ABSTRACT




Abd. Basir A. “Development of Statistical Instruments In Analyzing and Presenting The Cultural Significance Index of Non-Timber Forest Resources “, supervised by (1) H. Abubakar M. Lahjie, (2) B.D.A.S Simarangkir, and (3) Paulus Matius.

Studies on the benefits of the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in quantitative ethnobotany often expressed as the cultural significance index (CSI) of plants. So far, the analysis and presentation of the index of cultural significance of plants is still mostly use univariate statistics. This study aims to assemble a set of multivariate statistical methods as instruments of analysis and presentation of the benefits of plants that expressed as the index of cultural significance. Statistical methods built include cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling analysis, the combination of principal component analysis and factor analysis, and analysis biplot. To obtain the test material in the form of primary data, this study also aims to measure the index of cultural significance of edible plants in Muara Lawa, West Kutai.
Primary data as a test material in this study were collected through the development of ethnobotany studies. With emic and etic approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted on 100 informants, which are indigenous peoples and have the knowledge and experience so far on the use of plants. To achieve the first objective of this research, developed desk study, such as reviewing the literature and assemble a set of multivariate statistical methods, which is accompanied by a test. The test material other than using primary data is also used four sets of secondary data.
Multivariate statistical methods, which were developed in this study was found to function well as an instrument for analyzing and presenting the cultural significance index of plants. These instruments can reveal and provide additional information about the cultural significance of plants, such as the classification of groups of plants based on the similarity of their cultural significance, the group main variables in determining the CSI scores, and comparison of the magnitude of the variance and the correlation between the variable sub-indices. Therefore, to obtain a more complete assessment and a better understanding of the evaluation of the cultural significance of the plant, it is suggested to the researchers to use methods such as multivariate statistical analysis developed in this study.