DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/endogami.9.1.109-125

Nyalam Adat ba' Alam: Swidden Cultivation and Political-Ecological Dynamics among the Dayak Krio, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

*Uswatun Khasanah Enggar Saptaningrum  -  PT GAIA EKO DAYA BUANA, Indonesia
Rafi Rendian Sulaksono  -  Departemen Antropologi Sosial, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia
Open Access Copyright 2025 Endogami: Jurnal Ilmiah Kajian Antropologi under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Citation Format:
Abstract
This study examines the sustainability of swidden cultivation among the Dayak Krio community living around the Krio River in Hulu Sungai Subdistrict, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan Province, within a political ecology framework. The problem formulation centers on how practices that are often stigmatized by the state and companies as "ancient" or "environmentally destructive" continue to function as subsistence strategies and political negotiations for access to forest land. A qualitative ethnographic approach guided the collection of data through literature studies, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and documentation during fieldwork with Gaia Indonesia in the Forest Village Social Study project in West Kalimantan in August 2025. The findings reveal that swidden cultivation is a ritualized socio-ecological system that encodes local knowledge and spiritual relationships regarding the human-nature relationship inherited from thousands of years ago, not merely a traditional farming technique. Furthermore, the stigmatization of swidden cultivation by state law and corporate narratives serves to legitimize external control over forest land, intensifying contestation over forest access. In conclusion, Dayak Krio swidden cultivation embodies resilience, representing a negotiated strategy to maintain survival, cultural identity, and ecological sustainability amid expanding agribusiness and limiting policies. 
Fulltext View|Download
Keywords: Dayak Krio, Swidden Cultivation, Political Ecology, Indigenous Knowlede, Land Tenure and Access

Article Metrics:

Article Info
Section: Articles
Language : EN
Recent articles
Body, Alcohol, and The Quest for Identity: Understanding Youth Drinking Practices in Urban Setting Beyond The Smoke: Historical and Ethnographic Notes on The Dayak Basap Plural Identities and Customary Governance in East Seram: The Persistence of Negeri Institutions More recent articles
Most cited articles
Pemanfaatan Remitan Ekonomi dan Ketergantungan Migran Kembali Bekerja di Luar Negeri Jurnalisme Multikultural: Gagasan Mengembangkan Cara Pendekatan Pengkajiannya Choumiryou dan Harapan Hidup Orang Jepang Kerajinan Batik dan Pewarnaan Alami Livelihood Transformations of the Orang Rimba as Tacit Resistance in the Context of Deforestation More cited articles
  1. Badan Pusat Statistik. (2016). Struktur Ongkos Usaha Pertanian dan Kondisi Sosial Ekonomi Rumah Tangga di Sekitar Kawasan Hutan, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.bps.go.id/id/statistics-table/2/MTAyMCMy/jumlah-dan-persentase-rumah-tangga-di-sekitar-kawasan-hutan-yang-melakukan-perladangan-berpindah-2004-dan-2014.html
  2. Badan Pusat Statistik. (2025). Luas Kawasan Hutan dan Kawasan Konservasi Perairan Indonesia Berdasarkan Surat Keputusan Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan, 2017-2023. Retrieved from https://www.bps.go.id/id/statistics-table/1/MTcxNiMx/luas-kawasan-hutan-dan-kawasan-konservasi-perairan-indonesia-berdasarkan-surat-keputusan-menteri-lingkungan-hidup-dan-kehutanan--2017-2021.html
  3. Badan Registrasi Wilayah Adat Provinsi Kalimantan Barat. (2025). Wilayah Adat Kerajaan Hulu Aik. Retrieved from https://kalbar.brwa.or.id/wa/view/NGRaVEJoNXdKeXM
  4. Bellwood, P. (2000). Prasejarah Kepulauan Indo-Malaysia. PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama
  5. Blaikie, P., & Brookfield, H. (2015). Land degradation and society. Routledge
  6. Daeli, W., Carmenta, R., Monroe, M. C., & Adams, A. E. (2021). Where policy and culture collide: Perceptions and responses of swidden farmers to the burn ban in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Human Ecology, 49(2), 159-170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00227-y
  7. Dharmawan, A. H. (2007). Dinamika sosio-ekologi pedesaan: Perspektif dan pertautan keilmuan ekologi manusia, sosiologi lingkungan dan ekologi politik. Sodality: Jurnal Sosiologi Pedesaan, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.22500/sodality.v1i1.5939
  8. Dove, M. R. (1993). Smallholder rubber and swidden agriculture in Borneo: a sustainable adaptation to the ecology and economy of the tropical forest. Economic botany, 47(2), 136-147. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862016
  9. Dove, M. R. (2012). Swidden agriculture in Indonesia: the subsistence strategies of the Kalimantan Kantu' (Vol. 43). Walter de Gruyter
  10. Eilenberg, M. (2021). The last enclosure: smoke, fire and crisis on the Indonesian forest frontier. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49(5), 969–998. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2021.1907355
  11. Escobar, A. & Rocheleau, D. (2008). Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. New York, USA: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389439
  12. Food and Agriculture Organization. (1999). Common forest resource management annotated bibliography of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Retrieved from https://www.fao.org/4/u9040e/U9040E03.htm#TopOfPage
  13. Gunawan, M. (2025, August 13). Perda Boleh Bakar Lahan 2 Hektar di Kalbar akan Dicabut: Kriminimalisasi Peladang Berpindah. Kompasiana. Retrieved from https://www.kompasiana.com/mariusgunawan/689bd11ac925c458237331a3/perda-boleh-bakar-lahan-2-hektar-di-kalbar-akan-dicabut-kriminalisasi-peladang-berpindah
  14. IWGIA. (2025, April 25). The Indigenous World 2025: Indonesia. Retrieved from https://iwgia.org/en/indonesia/5660-iw-2025-indonesia.html
  15. Jati, W. R. (2013). Manajemen tata kelola sumber daya alam berbasis paradigma ekologi politik. Politika: Jurnal Ilmu Politik, 3(2), 98-111. https://doi.org/10.14710/jkli.4864
  16. Kapoor, I. (2001). Towards participatory environmental management?. Journal of environmental management, 63(3), 269-279. https://doi.org/10.1006/jema.2001.0478
  17. Kementerian Kehutanan. (2025, March 21). Hutan dan deforestasi Indonesia tahun 2024 [Siaran pers]. Retrieved from https://kehutanan.go.id/news/article-10#:~:text=Hasil%20pemantauan%20menunjukkan%20bahwa%20luas,sebesar%20175%2C4%20ribu%20hektar
  18. Li, T. M. (2007). The will to improve: Governmentality, development, and the practice of politics. Durham: Duke University Press
  19. Madani Berkelanjutan. (2024, December 19). Passing of the Indigenous Peoples Bill in 2025: Awaiting Concrete Action from Parliament and the Government for Indigenous Communities. Retrieved from https://madaniberkelanjutan.id/passing-of-the-indigenous-peoples-bill-in-2025-awaiting-concrete-action-from-parliament-and-the-government-for-indigenous-communities/
  20. Maring, P. (2020). The strategy of shifting cultivators in West Kalimantan in adapting to the market economy: empirical evidence behind gaps in interdisciplinary communication. Journal of Political Ecology, 27(1), 1015-1035. https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23757
  21. Myers, R., Larson, A. M., Ravikumar, A., Kowler, L. F., Yang, A., & Trench, T. (2018). Messiness of forest governance: How technical approaches suppress politics in REDD+ and conservation projects. Global Environmental Change, 50, 314-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.02.015
  22. Nishijima, K. (2021). The Dayak 'kingdom' and indigenous sovereignty in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online, 13(2), 103–129
  23. Peluso, N. L. (1992). Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press
  24. Peluso, N. L., & Vandergeest, P. (2001). Genealogies of the political forest and customary rights in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The Journal of Asian Studies, 60(3), 761-812. https://doi.org/10.2307/2700109
  25. Peraturan Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan Nomor 10 Tahun 2010 tentang Tata Cara Pembukaan dan/atau Pengolahan Lahan dengan Cara Pembakaran
  26. Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 20 Tahun 2021 tentang Penertiban Kawasan dan Tanah Terlantar
  27. Rasul, G., & Thapa, G. B. (2003). Shifting cultivation in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia: regional patterns and factors influencing the change. Land Degradation & Development, 14(5), 495-508. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.570
  28. Ribot, J. C., & Peluso, N. L. (2003). A theory of access. Rural sociology, 68(2), 153-181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2003.tb00133.x
  29. Rifqi, M. (2017). Ladang berpindah dan model pengembangan pangan Indonesia studi kasus daerah dengan teknik ladang berpindah dan pertanian modern. Prosiding SENIATI, 3(2), E22-1
  30. Robbins, P. (2012). Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell
  31. Simanjuntak, T. (2008). Austronesia di Nusantara: Sebuah Rekonstruksi. Jakarta: Puslit Arkenas
  32. Spradley, J. (1997). Metode Etnografi. Yogyakarta: Tiara Wacana
  33. Sudrajat, M. (2019). Penerapan Agrarische Wet (Undang-Undang Agraria) 1870: Periode Awal Swastanisasi Perkebunan di Pulau Jawa. HISTORIA: Jurnal Program Studi Pendidikan Sejarah, 7(2)
  34. Sugiyanto, B. (2018). Beliung Persegi: Sebaran Dan Fungsinya Di Kalimantan (Stone Adze: Its Distribution and Function in Kalimantan). Naditira Widya, 12(2), 89-100
  35. Toledo, V. M., & Barrera-Bassols, N. (2008). La memoria biocultural: la importancia ecológica de las sabidurías tradicionales (Vol. 3). Icaria editorial
  36. Undang-Undang Nomor 41 Tahun 1999 tentang Kehutanan
  37. Undang-Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1967 tentang Kehutanan
  38. van Noordwijk, M., Mulyoutami, E., Sakuntaladewi, N., & Agus, F. (2008). Swiddens in transition: shifted perceptions on shifting cultivators in Indonesia. World Agroforestry Centre. https://www.cifor-icraf.org/publications/downloads/Publications/PDFS/OP15891.pdf
  39. van Noordwijk, M., Tata, H. L., Xu, J., Dewi, S., & Minang, P. A. (2012). Segregate or integrate for multifunctionality and sustained change through rubber-based agroforestry in Indonesia and China. In Agroforestry-the future of global land use (pp. 69-104). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/97894007467638
  40. White, B. (2009). `Dibalik pertarungan sumber daya Indonesia: ekologi politik dan penerapannya pada studi dan perjuangan lingkungan hidup¿ (Behind Indonesian resource struggles: political ecology and its application in environmental studies and struggles). Tanah Air (in B. White, M. Arsel & S. Afiff eds. Ekologi Politik), Oct-Dec, 3-9. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/18311
  41. Zimmerer, K. S., & Bassett, T. J. (Eds.). (2012). Political ecology: an integrative approach to geography and environment-development studies. Guilford Press

Last update:

No citation recorded.

Last update: 2025-11-23 02:24:49

No citation recorded.