Benefits over Threats: Understanding Community’s Motivation to Participate in Restoration Initiatives in Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra

Abstract Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), one of Indonesia’s most important conservation sites, has been facing serious pressures due to human activities both within its boundaries and in the buffer zones, leaving a large extent of degraded land in GLNP and its vicinity. As a response, the government along with several civil society organizations have been conducting restoration projects, especially around the borders of GLNP with concessions and villages. A centerpiece of many of these restoration initiatives is community participation. However, there have been limited studies to understand the driving factors of local people participation in such initiatives. In order to better understand what drives community participation in restoration initiatives around GLNP, we conducted a random survey to 111 respondents living in Sei Serdang and Namo Sialang Villages (Langkat District, North Sumatra), where restoration initiatives have been introduced. We found that they do not have a strong dependence on natural resources, which likely explains their rather neutral perspective on forests, i.e. they do not perceive any relations between forests, their livelihood, and threats due to deforestation. The absence of forest protection-related custom among population, mainly due to the cultural heterogeneity resulted from inward migration, further enhances their view on forests. Therefore, those who participated in the restoration initiatives were primarily driven by the opportunity to get additional income and improve their welfare. Based on these findings, we recommend that future restoration-related interventions in GLNP should appropriately consider community perception towards forests to ensure project sustainability and better resources management.