Shifting contestation into cooperation: Strategy to incorporate different interest of actors in medicinal plants in Meru Betiri National Park, Indonesia

- We identify multi actors in Meru Betiri National Park.
- We map interest and influence of those actors.
- We make a power-grid matrix analysis.
- We consolidate different interests of actors.
- We promote participative park management strategy.

Meru Betiri National Park (MBNP) is home to a variety of medicinal plants that local communities collect for individual use and sale. In MBNP, a variety of actors are interested in medicinal plants for different reasons. This paper analyzes the interest and influence of ten important actors related to medicinal plant collection and use in MBNP: national park management, the Plantation and Forestry Office of Jember District, farmer groups (jaket resi), medicinal plant collectors (pendarung), medicinal plants purchasers (pengepul), small-scale medicinal plant industries of the Toga Sumber Waras, Bandealit plantation company, a conservation NGO (LSM KAIL), loggers (blandong), and log buyers (borek kayu). To examine and map the position of different interests and influences of actors involved in medicinal plant usage, this paper uses a power grid matrix. The analysis confirms that five of the ten aforementioned actors play a direct role in the medicinal plant policy process, while five actors do not and can be categorized as context setters, subjects, or crowd. This paper ends by recommending a strategy for considering policy options that promote shared interests and minimize anticipated objection from actors concerning the harvest of medicinal plants in MBNP. It concludes that the utilization of medicinal plants in MBNP, together with protection of natural resources, should become an integral part of the park's conservation strategy.