The Encroachment Dynamics in Mount Gede Pangrango National Park

Abstract

Mount Gede Pangrango National Park is the example of a protected area in which land conflict happens. The surrounding communities run their cultivation activities inside the national park which are actually illegal according to the law. This research aims to capture the progress of conservation efforts vis-a-vis such an encroachment issue as well as to explore the characteristics of the surrounding villages that can explain the encroachment level. To this end, this research performed spatial analysis and stepwise multiple regression using Landsat imagery, Google Earth images and village potential data. The result shows that the area of plantation, dry-agriculture land and bare land were declining. The encroachment level could be associated with the distance of settlement to the number of farm laborers around and the land slope of the national park. Meanwhile, the existence of large land occupied by the private company could restrain the tendency of local people to encroach the land of national park.