Land Degradation and Community Resilience in Rural Mountain Area of Java, Indonesia

Soil erosion has been a major threat in land degradation processes around the world. High level of soil erosion in particular area may influence community livelihood where land resource as the main source of family income is being threatened. This study was carried out in Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, with the aim to seek the level of soil erosion as well as to find out how resilient farm families are in the study area toward land degradation. Soil erosion assessment was performed using RUSLE method with various spatial data such as Landsat images, rainfall, soil erodibility, slope data, and conservation practice, while community resilience assessment was performed by comparing community preparedness to its vulnerability from 67 farm household samples. The results show most of high level of soil erosion occurred in area dominated by steep slope with less vegetation cover. It is also confirmed that soil erosion has accelerated due to deforestation indicated by the increasing area for soil erosion level 61–180 tons/ha/year from 1871 ha in 2007 to 2174 ha in 2017 (+4.07%). While the highest soil erosion level more than 180 tons/ha/year was increased for about 1.45% from 226 ha in 2017 to 34 ha in 2017, it was found as well that community resilience in the study area is classified at low level (0.27–1.01) with score 0.56. In general, the community in the study area is not resilient toward land degradation processes and hence jeopardizes livelihood sustainability.