Buffer Zone Management

Some people think that to implement a conservation project means, we have to think conservatively, and that the techniques used should follow conventional rules. Preserving a conservation area is not an easy task, and there are many threats and challenges which require individually well thought out strategies to solve the problem.
Therefore, in our observation it's clear that management strategy for a buffer zone areas is depend on the local conditions. Furthermore, that perspective taken during implementation of the buffer zone concept relies heavily on the manager who takes the decision in the field.
The buffer zone has been defined by act no. 5 1990, conservation of living resources and their ecosystems to be those areas outside nature reserves, thus further emphasizing that the conservation area contains an important heritage with a high priority for preservation. To do so, we need highly innovative solutions in managing the land adjoining conservation areas. 


The application of three principles to speed up buffer zone development can taka several forms. For example in the Arfak Mountains, there continues planting of Aristolochia spp the food plants of birdwing butterflies. Planting occurs in the buffer zone so that butterflies from inside the reserves fly out and lay eggs in village gardens. The resulted pupae represent the harvest and are sold as an economic incentive for the people out side the reserve.
This activity is also directly linked to the quality of the forest habitat - if it is damaged then the number of egg laying females will fall.
Kerinci Seblat National Park takes another approach. In the Lempur river waters catchment area to prevent expansion of farm-land into the park, the local community is involved in setting the Narional Park boundary. It is recognized that protection of the catchment area serves as an entry point, but the management objectives in the Lempur Village can be to other thing, lika a feeling of responsibility for the collectively chosen protected area; this would protect the National Park abutting the Lempur headwaters.

Another obstacle faced in managing a conservation area is not only human encroachment upon that area, but it can also the other way around wild animals living in the conservation area can also encroach upon people's gardens, as is the case in the Way Kambas National Park buffer zone area is outside the conservation area, so that there is no signifant conflict in terms of forest encroachment by the local people. "However, there is a unique obstacle there, namely the elephants which disrupt the hybrid coconut plantation owned by the plantation office, whis is adjacent to the conservation area. In order to prevent the above encroachment, a boundary of ditches need to be erected 
                               as a physical obstacle in the buffer zone, or trees planted which are 
                               disliked by elephants ". 


The search for alternate management techniques, is not limited to the above examples, as there are many other activities, like the increased cooperation with farmers in the Social Forestry and Agroforestry schemes which have been carried out in the buffer zones of several conservation areas in Indonesia. Yet whenever new concept is implemented, it will certainly have its own constraints and obstacles. For examples, the Social Forestry Program faces obstacles due to the unclear chain of supervision, confusing objectives of the program, conflicting perceptions amongst program participatns about these objectives, inadequately skilled technical staff, isolation of migrant farmers, bureaucratic problems with new methods, and lack of concern and comitment to address the problems faced by forest group.

"What about people who have already encroached upon the conservation area ?"
Solving this problem is not easy, for example in the case of Kerinci Seblat National Park, where areas which have been encroached upon and inhabited need to be stablized (or status-quo) to prevent furhter encroachment. Further more, the local government (PEMDA) and Kerinci Seblat National Park will need to review and evaluate the situation, and then to atempt a rationalization, take necessary steps to stabilize the interaction between human activities and Kerinci Seblat National Park, and finally produce a sustainable development program around the park.
What needs to be emphasized is the fact that the management of a buffer zone very much depends on the target group living in the area. The solution should be based on their adjusted to the desired objectives i.e. the preservatin of the conservation area and the walfare of the surrounding communities.