protected their environment for generations. For the mapping, IPCA team members and our partners from the Asmat Traditional Council (Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Asmat, or LMAA) will travel to a critical area of Asmat and work with local villagers to map the forests and their resources, as well as the adat (cultural traditions) that governs their usage. This is vital because much of this knowledge will disappear with the passing of older generations of Asmat leaders.

IPCA is in close communication with the local government (kabupaten) in Asmat to coordinate ARMAD work with ongoing official spatial planning. The project has received strong support from the head of local government, Bupati Mr. Yufen Biakai. The IPCA team will also work closely with the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats.

The Asmat people, with one of the most renowned woodcarving traditions in the Pacific, live in one of the world’s largest pristine tropical rainforest areas. Biodiversity and culture are closely linked there, and the Asmat depend on natural resources for almost all of their needs. IPCA’s program, developed in partnership with LMAA, is geared not only towards habitat protection, but also broadly supports elements of Asmat culture and society that are essential to long-term conservation.

The Asmat region lies both within and adjacent to Lorentz National Park, the largest national park in the Asia-Pacific region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Asmat consists of about 1.9 million hectares (7,300 sq. miles) of mangrove and lowland rainforest, and borders the Arafura Sea, one of the most productive marine fisheries in the world.

ARMAD will document why different aspects of the landscape and biodiversity matter to local people, how much it matters, and to whom – with careful noting of status and gender differences. It will combine participatory community surveys, satellite GPS measurements, and biological information to assess habitat from social, cultural, and biological perspectives. ARMAD uses an adapted form of landscape assessment methodology developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Bogor, Indonesia. This process identifies socially critical habitat as well as culturally sacred forest areas. ARMAD is also an important tool to identify and discuss current and future threats to Asmat’s forests and waters, to illustrate its importance to younger generations, and thereby will enhance the conservation message throughout all village social levels.

ARMAD will train Asmat leaders from other areas so they can learn the mapping and documentation methods and apply them to other areas of Asmat. This information has been requested by the Bupati, Mr. Yufen Biakai, to help local and provincial governments adequately address local conservation and cultural needs in their spatial land planning. The Bupati has expressed his strong support for IPCA’s role in this effort.

The ARMAD project will also be important in enhancing community support and buy-in for conservation. IPCA aims to leverage this to establish agreements that help communities reinforce their adat regulations concerning natural resource use, clarify expectations, and give communities a genuine stake in conservation.

The project is funded by a grant from Seacology and from individual donors. ARMAD will begin in the second half of 2009. IPCA hopes and expects that it will lay a strong foundation for continued future conservation success in Asmat.

 

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