A Re-Examination of the Validity of the “Separative and Exclusive Conservation Model”: Insights from an Ethnobiological Study in Maluku, East Indonesia

This chapter aims to examine the validity and desirability of “separative conservation model,” a conservation model, which tries to separate human use areas from wildlife habitats to protect “intact nature.” In mountain areas of central Seram, East Indonesia, local people have created and maintained various types of human-modified forests (HMFs) through arboriculture. Among them, some of damar forests and forest gardens are distributed inside the Manusela National Park in central Seram. Principally, the Indonesian national park management authority has adopted the “separative conservation model” and basically forbids local arboricultural activities for creating HMFs by cutting wild trees inside a national park. In this chapter, I first describe how the locals have formed HMFs through arboricultural and how resources provided from those HMFs support local livelihood. After that, I describe local knowledge on behavior of a flagship species of Wallacea Moluccan cockatoo and its habitat utilization. Then, I evaluate how some types of HMFs function as habitats for the Moluccan cockatoo by analyzing transect survey data. Finally, I provide implications for future conservation and research.