Nina Novira, Herdi, Darwin P. Lubis, Puspitawati, Meilinda Suriani Harefa
Shifting cultivation and poverty are often accused to be responsible for tropical deforestation and land use change. Without denying the importance of these factors, this paper argues that there are other factors that play a more important role. Thus, it proposes an alternative to the explanation of land use change in Indonesia. Literature study, expert interview, and in-depth interview are used to gain understanding of the overall global, national, regional, and local influences on land use change. To see how these affect land use change at a local level, a case study was conducted in Labuhanbatu Utara Regency of North Sumatera, Indonesia. The result indicates that power distribution among different actors hold a very important role in driving land use change. This contradicts the common assumption that shifting cultivation and poverty are the main cause. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
Department of Geography Education, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, Indonesia; Engineering Faculty Institut Teknologi Medan, Medan, Indonesia; Department of Anthropology Education, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, Indonesia
