The Role of Social Capital in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Public Policy on Environmental Management (Based on a Case Study of Governmental Efforts on Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Towards Upland farmer at Lawu Mountain, Indonesia

Social capital is one of livelihood capitals that is believed to affect the degree of successfulness of efforts on reducing the environmental degradation. However, the verification about its strength and contribution within the linkage of livelihood assets- environmental degradation still. needs to be examined.. Yet, this paper is aimed to assess the role of social capital within such linkage. This paper is based on the work that examines the linkage between livelihood assets and agri-environmental degradation. The research was conducted upon 486 upland farmers at Lawu. A framework of capacity and incentive-environmental degradation was used in combination with the DSR framework. Questionnaire was used to assess the research's variables (capacity and incentive). Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the strength and direction of the relationship between the dependent variable (capacity and incentive) and the independent variable (level of agri-environmental degradation). Discussion is focused on the role of social capital in enhancing the effectiveness of public policy on reducing the upland environmental degradation Social capital variable is statistically significant to affect the degree of agri-environmental degradation. Social capital influences farmer's decision to perform any action towards their natural resources.