Public Study Guideline

Pari Island

October 2013

Contents

Part I

Human and Conservation

Filling the Gap — 4

Shifting Behavior — 6

Marine Conservation Issue — 8

Part II

Action Research

Overview — 10

Steps —11

Part III

Next Action Plan

Intervention Strategy — 14

Appendix I: CNS Scale — 15

Appendix II: References — 15

All pictures are private documentations of author.

Part I Human and Conservation

“Environmental management is really a matter of managing people rather than the biophysical environment.” [Alan Miller]

Filling the Gap

4

But there is a gap between two sciences

that should contribute in conservation

study area, the natural science – espe-cially Biology, and social science – such

as Anthropology, Sociology and Psychol-

ogy. It’s a common thing that Biology stu-

dents using biocentric (or ecologic) view –

seeing life itself as the centre of life, whereas Psychology students using an-

thropocentric view – seeing human as the

centre of life. Hunter and Gibbs (2007)

explained how biocentric view doesn’t

stands opposite the anthropocentric view, but as two poles in a continuum. They

argue that we have to shift more toward

to biocentric view from anthropocentric

view, but never forget the anthropocentric

one in order to understanding human be-havior and how to change it. Human fac-

tor is an important thing to be learnt in

doing conservation.

Picture 1.1

Mangrove in Pari Island

Human beings are intelligent creatures

that capable to make an abstract formu-

lation inside his mind. They can produce any conception from a simple question

and develop it into a big system such as

culture, education, machine, even religion

and God conception. Abstract thinking

capability also helps human beings in imagining future and creating something

that currently not exist – including imagin-

ing the extinction of other species. That

imagination makes us learn how to pre-

vent the extinction, thus the awareness to conservation is the key of conservation.

Tikka, Kuitunen, and Tynys (2000) found

that educational background of students

has a significant effect on their attitudes toward nature and environment. Their

study revealed that Biology students have

the biggest positive attitudes (M= 2.424),

greatest level of knowledge, and partici-

pated in many nature-related activity, whereas students who studied Econo-

mies (M= 1.923) and Technology-related

(M= 1.746) adopted a more negative atti-

tude towards nature and environment.

Psychology students adopted second biggest positive attitude (M= 2.150) and in

third place, students from Forestry studies

(M= 2.145).

5

In October 28th, 1978 Tempo published

the illegal trade of orangutan and other

endangered species, argued that human do the trade simply because they don’t

know why they have to put a concern on

animals and conservation, since it has no

direct impact to their life (Tempo, 1978).

Currently, illegal trading of endangered animals still happens even in big city. The

gap that conservation experts haven’t

has a successful strategy in building

awareness should be bridged by social

science, especially psychology that stud-ies behavior. At the end, the great power

to prevent the extinction of other species

is laid in human’s hand. Rather than de-

bating on which is the best between bio-

centric and anthropocentric, why don’t we stand between those views and use it

both in conserving nature?

The conflict among anthropocentric ver-

sus biocentric view is also happened

when Jane Goodall, a primatologist and also an anthropologist presented her

work in Gombe. The panel said that eve-

rything she had done was wrong, espe-

cially the point when she called the chim-

panzees with personified names. But she gave us an insight, that by time we inter-

act with animals, we’ll realize that they

have personality – just like human beings.

Picture 1.2

Mangrove Forest Area in Pari Island

Shifting Behavior

6

(2) Objective Holistic (OH) – they who

emphasizes on intuition, professional

judgment, and contextual knowledge, attempt to impose a solution in a prob-

lem based on the best guess related

to complex situation. They prefer to

shape a good problem instead of solv-

ing it.

(3) Subjective Holistic (SH) – people

that emphasizing intimate, nurturing re-

lationship with other people and with

the surrounding environment, depend-ant but having a high level of empathy

so they actually know how to solve

environmental problem that caused by

human, the real “romantic seeker”.

(4) Subjective Analytic (SA) – good at

deep introspective analysis so they un-

derstand themselves and others, but

having difficulty in summoning effective

defensive coping to environmental problem. Natural philosopher and natu-

ralist tend to be this type of person,

the “mind healer”.

By identifying those 4 types of personal-ity, we can make a mapping whether the

majority of Pari Island’s citizens are fully

aware of their environmental problems or

not.

The complexity of human behavior can’t

be explained only within this booklet, so

let’s just talk about human behavior that related to conservation attitude. There are

several explanations about human’s per-

sonality and attitudes toward nature, but

author decided to take the Miller’s human

personality map toward conservation (1999) and Kellert and Berry’s human atti-

tudes toward animals (1981, in Hunter &

Gibbs, 2007).

Miller (1999) explained that human has a big delusion on naming themselves as

Homo sapiens, literally means “Wise

Man”, despite the fact that we are actu-

ally Homo pragmaticus – myopic species

that incredibly good at solving problems in a short term while creating more prob-

lems for a long term. He argued that

there are two important aspects of bio-

philia, so that human fully aware that they

have to put a big concern on environ-mental problem: intimacy with nature and

altruism. He then made 4 type of hu-

man’s personality related to environmental

problem:

(1) Objective Analytic (OA) – people

whose central concern on achievement

of a sense of power and control, empiri-

cal, reductionist, impersonal, and obses-

sive. The “fact gatherer”, but not actually solving the problem.

Picture 1.3

Miller’s Personality Map

7

Further explanation comes from Kellert

and Berry’s (1981, in Hunter & Gibbs,

2007). They found that there are 10 types of people’s attitude toward other

species, but author decided to take the

big 5 attitude types based on her previ-

ous initial observation in Pari Island:

Humanistic, tend to have a strong af-fection on other species because

their anthropomorphism to that spe-

cies.

Neutralistic, avoid other species simply

because lack of interest. Utilitarian, interested in practical value

of other species and their habitats.

Moralistic, concerned with environ-

mental ethics and against overex-

ploitation. Naturalistic, showing interest in other

species and outdoor.

By identifying those 5 types of attitudes,

we can get a comprehensive conclusion

what kind of awareness strategy that will be effective in Pari Island, and also get

the reason behind Pari Island’s current

condition.

Shifting behavior from conservation-ignorance to fully aware must to be be-

gun from changing values. Hunter and

Gibbs (2007) argued that there is two

main things that shape values toward

conservation, (1) information, and (2) ex-perience. Individual with greatest knowl-

edge will show a big tendency to be

aware of the importance of conservation

– just like the research that found Biology

students has the biggest positive attitude toward environment. Experience is also

importance, that is why people whose

activities in outdoor are more aware of

environmental problem. Information and

experience are both important, so when we have known the degree of information

and experience owned by Pari Island’s

citizen, we’ll know their values and formu-

late the next action plan to shifting behav-

ior from less aware of conservation to fully aware of environmental problem.

Marine Conservation Issue

8

Based on previous author’s interview with

one fisherman from Pari Island, there was

a conflict between LIPI and fishermans about abalone shells (Haliotis asinina). The

fishermans harmed the coral reef by

searching for abalone by destroying the

coral. What is team need to be identified

is checking the issue, and probing what happened behing the issue. There’s some

types of exploitation, (1) Commercial Ex-

ploitation, (2) Subsistence Exploitation, (3)

Recreational Exploitation, (4) Incidental Ex-

plotation, and (5) Indirect Exploitation (Miller, 1999). The problem of Pari Island

are the (1), and (3). The most terrible

nightmare is if the commercial exploitation

shift to recreational exploitation without a

correct people’s understanding of conser-vation.

As Agardy (1997) noted, people usually

think that marine conservation issue is just

about coral reefs. Actually, it talks about coast, wide variety of animals and plants.

They are interconnected communities.

Marine conservation concern must be

done by a comprehensive and integrative

study because the characteristic of hu-man beings in small island will be so dif-

ferent in large island. Our challenge is not

only preserving the nature, but also inspir-

ing the human.

Indonesia, as an arhipelago nation con-

sists of thousand islands that separated

by sea. Why ocean is important, (1) 500 millions people are getting money from

the sea to live, (2) fishes are the protein

source for 1 billion developing countries’

citizens, (3) 76% coral species are found

in Southeast Asia and West Pacific seas, (4) there are 400+ dead zone seas for

about 246,000 km2, (5) current fishing

has been 2x than scientifically suggested,

(6) more than 50% dead fishes in trap

are thrown back to the sea by human, (7) 10 million tons of plastic bottles are

thrown away to the seas (Greenpeace,

2012). In addition, the gobal warming im-

pacted the rise of sea level, and small is-

land can be diseappear – also Pari Is-land.

Pari Island is located in North Jakarta, es-

timated area is 40,32 hectares. There are

697 citizens in this island and they came from many places such as Lampung,

Sulawesi, West and Central Java, and so

on. Before 2010, 90% of Pari Island’s citi-

zens worked as seaweed farmers. But,

following the death of their seas’ biodiver-sity. They shifted to tourism currently.

Part II Action Research

“If your eyes are strong, you may search the sky and see him, wings aquiver, circling among the woolly clouds. If

your eyes are weak, don’t try it; just watch the fence posts.”

[Aldo Leopold]

Overview Based on Somekh (2006), there are 8

basic principles of Action Research; inte-

grates research and action, conducted by a collaborative partnership and re-

searcher, involves the development of

knowledge and understanding of unique

kind, starts from a vision of social trans-

formation, involves a high level of reflexiv-ity, involves exploratory engangement

with range of existing knowlegde, engen-

ders powerful learning for participants

through combining research with reflection

on practice, and locates the inquiry in an understanding of broader historical, politi-

cal, and ideological context of the area.

For this current study, author decided to

use the Action Research with a quantita-tive scale but the data will be taken with

interview. Author and team will use CNS

(Connectedness to Nature Scale) that de-

veloped by Mayer and Frantz (2004) that

will be adapted to Bahasa Indonesia. Within the interview, team will also ex-

plored and observed about the partici-

pants’ value, attitude, and personality to-

ward environmental problem and conser-

vation.

Action research often used in educational

setting because it has main function to

assist us knowing the best intervention strategy. The Alberta Teachers' Associa-

tion (2000) described Action Research as

a collaboration between Qualitative

method and Quantitative method, and

has 4 ethical practices: ethics of hope, caring, opennes, and responsibility, since

Action Research involving the researcher

into subjects’ daily activities. Since Action

Research is a merger of two methodolo-

gies, it has some characteristic like objec-tive evaluation that has to be quantified,

but also flexible and contextual. Action re-

search used to be done in a particular

area or place that have to be intervented.

The aim is initial analysis what kind of in-tervention that possibly match with the

problem found from the Action Research.

Picture 2.1

Perawan Beach, hundred years-old

mangrove forest area in Pari Island

10

Combining Action Research’s steps from

Somekh (2006) and The Alberta Teach-

ers' Association (2000), the steps of this study will be like this:

1. Select a focus to be studied by plan-

ning and literature review.

2. Collecting data by observing, interview-

ing, and quantitative scale based on the literature review.

3. Analyze and interpreting data, reflect

what may match with the literature

and what doesn’t, perhaps because

the contextual event, politic condition or economic changes.

4. Evaluation of those changes through

further data collection.

5. Take action, plan the awareness strat-

egy.

Team will also give inform consent to par-

ticipant verbally, with the educational

background consideration of Pari Island’s

citizen.

Some of the technical guidance for Biol-

ogy Team in doing this public research

through interviewing and observing are:

1. Take an inform consent first. We

have to ensure that the participant

knows that they are being involved

in a research that will not harm them, they can resign from the in-

terview anytime, and they know

that their answer will be included in

our analysis.

2. The main aim of the current public action research is dig for the

awareness of marine conservation

among Pari Island’s people, includ-

ing fisherman to domestic wife, then

formulate an awareness strategy. 3. We’ll do interview with general

guideline, means that there is an

indicator checklist to be checked

but you can ask it randomly and

probe more. Probe here means that you ask more based on the

participants’ previous answer. Try

to avoid close-ended question and

too much questioning “why”. That

way of asking will make our partici-pants asking themselves, “Am I do-

ing something wrong?”

The Steps

11

4. The sampling method of this current

study is homogeny sampling used

in qualitative research, means that we search for a limited numbers of

participants that share same char-

acteristic. Author decided the crite-

ria of Pari Island’s citizen, 20-60

years old (productive ages), and same proportion between males

and females are required in order

to generalize the result from the

study.

5. Being empathic, means that any an-

swer from citizen must be ac-

cepted by team unconditionally.

Rogers (1975) defined the concept

of empathy in a simple description: empathy occurs when you appre-

ciate what your participants’ ex-

periences feels to them. You are

less empathy when you under-

stand what your participants’ say from a detached, objective point of

view. You are showing non-

empathic when you understand

what your participants’ say but not

the way they feel. The modality of good interviewer are only eyes to

observe, ears to listen, and mouth

to probe more.

6. Be an objective observer, list only

behavior that appear, not interpreta-

tion. Example, descriptive behavior: she smiles at me, and laugh after I

tell her joke. Interpretation: she likes

my joke. Write down the descriptive

behavior in report, not interpretation.

7. Interview must be planned by devel-

oping a set of questions and has

been tested before. Build a good

rapport with the respondents (The

Alberta Teachers' Association, 2000).

8. Observation is very effective when

combined with other data-collection,

for triangulation check of interview. The Alberta Teachers' Association

(2000) suggested before doing ob-

servation, develop an observation

plan and indicator template and

preferable to take it with a col-league (inter rater).

9. The key of successful interview and

observation are practice and a

proper preparation.

12

Part III Next Action Plan

“The universe would be incomplete without men, but it

would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge.” [John Muir]

Intervention Strategy

14

Team will be only formulating the strategy after get the data analysis of the Action

Research. Basically, what environmental organization should do are some psy-

chosocial processes in assisting the society towards their area’s conservation (Deam & Bush, 2007):

1. Problem analysis, finding the main problem among Pari Island’s citizens that

correlates with the conservation issue.

2. Influencing decision making, build a strong awareness that will be included as

citizen’s consideration in making any decision correlated with the environment. 3. Inter organizational relationship, build link to local societies.

4. Community participation, actively involving societies’ activities.

5. Knowledge transfer, as information and experience are shaping human value

towards nature, knowledge transfer is the most important thing to do.

Intervention strategy will depend on any finding of the Action Research, so it is im-

portant to analyze accurately the Action Research’s result, and then reformulate

the next action plan.

Picture 3.1

Perawan Beach is currently visited by

almost 3,000 tourists every weekend.

15

Appendix I: CNS Scale

3 of 14 scales in CNS, developed by Mayer and Frantz (2004).

Appendix II: References Agardy, T. S. (1997). Marine Protected Areas and Ocean Conservation.

Texas: Academic Press. Deam, J. H., & Bush, R. A. (2007). A Community psychology view of envi-

ronmental organization processes. American Journal of Commmunity Psychology, 40, 146-166. doi:10.1007/s10464-007-9123-2

Greenpeace. (2012). Our Blue Planet. Jakarta: Greenpeace. Hunter, M. L., & Gibbs, J. P. (2007). Fundamentals of Conservation Biology.

Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Knetsch, J. L. (1997). Reference States, Fairness, and Choice of Measure

to Value Environmental Changes. In M. H. Bazerman, D. M. Messick, A. E. Tenbrunsel, & K. A. Wade-Benzoni, Environment, Ethics, and Be-havior (pp. 13-31). San Fransisco: New Lexington Press.

Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of individuals’ feeling in community with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 503-515.

Miller, A. (1999). Environmental Problem Solving: Psychological Barriers to Adaptive Change. New York: Springer.

Rogers, C. (1975). Empathic: An Unappreciated Way of Being. The Coun-seling Psychologist, 5, 2-10.

Somekh, B. (2006). Action Research: a Methodology for Change and De-velopment. New York: Open University Press.

Tempo. (1978, Oktober 28). Hewan Juga Punya Hak Asasi. Jakarta: Tempo.

The Alberta Teachers' Association. (2000). Action Research Guide for Al-berta Teachers. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: ATA.

Tikka, P. M., Kuitunen, M. T., & Tynys, S. M. (2000). Effects of educational background on students' attitudes, activity levels, and knowledge concerning the environment. The Journal of Environmental Education, 31(3), 12-19.

Author’s Contact

Puspita Insan Kamil

Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia

Social Psychology Concentration

puspita93@rocketmail.com

Puspita Insan Kamil

+62 856 971 330 41