Community Resilience Related to Community Resources Access to Peatland in Political Ecological Perspectives: A Case Study of Purun (Eleocharis dulcis) Craftmen in Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

Community resilience is widely used in managing natural resources and the environment as a means of system capacity to cope with stress. However, our findings show that resilience is not easily applied to common-pool resources (CPRs) such as peatlands, which are open access and full of importance. This is experienced by the community of purun craftsmen (Eleocharis dulcis) in Ogan Komering, Ilir Regency, South Sumatra, Indonesia. This paper was conducted to determine the community's social resilience in overcoming pressures originating from environmental, socio-economic, and political changes. We used a qualitative research method with a descriptive approach and obtained data through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Our findings suggest that community resilience on peatlands is influenced by mechanisms to gain and maintain access to the resource. This mechanism is relatively limited, so it can be said that it is less robust, mainly if three threat scenarios co-occur, such as massive activity by companies, weak rules for managing, utilizing, and protecting resources, and extreme weather conditions. In conclusion, from these findings, we show that “access politics” and policy implications also play an essential role in increasing the resilience of socio-ecological systems in important peatland areas.