Ethnobiology of Tengger Society in Bromo Tengger Semeru East Java

Abstract

This ethnobiological research focused on the ethnoecological, ethnobotanical, and ethnozoological study of the adaptation process (correlating to management concepts, impact on people’s activities, and technology usage) of the Tengger society in Bromo Tengger Semeru, East Java to environmental conditions where they were actively using and managing natural resources. The goals of this research were to study the beliefs, knowledge, and practice of Tengger society for the comprehensive understanding of landscape use and management, and to reveal the indigenous knowledge of Tengger society in managing their natural resources (plants and animals) which included species diversity, the index of ecological important value (INP), and the index of cultural significance (ICS). The research data consisted of ecological, ethnological, ethnobotanical and ethnozoological data. Ecological data was collected using vagetation analysis, while the rest of the data was collected using the participatory ethnobotanical appraisal, structured and open ended interviews, and direct observation. The Tengger society arranged their areas based on their function and usefulness including area of housing, agriculture, conservation, ecotourism, and sacral. Traditional ecological knowledge applied for environmental conservation consisted of an agricultural system that implement terasiring combined with plant borders, stall locations separated from houses, and planting Casuarina tree arranged by traditions. Tengger people depend on plant resources for their livelihood, and they have good knowledge on plant diversity surrounding them. The various plant utilization by Tengger society include food (75 species); medicines (121 species); construction, firewood and local technology (53 species); cosmetics, handycraft, cigarette, colors (40 species); forage (44 species); ornamental plants (140 species); fruit (49 species); and ritual (94 species). Calculations of the index of cultural significance showed that rice has a very high value and ten other plant species have high value in Tengger culture. For Tengger people, various animals have an economic value, and can be used for food, ritual, transportation, and objects for tourism.The indigenous knowledge on wild animals and their uses were very good. Tengger people distinguished 120 species consisting of 64 species of Aves, 32 species of Mammals, 9 species of Reptilia, 3 species of Diptera, 2 species of Decapoda, 1 species of Arachnidae, 1 species of Orthoptera, 1 species of Hypnoptera and 6 species of Pisces.