Perceptions of change: Adopting the concept of livelihood styles for a more inclusive approach to ‘building with nature’

Abstract

The world’s wetlands are threatened by deforestation, fires, agriculture, mining, overfishing, and human settlement. While policymakers strive for comprehensive technical solutions, sustainable solutions also require the active engagement of the people affected. To mobilize local human action, it is not enough to investigate the facts and figures of the biophysical natural landscape: we also need a better understanding of how local people perceive these changes. In this article, we adopt the concept of livelihood styles to explain the ways in which people construe a perspective of their aquatic environment with which they continuously, and according to a certain pattern, interact to make a living. Our study is based on a mixed-method study with data collected between 2005 and 2015 in the Mahakam Wetlands of Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan). We found five distinct livelihood styles: investors, boatmen, breeders, traditional fishermen, and “indolent” fishermen, that each possess characteristics related to fishing practices, and found significant differences in their perceptions of water quality changes. As such, we demonstrate that perceptions and patterns of practice are interdependently related. Understanding perceptions through a livelihood styles approach provides an opening for policymakers to build with local people and nature towards a sustainable environment, both in Indonesia and beyond.