抄録
Following the 1997 Indonesian economic crisis, faith in agriculture was justified and plantation farmers reacted by expanding their fields at the expense of forest cover. The objectives of this study were to examine the spatial pattern of land-cover changes that occurred in the Rawa Danau Nature Reserve, Indonesia, with the background of the economic crisis period and to characterize the situation of local people causing agricultural expansion in this area. A satellite-image analysis and a household-survey analysis were executed. The economic crisis has played a major role in changing land-use practices and has affected protected areas. The satellite-image analysis shows that a rapid change of vegetation-cover occurred after the economic crisis as compared with the period prior to the crisis. The household-survey and spatial analyses show that, initially, villagers located near protected areas are more likely to encroach on protected areas than villagers located further away from protected areas. However, after a period of several years, even distant villagers encroached upon the nature reserve. Aside from proximity of access, the smaller size of agricultural land holdings, the larger number of tenant farmers and the increase of unmonitored access to the nature reserve after the economic crisis were the characteristics of agricultural expansion villages within the study area.
