Community’s local wisdom and its relationship with environmental conservation efforts in Bangka Belitung, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to identify and examine the role of the community’s local wisdom in environmental conservation or conservation efforts and to understand the history, values and behavior of local wisdom in Bangka Belitung. The study uses semi-structured interviews and descriptive analysis. The results show that local wisdom consists of three moral values: humans are not the center of nature; protecting the environment is a local job; and a holistic way of thinking. The Malay community’s efforts in environmental conservation in Bangka Belitung are to use local wisdom by saving the environment from unused tin mines with the term origin or impact. The impact of local wisdom on environmental conservation is that environmental sustainability will be maintained by no longer converting forest functions into mining land. The local wisdom of the Malay community on Belitung Island include the tradition of conserving plants or what is commonly referred to as kelekak and the pemalian forest. In the beginning, kelekak was an expanse of wilderness. Then, the community cut down the trees that grew in the wilderness to be used as huma and then abandoned or commonly referred to as bebak. Huma is one of the categories of the forbidden forest because of the influence of supernatural things that can prevent the unrestricted use of the forest. This local wisdom is a way for the community to conserve the environment.