Indigenous Ecological Knowledge under Urban Pressure: A Cultural Capital Case Study of Disaster Mitigation in Kampung Cireundeu
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15575/jispo.v16i1.52502Keywords:
Indigenous ecological knowledge, disaster risk reduction, local wisdom, cultural capital, customary forest management, food resilience, community resilienceAbstract
Indonesia faces high disaster exposure compounded by environmental degradation, yet disaster-risk governance often gives limited attention to Indigenous ecological knowledge. Although such knowledge is increasingly recognized as relevant to resilience, less is known about how it is enacted, sustained, and challenged within rapidly urbanizing Indigenous communities. This study examines the forms, everyday implementation, and sustainability challenges of Indigenous ecological knowledge in the Cireundeu community, Cimahi, West Java. Using a qualitative case-study design, data were generated from 14 informants through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, repeated field visits, and documentation. The findings identify interconnected practices involving customary forest zoning, ecological values, ritual traditions, and the cassava-based rasi food system. These practices organize environmental responsibility, resource use, disaster memory, and food-related adaptation, while their continuity is challenged by land-use change, environmental pressure, urbanization, and uncertainty surrounding customary territorial authority. The study concludes that Cireundeu’s ecological knowledge remains a locally grounded resource relevant to disaster mitigation, but its continuity depends on supportive social, environmental, and institutional conditions. It contributes to disaster-risk scholarship by explaining how Indigenous ecological knowledge is socially reproduced and mobilized as cultural capital in a peri-urban setting. It implies that disaster-risk governance should engage Indigenous knowledge through meaningful community participation while safeguarding the conditions necessary for its continued practice and intergenerational transmission.
References
Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB). 2025. Buku Data Bencana Indonesia Tahun 2024. Jakarta: Pusat Data, Informasi dan Komunikasi Kebencanaan, BNPB.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by John G. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood Press.
Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft and Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV). 2025. WorldRiskReport 2025: Focus: Floods. Berlin and Bochum: Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft and IFHV.
Bwambale, Bosco, Martine Nyeko, Moses Muhumuza, and Matthieu Kervyn. 2020. “Questioning Knowledge Foundation: What Is the Best Way to Integrate Knowledge to Achieve Substantial Disaster Risk Reduction?” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51: 101850. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101850.
Bwambale, Bosco, Kewan Mertens, Thaddeo Kahigwa Tibasiima, and Matthieu Kervyn. 2022. “The Socio-Epistemic Process of Indigenous Disaster Risk Reduction: Evidence of Adapting Yet Endangered Indigenous Strategies.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 75: 102953. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102953
Choudhury, Mahed-Ul-Islam, C. Emdad Haque, Ainun Nishat, and Sean Byrne. 2021. “Social Learning for Building Community Resilience to Cyclones: Role of Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Power, and Institutions in Coastal Bangladesh.” Ecology and Society 26 (1): 5. doi:10.5751/ES-12107-260105.
Cuaton, Ginbert Permejo, and Yvonne Su. 2020. “Local-Indigenous Knowledge on Disaster Risk Reduction: Insights from the Mamanwa Indigenous Peoples in Basey, Samar after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 48: 101596. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101596.
Dorji, Tashi, Kinley Rinchen, Angus Morrison-Saunders, David Blake, Vicki Banham, and Sonam Pelden. 2024. “Understanding How Indigenous Knowledge Contributes to Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review.” Environmental Management 74 (6): 1101–1123. doi:10.1007/s00267-024-02032-x.
Filho, Walter Leal, Jelena Barbir, Juliet Gwenzi, Desalegn Ayal, Nicholas P. Simpson, Lydia Adeleke, Behiwot Tilahun, et al. 2022. “The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation in Africa.” Environmental Science & Policy 136: 250–260. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.004.
Hadlos, Arvin, Aaron Opdyke, and S. Ali Hadigheh. 2022. “Where Does Local and Indigenous Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction Go from Here? A Systematic Literature Review.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 79: 103160. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103160.
Hermans, Thirze D. G., Robert Šakić Trogrlić, Marc J. C. van den Homberg, Hannah Bailon, Rebecca Sarku, and Anuszka Mosurska. 2022. “Exploring the Integration of Local and Scientific Knowledge in Early Warning Systems for Disaster Risk Reduction: A Review.” Natural Hazards 114 (2): 1125–1152. doi:10.1007/s11069-022-05468-8.
Irawan, Budi, Karina Maheswari Safira, Annisa, Eneng Nunuz Rohmatullayaly, Muhammad Ihsan, Suryana, Johan Iskandar, and Budiawati S. Iskandar. 2024. “Ethnobotany of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in the Traditional Peri-Urban Sundanese Community of Cireundeu Hamlet, Cimahi City, West Java, Indonesia.” Biodiversitas 25 (1): 116–128. doi:10.13057/biodiv/d250113.
Koopman, Jop. 2023. “Subawe, Traditional Knowledge, and Faith-Based Organisations Promoting Social Capital and Disaster Preparedness: A Lombok, Indonesia Case Study.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 94: 103837. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103837.
Kurnio, Hananto, Alexander Fekete, Farhat Naz, Celia Norf, and Robert Jüpner. 2021. “Resilience Learning and Indigenous Knowledge of Earthquake Risk in Indonesia.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 62: 102423. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102423.
Lejano, Raul P., C. Emdad Haque, and Fikret Berkes. 2021. “Co-production of Risk Knowledge and Improvement of Risk Communication: A Three-Legged Stool.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 64: 102508. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102508.
Li, Jing, and Feng Han. 2022. “Strong Ethics and Flexible Actions, the Properties of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), as Key Resources for Socioecological Resilience to the Impacts of Climate Change: A Case Study of Baojiatun, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Karst Area, Southwest China.” Ecology and Society 27 (4): 31. doi:10.5751/ES-13400-270431.
Makondo, Cuthbert Casey, and David S. G. Thomas. 2018. “Climate Change Adaptation: Linking Indigenous Knowledge with Western Science for Effective Adaptation.” Environmental Science & Policy 88: 83–91. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2018.06.014.
Miles, Matthew B., A. Michael Huberman, and Johnny Saldaña. 2014. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Nalau, Johanna, Susanne Becken, Johanna Schliephack, Meg Parsons, Cilla Brown, and Brendan Mackey. 2018. “The Role of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge in Ecosystem-Based Adaptation: A Review of the Literature and Case Studies from the Pacific Islands.” Weather, Climate, and Society 10 (4): 851–865. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0032.1.
Nopriyasman, Nopriyasman, Gusti Asnan, Ahmad Fauzi, I. P. Hastuti, A. H. Ritonga, V. Kurniawan, and R. Mairiska. 2024. “Reading Indigenous Signs: The Wisdom of Nagari Communities toward Natural Disaster in Pasaman Barat.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 107: 104497. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104497.
Obi, Rachael, M. U. Nwachukwu, D. C. Okeke, and U. Jiburum. 2021. “Indigenous Flood Control and Management Knowledge and Flood Disaster Risk Reduction in Nigeria’s Coastal Communities: An Empirical Analysis.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 55: 102079. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102079.
Paudel, Prakash Kumar, Sital Parajuli, Rajiv Sinha, Meena Bohara, Md. Anwarul Abedin, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Suraj Gautam, Rabin Bastola, Indrajit Pal, and Henry P. Huntington. 2024. “Integrating Traditional and Local Knowledge into Disaster Risk Reduction Policies: Insights from Nepal, India and Bangladesh.” Environmental Science & Policy 159: 103825. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103825.
Petzold, Jan, Nadine Andrews, James D. Ford, Christopher Hedemann, and Julio C. Postigo. 2020. “Indigenous Knowledge on Climate Change Adaptation: A Global Evidence Map of Academic Literature.” Environmental Research Letters 15 (11): 113007. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abb330.
Rahman, Alfi, Aiko Sakurai, and Khairul Munadi. 2018. “The Analysis of the Development of the Smong Story on the 1907 and 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis in Strengthening the Simeulue Island Community’s Resilience.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 29: 13–23. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.07.015.
Räsänen, Aleksi, Haakon Lein, Deanne Bird, and Gunhild Setten. 2020. “Conceptualizing Community in Disaster Risk Management.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 45: 101485. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101485.
Setten, Gunhild, and Haakon Lein. 2019. “‘We Draw on What We Know Anyway’: The Meaning and Role of Local Knowledge in Natural Hazard Management.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 38: 101184. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101184.
Shaffril, Hayrol Azril Mohamed, Nobaya Ahmad, Samsul Farid Samsuddin, Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah, and Mas Ernawati Hamdan. 2020. “Systematic Literature Review on Adaptation towards Climate Change Impacts among Indigenous People in the Asia Pacific Regions.” Journal of Cleaner Production 258: 120595. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120595.
Suarmika, Putu Eka, Ida Bagus Putu Arnyana, I Wayan Suastra, and I Gede Margunayasa. 2022. “Reconstruction of Disaster Education: The Role of Indigenous Disaster Mitigation for Learning in Indonesian Elementary Schools.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 72: 102874. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102874.
Trogrlić, Robert Šakić, Melanie Duncan, Grant Wright, Marc van den Homberg, Adebayo Adeloye, Faidess Mwale, and Colin McQuistan. 2021. “External Stakeholders’ Attitudes towards and Engagement with Local Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction: Are We Only Paying Lip Service?” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 58: 102196. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102196.
Trogrlić, Robert Šakić, Melanie Duncan, Grant Wright, Marc van den Homberg, Adebayo Adeloye, and Faidess Mwale. 2022. “Why Does Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Fail to Learn from Local Knowledge? Experiences from Malawi.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 83: 103405. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103405.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). 2022. Words into Action Guidelines: Using Traditional and Indigenous Knowledges for Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva: UNDRR.
Vasileiou, Konstantina, Julie Barnett, and Danaë Stanton Fraser. 2022. “Integrating Local and Scientific Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction: A Systematic Review of Motivations, Processes, and Outcomes.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 81: 103255. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103255.
Wang, Z., J. Liu, N. Xu, C. Fan, Y. Fan, S. He, L. Jiao, and N. Ma. 2019. “The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Integrating Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge for Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction: A Case of Haikou Village in Ningxia, China.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 41: 101309. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101309.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Fadhli Fauzan Ilahi, Dede Syarif, Bukhori, Asep Muhamad Iqbal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish their manuscripts in JISPO agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal;
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal; and
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their websites) after publication process, or prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
.jpg)
