A Matter of Mutual Survival

Book excerpt: This volume contains a collection of articles based on empirical social science research in forest margin communities around the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It refers to a worldwide and particularly topical issue, i.e. the declining forest resources and man's role in the observed processes of nature degradation. However, it refrains from rather simplistic protectionist approaches which boil down to a separation between man and nature in order to avoid the depletion of natural resources. Instead, the approach adopted regards the existence or development of co-evolutionary potentials, both in nature and human society, as a precondition for the establishment of a sustainable equilibrium in the interaction between man and nature.