Biocultural Conservation-based Narrative Text: An Effort to Enhance Conservation Literacy of the Local Community in the Sanctuary Area

Abstract

This study is part of the Faculty of Languages and Arts’ second-year research project in partnership with International Animal Rescue (IAR). The major goal was to raise conservation awareness among the local people dwelling in the sanctuary region of Pematang Gadung Village, Ketapang Regency, West Borneo, to tackle environmental challenges such as illegal logging, poaching, and illegal mining. The research and development process were divided into three stages based on the Successive Approximation Model (SAM): preparation, iterative design, and iterative development. This work focuses primarily on the iterative design phase, expanding on the findings of the research completed in the first year when the local people perceived forest as commodities due to their lack of conservation literacy. Their biocultural conservation, on the other hand, was profoundly based on their indigenous, Muslim Malay ethnic beliefs and traditions. This study aims to construct a biocultural conservation-based narrative text as a first step toward generating conservation material that resonates with the community’s local wisdom using a biocultural approach.
 Keywords: conservation literacy, biocultural conservation approach, SAM, REB, local community of Pematang Gadung Village