needs to occur.  However, not only must behaviors change, but they must remain durable.  

Behavior change techniques are seen as fundamental tools of resources management. 

The number of behavior change approaches available to resources management is vast. The 

important question is "what approach should be applied in a given situation and why?"  Heinen  

(1996) listed several social attributes that determine success of community based resources 

management behaviors; namely, i) societal scale, ii) social structure, iii) inter relatedness of 

individuals, and iv) reciprocal relations among individuals. 

Societal scale refers to population density, or simply the number of potential stakeholders 

interested in a particular resource.  High population densities will increase the demand for short 

term gains, and will require a higher degree of enforcement and negative incentives than will 

lower population densities.  High population densities make resources scarce, effectively 

transforming a managed commons into an open access resources management regime.  

Cooperative systems, or community management regimes, are least likely to operate in these 

circumstances.  Increasing populations lead to common resources management regimes 

moving closer to an open access arrangement.  For natural resources management, the 

process of how resources are allocated and on what scale become critical determinants of 

resultant behavior.  Stern (1995) noted that resource use behavior is a function of a perceived 

ability to control outcomes; with larger social groups, the extent to which individuals perceive 

that their actions can control the total impacts upon natural resources is very much reduced.  

Furthermore, traditional management systems, where they exist in Indonesia, are not likely to 

be robust enough to prevent overexploitation once market access and short run gains are 

available.  

Techniques for changing human behavior are numerous.  Information techniques help people 

understand the nature of the problem they are facing, the behavior needed to resolve the 

problem, or the steps to carry out this behavior.  The assumption is that once people know what 

to do and how to do it, they will simply go ahead and do it.  Usually these mechanisms involve 

prompts, signs, detailed education programs, modeling, and visualization techniques. 

Direct experience is a related type of behavioral change technique that uses stakeholder 

experience to develop information in a more intangible manner.  The use of demonstration 

approaches or action projects, such as sloping agricultural land techniques, were applied at 

NRMP field sites (NRMP Report No. 49).  Direct experience through demonstration approaches 

involves establishing field activities during which participants learn the impacts and results of 

their own decision making. This opportunity to learn increases the knowledge upon which future 

decisions can be made.  

However, informational approaches to behavior change have proved to be "notoriously 

untrustworthy" (de Young 1993), often due to declining reliability as novelty is lost.  Thus, the 

largest problem has been the lack or durability or sustainability once initial behavior changes 

were achieved. Heinen (1996) concluded that education and information approaches to 

behavior change in and of themselves are likely to be ineffective.  However, education may be a 

necessary precursor for all other techniques.  Exceptions to this may occur when costs and 

benefits are very localized and all parties perceive the situation as urgent. 

Material or economic incentives are typically recognized as the means by which rapid behavior 

change may be established.  Material incentives are defined by the nature of held property 

rights; the rights to receive benefits and costs from resources use are established in the 

property right.  In practice, this is frequently adopted as an important contributing factor, yet very 

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