The Role of Community Social Capital in Sustainable Peat Management: A Case Study from Tanjung Leban Village, Bengkalis Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to identify activities and challenges as well as analyze the social capital of Disaster Concerned Communities (DCC) in sustainable peat management in Tanjung Leban Village, Bengkalis Regency. This study uses a qualitative methodology to systematically analyze community social capital in sustainable peat management, where the Nvivo 12 Plus software is used to analyze data and answer research questions posed. The results of this study indicate that the activities of the Disaster Concern Community (DCC) in Tanjung Leban Village in preventing forest and peatland fires include three phases of activity, namely the prevention phase (conducting routine patrols in finding hotspots and conducting outreach and education to the community), the extinguishing phase (collective fire suppression activities), and the peatland restoration phase of former burnt areas (planting and land rewetting activities). In the process, these activities still face challenges due to natural factors such as the structure of peat soils and hot weather which tend to be highly flammable, as well as internal (lack of solidarity) and external factors (lack of local government support). Then, the success of Tanjung Leban Village in recent years in reducing the number of land fires is the result of social capital which is dominated by aspects of institutional norms (30.76%), followed by 3 (three) other aspects, namely institutional social networks (23.08 %), institutional identification (23.08%), and trust in institutions (23.08%). Therefore, social capital is a crucial instrument in influencing the success of sustainable peatland management activities. Therefore, this research has an urgency and contribution to peatland management efforts that require strong social capital to influence the success of sustainable peatland management activities.