The multiyear research on pekarangan has the objective to reconstruct and to revitalize traditional Indonesian agroforestry to achieve sustainable bioresources management systems on Java. Furthermore, this research calculates and assesses C sequestration, water resources management, agrobiodiversity conservation, and landscape beautification from pekarangan.
8.2 Methods
This study has been ongoing since 1996 in some watersheds of West Java Province for a period of 10 years. This study was divided into four stages with the activity targets in each stage as follows:
1. Stage I (1996-2000): Survey on traditional pekarangan bioresources in rural areas.
2. Stage II (2000-2003): Analysis interrelationships among components in pekarangan bioresource management system and evaluation.
3. Stage III (2003-2005): Reconstruction of a pekarangan bioresources management system.
4. Stage IV (2005-2007): Adaptation of the new biomanagement system and proposal of the reconstruction of the pekarangan bioresources management system.
Simultaneously, these pekarangan studies have been extended on Java Island under joint research with the Rural Development Institute (2006-2007), Hibah Penelitian Tim Pascasarjana Directorate General of Higher Education (DGHE) of Indonesia (2006-2008), Hibah Kompetensi DGHE of Indonesia (2008-2010), and joint research with the Global Environmental Leaders (GEL)s Education Program for Designing a Low Carbon Society (LCS) of Hiroshima University, Japan (2009-2013).
In this chapter, those results were demonstrated to show the conditions and the significant roles of pekarangan in Java, Indonesia. Several settlements of hamlets or villages within administrative boundaries were chosen as the study sites of a microscale research unit. Selection of the study sites in each small-scale catchment area was based on several considerations, as follows:
1. Elevation gradient: 200-500 m, 500-1,000 m, and >1,000 m above sea level (a. s.l.)
2. These study sites are located in the linear slope.
