'Community Management of Biosecurity: Overview of some Indonesian studies’ (English language ed)

0 Ian Falk Kaler Surata Wayan Mudita Eka Martiningsih Bronwyn Myers 2008 'Community Management of Biosecurity: Overview of some Indonesian studies’ (English language ed) Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts Kritis, Indonesia and Learning Communities, Australia 06/2008 ‘Plant Biosecurity is a set of measures designed to protect a crop, crops or a sub-group of crops from emergency plant pests at national, regional and individual farm levels’ (Plant Health Australia, 2005).   This research asks what ‘set of measures’ can communities adopt that will assist in the identification and management of the plant pests and diseases that affect their food supplies and livelihoods? How can these measures, or strategies, be described and how can communities engage with the issues and knowledge about plant biosecurity in sustainable ways? Rephrased, the question for this research is: How do communities acquire new knowledge and develop new strategies for identifying and managing the plant pests and diseases that affect their food supplies and livelihoods? Literature scans and preliminary discussions between Indonesian and Australian institutions and communities about biosecurity established an urgent need to understand its intricacies and applicability, especially in relation to community management of biosecurity.   The term ‘biosecurity’ is relatively new in Indonesia. In order to increase knowledge of ways communities can engage and manage plant biosecurity effectively, a mixed methods quantitative and qualitative study was conducted in three diverse sites involving a total of 185 respondents. Quantitative analyses at a coastal village in West Timor (Site C) showed that Biosecurity awareness, knowledge, and actions are related to social capital. Social capital variables involved in the relations are unique for each of these biosecurity aspects. The results of qualitative analyses showed that local (and Indigenous) knowledge is a vital factor in the way communities view biosecurity, and indeed the ways they can engage with new knowledge and practices associated with managing pests and diseases. However, local knowledge is only one part of the story. The actual structure of a community – its organizations and network connections – and the processes the leadership engages across those structures – make a lie of the apparent similarities in community governance structures, such as the Desa (village) and Banjar (sub-administrative body) with their respective Heads. This has potentially dramatic impacts on engagement and management of new knowledge and strategies. The study shows that there is a clear need for additional research into the relationships between the two processes and structures of communities and the ways new knowledge and outside knowledge are acted upon. This is shown to be especially important in relation to how policy on plant biosecurity can be implemented effectively. http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/spil/journal/JournalJune2008.pdf