Understanding agrobiodiversity conservation as a secondary effect: the Case of Banana in Indonesia

Summary

This thesis explored the conservation of banana agrobiodiversity among small-scale farmers in East Java, Indonesia. The central argument of the thesis is that the conservation of banana diversity was not a result of farmers’ deliberate actions but rather emerged as a secondary outcome of their daily practices, such as managing farms, selling, processing and consuming bananas. As such, banana diversity conservation does not result from explicit actions to conserve; instead, it arises from hidden and less visible mechanisms of everyday practices. The thesis suggests that to understand this form of conservation, we must shift our attention toward farmers’ daily routines and zoom into the covert mechanisms in order to unravel the concealed aspects of farmers’ practices that plausibly contribute to the conservation of bananas. This way, the conservation efforts can be more effective.