Effectiveness of communications development in conservation communities around the national park of Mt. Halimun Salak

Abstract

Nowdays, the conservation forest of National Park of Mt. Halimun Salak (NPMHS), which is managed and utilized by the people surrounding the conservation forest, is beginning to deteriorate because of encroachment and illegal logging, illegal gold mining, violation of management zone, development and illegal land use as a result of the lack of public understanding concerning the utilization and conservation of the forests on NPMHS. The objectives of this research were to (1) analyze the communication effectiveness in improving the understanding of communities around the forest, (2) identify the factors that determine the effectiveness of communication in delivering conservation messages, (3) analyze the relationship between factors that determine the understanding of forest communities and communication effectiveness, and (4) analyze appropriate communication strategies. The results of the study showed that the knowledge of the forest communities in improving physical productivity was in the category of understanding. Their knowledge about land optimization was in the category of very understanding. Their knowledge about the improvement of environmental quality was in the category of very understanding. Also, their knowledge concerning maximizing income was in the category of very understanding. The factors that determined the people's understanding of the use and conservation of forest at NPMHS were the capacity of forest officials, information, communication channels, individual characteristics, and cosmopolitan knowledge of individuals (All of these factors were of good categories). As a whole there were some relationships between the factors that could improve the public understanding and the communication effectiveness: (1) the relationship between the capacity of forest officials and communication effectiveness, (2) the relationship between the information about NPMHS forest conservation and the communication effectiveness, (3) the relationship between communication channels and the communication effectiveness, and (4) the relationship between individual characteristics and the communication effectiveness. The resulted communication strategies were among others, the accuracy, availability and facilities of choices of communication channels for forest communities to select and use to get information about forest utilization and conservation; providing facilities and opportunities for forest communities to access available sources of information and communication channels; forming discussion groups and giving opportunities to the surrounding communities to engage in managing the NPMHS forest conservation.