REVIEW

The Jama Mapun: A Changing Samal Society in the Southern Philippines. By Eric Casino. Ateneo De Manila University Press, Manila, 1976. Pp. xiv, 159. Photos and Maps, Acknowledgements, Bibliography, Index.     

Mapping Common Futures: Customary Communities,NGOs and the State in Indonesia's Reform Era

The post‐Suharto ‘Reform Era’ has witnessed explosive revitalization movements among Indonesia's indigenous minorities or ‘customary’(adat) communities attempting to redress the disempowerment they suffered under the former regime. This study considers the current resurgence of customary claims to land and resources in Bali, where the state‐sponsored investment boom of the 1990s had severe social and environmental impacts. It focuses on recent experiments with participatory community mapping, aimed at reframing the relationship between state and local institutions in planning and decision‐making processes. Closely tied to the mapping and planning strategy have been efforts to strengthen local institutions and to confront the problems of land alienation and community control of resources. The diversity of responses to this new intervention reflects both the vitality and limitations of local adat communities, as well as the contributions and constraints of non‐governmental organizations that increasingly mediate their relationships to state and global arenas. This ethnographic study explores participants’ experiences of the community mapping programme and suggests its potential for developing ‘critical localism’ through long‐term, process‐oriented engagements between communities, governments, NGOs, and academic researchers.     

Estimates of Historical Tree Densities in the North Lachlan River Catchment,New South Wales,Australia

Vegetation structure and composition during the pre‐ and early‐European period in Australia is often proposed as a benchmark against which to measure the effects of modern landscape management practices. However, little quantifiable information exists for that historical period. One potential source of information is the land survey record, used in this study to provide estimates of tree densities that existed during the period 1870 to 1900 in part of central New South Wales. Estimates were obtained for 23 parishes in the north Lachlan River valley, between the towns of Condobolin and Tottenham. Densities were calculated from portion corner to nearest tree data obtained from historical survey plans, using the plotless, closest individual method. Densities ranged from 6.0 to 31.4 trees per hectare for parishes with enough data points for reliable calculation. These figures would account for trees of a diameter large enough to be blazed with a survey mark. Any smaller trees would be additional and, although no quantitative data existed for this, qualitative evidence suggested that the figures obtained were more likely to be underestimates due to the presence of such small trees. The study area was predominantly covered by woodlands which varied in density across the landscape, in comparison to the modern landscape where much of the native vegetation has been cleared for agriculture. Although the tree density figures should be considered to be indicative rather than precise, they provide quantifiable historical figures for past conditions in an area where the historical record is otherwise sparse. Such information is valuable for interpreting ecological changes brought about by modern land management.