Public Perception and Participation in Environmental Preservation of Watershed

Environmental aspects have been some of the most argued about topics in society, including the role of the government as a stakeholder. Deforestation and illegal mining have been destroying the many ecosystems and rainforest habitats, including along the Katingan Watershed. The research objective is to describe public perception and participation in environmental preservation. The research used descriptive qualitative method and applying Spradley Domain Analysis. Primary and secondary data were obtained directly from field informants using interviews, observations and documentation. The research results show that the people’s perception and participation in environmental preservation was categorized into two groups. The first group one stated that they did contributed out of personal and financial interests, whilst the second groups were simply following the instructions of the government and local leaders. In general, locals have different perception on how they utilize the natural resources. The management of natural resources was perceived as being done for economic reasons, with the assumption that it were used sustainably. People’s involvement in preserving nature were affected their own needs either individually or collectively. Participation of the people in the conservation around the watersheds area was done for reasons of individual desire, solidarity, and to follow instructions from the government and Katingan Hilir leader. Environmental effort is carried out in activities aiming to protect and prevent damage to the area of the Katingan River. This lead to argue that diverse people’s perception to preserving environment generates the difference participation in their awareness.


Introduction
Deforestation is one of the main development issues in developing country, and Indonesia is no exception.Deforestation happens in almost all main island of Indonesia, including Kalimantan that covered around 17.3% over past ten years and by 2010, only 52% of total land area (Mettinen et al., 2011).Forest has been destroyed due to fires, industrial logging, mining and intense landuse change that has impact on unbalanced ecosystem and natural phenomena.These activities are often considered as a precautionary indicator of water status; and these leads to water quality degradation, flood and drought, groundwater depletion, land sub-sidence, erosion and sedimentation as well as seawater intrusion and this happen in Katingan River today.
Local livelihood throughout the Katingan watershed depends on its natural resources, including forest products (rubber, rattan, etc.), mining, agriculture, and fisheries.It is only accessible through water transportation along a tributary of the main river, making this lifeblood of the communities.In recent years, activities in this area have gradually decreased and this has had an impact on the economy, since it has become hard to obtain the main commodities of logs, rubber, and rattan.This problem is exacerbated by rising prices of the goods, and the silting of watersheds (increasing the sediment load) has a negative affects on water transport.The river's siltation is a result of increasing soil moisture due to intense flooding (from upstream in the rainy season) that eroded the soil along the waterways.It is closely linked to the lack of protective vegetation along the riverbanks, which were lost as the forest around the river was exploited, even though according to the regulation of the Ministry of Environment and BPLHD Law No. 23 of 1997: "500 meters riverbanks side cannot be felled and should be being a conservation area functioning to restrain the rate of erosion into the waterways".
Uncontrollable deforestation caused the balance of the ecosystem in this region to be disrupted, leading to harmful floods and other disasters to begin to appear.Surprisingly, various events that arise are always treated with resignation and regarded as natural events "….all this situation happen is only part of natural disasters".The above conditions are aggravated by the arrogance and greed of a group whose only concern is about profits and short-term interests, and without thinking of the continuity and sustainability of the forests.From the first observation, the Katingan community in general has a perception that the natural resources are for human beings and must be utilized as well as possible.This idea does not provide a positive indication in the circumstances, it can even be said that it is this perception that prevents the sort of good behavior that could prevent the environmental damage.
Perception is an internal reaction based on the impression, assessment, opinion, feeling, and interpretation of information one has obtained.Meider (1958) identified "perception-in-participation, meaning perceptual systems of an object enable one to participate as his/her awareness".The notion is that by perception a human can interact with his or her surroundings, for instance between humans and their environment, or humans with each other's.By sensing the nature conservation policy, people are expected to take on a social behavior in protecting the environment, and so contribute to awareness in the management of forest products as a preservation process.This has an indirectly effect on community income distribution (Suparwata et al., 2016).It also can enhance the rural livelihood economy and has changed the way in which the majority of the rural agrarian communities view their farming enterprise (Mapila et al., 2010) as one of socioeconomic development goals (Ekasari et al., 2013) in globalizing economy era.It is still very important in pro-poor policy interventions, and the Indonesian government should prioritize the revitalization of agriculture development (Arsyad, 2010) and critical land is one of the crucial issues to solve.
People taking part in the study seem to understand well that the forest in this region faces ruin if the exploitation of its products are not controlled, but by this understanding still has not translated into real action or the taking of precautions.Local's participation has also not been well coordinated yet, and it can even be said that their presence depends on the socio-economic benefits to the individual or group when doing activities that are preventing environmental damage.This leads to argue that in order to improve farmers behaviour (improving competency and participation), it is needed to step up performance of Agricultural Services (making action program properly, in other words) through extension program improvement, groups activity plan and operational cost management (Jamil et al., 2016).Therefore, The objective of the study is to describe public perception and participation in environmental preservation.1).

Interviews with Local People
The primary data collection techniques were in-depth interviews and observation, while the secondary data was collected using techniques such as documents, photos and statistics related to the focus research.The respondents were villagers, mostly from the Dayak tribe, who live around Katingan watershed, and were selected at random.Information was also received from (1) Katingan Hilir sub-district, who supplied data about the geography of the study areas, and (2) the chief of village, who provided information about local perception and participation in environmental conservation in general.

Data Analysis
Qualitative approach and strategy was used in the process study.Research assumes that individuals' or communities' livelihoods are often based on different motivations, coming as they do out of particular experiences and knowledge that shape a certain perception.Interpretative understanding of the subject is necessary in order to understand human behavior, and according to Weber (2003) human behavior appears to be a consequence of perceiving the situation.To understand the public perception of environmental preservation in accordance with the condition, the researchers used a method 'emic perspective', that is, searching for concepts and ideas that are well known and familiar with the Katingan community.This is consistent with the opinion of Spradley (Bungin, 2001;Sholahuddin, 2005) who wants to learn from the community about the society's own concepts and idea of environment they live in, and what actions are carried out in response to it.Forms to take data   et al., 2007).

People's Perception on Environmental Preservation
Studies have made some general state-

The locals' involvement of Environmental Activities
Respondents residing near riverbank have a diverse comprehension about preservation.One example was that of planting crops in the yards.Individual or groups did this work, and there was a large variation in the size area they cultivated.Their gardening techniques also have their own patterns, though they tend to cooperate with neighbors, and or three male workers take turns on cleaning the farm and then doing the planting.They plant varieties of fruits, vegetables, or any kind of long-term crops such as durian, jackfruit, rambutan, etc.
They tend to consider this work as an effort to protect the environment, since they are utilizing the degraded land to be used as a productive land.Some locals also stated that environmental protection also includes actions such as household cleaning, gardening in the yard, cleaning trash in river, and planting mangrove on the riverbanks in order to prevent abrasion.
Nature conservation was also raised by one informant who chairman of Joined Farmers Group (namely GAPOKTAN).A Respondent stated:" ... government provides counseling to group of farmers for the planting of seeds that we plant simultaneously on degraded land.They were planted in the house yard, in the river bank, and in some other places that are considered suitable for seed we received.These programs however have not been repeated again, the planting of trees, so far as I can remember, was only carried out once".This statement shows that the government instructed this group to plant rubber, durian and rambutan, the activity was carried out jointly by the members.
Furthermore, their involvement towards the environment are strongly dependent on their needs, and they tend to forget about conserving when they need to improve their own welfare, and it is in these situations when they often do things like plantation activities or slash and burn farming.For instance, when faced with particular situation that requires them to carry out a sustainable task, they then rapidly remember a positive attitude to the nature.The community contributed to activities that were organized from governments and so have a tendency toward a particular purpose

Attribution
X is an attribute of Y People awareness toward environment is part of their willingness to live peacefull Logging and mining activities began to decrease in order to preserve the environment In local belief, certain types of trees should not be destroyed, such as the tree near the graveyard.
People are starting to reduce the range of activities that can cause damage to the environment.It is as a manifestation of their participation in preserving the nature Public awareness of environmental protection are formed through a variety of social situations burn, they will shape the preparedness and rapidly cope with the possibility of damage caused by the fires.The act of perceiving is an adjustment process by adapting behavior to certain conditions.Hence, any perception that leads to the realizing of a behavior that is both fast and responsive is highly desirable.
Involvement.Some methods are used to take advantage of forest products without damaging the biodiversity.People prioritized a mutual cooperation that fosters the wider acceptance of nature conservation measures; it can be seen that when there needs to be a work project, the chief of village will collect everyone and give out some brief information before it starts.They mostly implemented reforestation in critical land areas and around the ports of the Katingan river; the work is done together, some people preparing seedlings, some hoeing while others drive seeds into the hole.This can take place because of the principle on working together to resolve the existing problem.This attitude is represent as a reflection of local wisdom.
Preservation practices of the local people together with government are planting mangroves, rubber, etc.Another activity is also carried out with the tree selection system if they need timber to make houses, fire wood or furniture; that is, selective har-   Mutual relationship is also reflected in a reciprocal interaction between human and their surrounding that can be seen on how they harvest their crops.It is this mean that nature provide all their needs.Another term is that And it may happen due to their local wisdom that triggered them to be wise in utilizing natural resources as participation program in protecting nature.

Conclusion
It is important to emphasize that local communities' perception about environmental preservation showed a lot of variation, but did however most strongly depend on

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Map of Katingan District, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia ments about the local understanding and perception of preserving the environment: (a) perception represents the internal reaction upon an object would lead to one's behavior.One respondent expressed it thus: 'the understanding of the environment is a mental activity that can produce either positive or negative behaviors.Furthermore, positive behavior that correlates to conservation aspects is generally found in somebody who has positive thoughts to preserve and maintain well the surroundings, (b) assessment of an object depends on the person who gives the interpretation of it.Interpretation is closely related to a person's education level.Someone with a higher education tends to produce a wider response in the object observed, (c) people do not understand well when the researcher asked a question about the decreasing environmental carrying capacity causing natural damage from internal and external factors, and/or increasing the population.They only knew that the problems were due to many years of illegal logging in this area.

PreservationA
wide variety of responses obtained from informants relating to their understanding of participation as follows; (a) government has no significantly effort to preserving the environment in Katingan River; mostly just suggestion/advertisement such as forbid to throw rubbish in waterways, encourage people provide their own bin and clean their houses, (b) proven discovery of informants provide interpretation to protecting nature is how utilize as much as possible without destroying it.By this fundamental understanding, it would provide a positive contribution to stabilize the surroundings, although internal interest (economic factor) of person/ group are still alarming the nature, (c) various complaints were expressed by some people when interview.Many of them are not concern on how they would sustain the nature.It is considered that the balancing nature would repeat itself, which is means peopledo not need to act toward their surroundings, (d) villagers' involvement in preserving the environment are encouraging while we look at the number of partisipants who directly take part in reforestation by planting protective trees; ie.rubber, rambutan, durian, rattan, etc.; and mangrove around riverbanks, although it is not by their own initiatives but by instruction from government, (e) unfortunately, government always urge people but they just act only a symbolization.3.4People's Initiatives in preserving areaCommunity activities were initially driven by government requests, and they typically receive the sources or funding necessary to start reforestation by preparing land and seeding treatment for plantation.However, o ne farmer noted while that this is happens once, it is rarely repeated, and even of the subsidies are allocated, and this led the villagers to not continue to maintain the action.The farmer's disappointment over the funds not being distributed to them resulted in them deciding to cultivate their own land to keep their independence.Spontaneity effort.This effort depended on individual/ groups who have same interests, financial compensation for their family.It seems that how they react depends in part on how their ancestors acted: "Our whole family work as farmers.In general, most of my family's livelihood is sustained by farming including clearing land for gardening the short-term plants (Cassava) and long-term trees (Rubber).We never thought that our activities are part of preserving the environment.Actually our work is driven as family needs, and if this activity is considered a good action to preserve the environment, then of course, I feel happy that have indirectly participated in environmental conservation efforts, even though my family and I did not realize this".It can be seen that they tend to work spontaneously without considering some factors, including season, weather, time and land they cultivated.Theyonly planted kind of trees for food or furniture, which was considered as productive trees (rubber, rambutan, durian, rattan, jackfruit, etc.) for family welfare.The interesting things here are community care in utilizing of degraded land that was formerly illegal logging activities.3.5 Human behavior on the environmentHuman behavior is heavily influenced by some basic factors, such as perceptions and environmental factors, both physical and social.Especially influential factors include mindset, customs, and beliefs, whilst supporting factors can be education, employment, cultural, and social strata.For all or these factors, the mutual relationship between humans and the surroundings is reflected through social behavior committed by citizens on nature.The behavior of the locals makes it clear that they are people who value nature highly and are always working to preserve it.They show this through their actions, such as only taking the things as needed.Another activity is to maintain and protect sacred trees (Spirit house for Dayak people who still in Kaharingan belief).These types of trees must not be felled both because it brings disaster on their belief, and because some grows above the sacred graveyards.This is a clear demonstration of the local wisdom of the environmental that exists in the area.Adaptation to the environment that exists in the Indonesian citizen is something that has been passed down the generations, and guidance in utilizing its resources was part of the local wisdom of a society, so that through local knowledge people should be able to withstand the crises that befall them.The persistence of local wisdom in one place however cannot be separated from the influence of other factors that affect human behavior towards its nature in the longer term.People awareness toward environment is part of spatial perception; an interpretation correlated to the background, culture, mindset and experience of the individuals.A wide variety of perceptions is expressed by informants, playing an important role in their acceptance.The data analysis which obtained from the answers suggest that perception is a thought from someone which will later be realized or implemented into a behavior or actions.Community has a positive perception towards the preservation and value of the environment; this can be seen from the people's behavior in managing their local surroundings, something that was initiated by the government or local leaders.This activity based on the nature of mutual assistance, and co-operation with a full sense of brotherhood.By analyzing respondents' views, it can also be said that their awareness starts with perception, such as when the forest vesting of mature trees leaving others as a seed source for natural regeneration.The emerging positive attitude is reflected in the national policy on logging activities and nowadays farmers are gradually turning to work in agriculture, particularly farming in damaged areas where there is no landowner.They are however occasionally cutting trees for their own particular interest.Participation.Many villagers took part in conservation activities on the suggestion of government authorities, while others did so due to individual values, but both of these imply a sense of responsibility to act.It can be said that this value can affect individual behavior in threating their environment, and the behavior could be turn into positive or negative act.It is based on a public perception that is not always in line with the participation; positive perception does not always produce positive participation.Internal (family welfare) and external factors (government instruction) are main reason in their attendance.It is good that we still find participation measures that would not only benefit for individual but also the mutual group interests; this is evidenced by existence of the farmer's group, namely GAPOKTAN.This group consistently performs routine environmental activities, including helping landowners who need cultivate their own land to

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Intercropping in degraded Land around river

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Socio-economics aspects of Environmental damage personal interests.Family welfare is one of main reasons people exploit nature, but at a time when government support of nature protection is decreasing, the people are beginning to become aware and show a positive attitude in their treatment of the environment.Their awareness has led to the reforesting of land formerly used for illegal logging, selective logging when felling the trees, and utilizing critical lands, all of which are parts of the preservation of nature, and which were done either by individuals or as group work together with the government or chief of village.However, local participation on preserving nature cannot be maximized yet.It can be determined that their involvement was not for them personally a high priority, and instead they took part due to internal and external factors.This condition is exacerbated by the lack of government support.Public efforts to protect the environment have been shown better.They were generally done as the people's own initiatives or by government instruction, which would be implemented in preservation activities.In these modern times there some people who are still upholding local wisdom to manage the nature as through cultural methods.One example of this local community knowledge is the existence of sacred trees cannot not be cut down or destroyed.

Table 1 .
Land DistributionArea (ha) in different land use/cover categories from villages in Katingan Hilir district(Statistic 2010)

Table 2 .
Semantic Relationship suggested by Spradley

Table 3 .
Minor and Major Propositions on Environment Preservation Diverse perceptions in environmental preservation can cause different behavior/actions 2. Behavioral adjustment is part of perceiving things 3. Reforestation, selective logging, degraded land use which were done by the individual or group are part of preserving environment 4. People participate in environmental activities, but did not serve as a main duties; it is due to the internal (financial support) and external factors (government instruction) 5. Forms of participation which was implemented in the real programs are mostly just kind of symbolization 6. Individual, group, local chief together with government conducted various programs in an effort to preserve the environment 7. Community is maintaining local wisdom in the preserving environment