Planning for climate change in the Sulawesi mountains
A new study by Naufal, a PhD student in the School of Geography from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, sheds light on why some smallholder farming communities adopt practices that damage the land.
Naufal’s research took him to remote mountains in the central part of the island, where he interviewed farmers in the upper Sadang watershed who lived in steep terrain and had been affected by drought.
He found that farmers were switching away from their traditional crops and agriculture to maize, and a system that favoured short-cycle returns instead of the longer-term stability of rice paddy, cocoa, forest and grasslands.
This has narrowed farmers' available options and made them vulnerable to droughts, as traditional controls and farming management are lost through what he calls ‘rule erosion’. The farmers were being encouraged to plant maize by agricultural assistance programmes.
Farmers locating spring water sources the river and land affected by drought using a printed map and mobile app during a participatory GIS session
Naufal says: “We define rule erosion as the gradual weakening of traditional rules – especially boundary, scope and payoff – through repeated cycles of assistance programmes coming from outside of the community and shifting institutional priorities that gradually alter how policies operate in practice.”
The study has important implications for farmers’ resilience to droughts and their consequent loss of crops and income.
Professor Jon Lovett, who supervised the research together with Dr Vikki Houlden and Professor Steve Carver, points out that climate change is creating more frequent weather extremes of droughts and floods, and this is exacerbating the problem. He says:
“There is a major El Niño event starting right now with an increase in the sea-surface temperatures of the tropical Pacific Ocean. This creates wild fluctuations in the global climate with some areas affected by intense rainstorms and others by unseasonal prolonged droughts. This can be devastating to farmers whose agricultural systems are vulnerable to drought.”
Naufal interviews villagers in the Upland Saddang Watershed
Naufal adds: “In Sadang, agricultural assistance overrode multi-level and cross-sector governance, channelling decisions into a single pathway. Reopening alternatives requires provincial, regency and village-level programmes that offer viable options suited to local landscape conditions.
“This cross-sector coordination is the missing element in land use governance and participatory mechanisms in these highland regions. It’s not easy to do, and requires some careful planning, but without it there could be a disaster when the next big drought hits.”
