Author:

Keywords:

water, erosion, land use, low flow

Abstract:

Land use change, especially deforestation, is often blamed for the loss of watershed functions and still leads to much conflict. The association of ‘forest’ and ‘water’ is strong in the public perception. All too often, environmental arguments are used as ‘a stick to beat the dog’, without a good insight into what makes a landscape - and its various elements - function properly in providing environmental services. Sumberjaya, a large caldera of about 40.000 ha in the southern part of the Bukit Barisan mountain range of Sumatra, Indonesia, has seen a lot of conflict and it may represent possible future trajectories for many other watersheds in Southeast Asia.