Abstract
This article examines Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) as traditional Indonesian Islamic educational institutions, showing a new face as agents in nature conservation, especially forest conservation and considering Indonesia as a country with the best tropical forest land in the world and pesantren as indigenous Islamic educational institutions owned by Indonesia. This study finds pesantren as the landscape of a forest conservation movement started by the Al-Ittifaq pesantren and the Ecopesantren community. By focusing on the eco-centric paradigm where Islamic teachings teach the concept of forest conservation, this concept is rarely taught in traditional Islamic educational institutions such as pesantren. The results found that the eco-pesantren model was created by integrating religious education and ecological conceptions of dialectical qauliyah and kauniyah verses through the involvement of community alliances. Kyai’s leadership behaviour is a key factor where all three (meditation, mediation, and reflection) are formed based on the two powers of authority in Weber’s tripartite (legal-formal and transformational). This study contributes that Islamic education is a religious institution that teaches forest conservation movements through an eco-pesantren format. This research contributes that pesantren can synergise religion and forest conservation movements through the eco-pesantren format.
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Salafiyah is a type of traditional pesantren that still maintains a classical system such as teaching methods (bandongan, sorogan, and memorization), teaching materials and materials only from the kitab kuning (yellow book) in Arabic, curriculum and organizational management centred on kyai, and the existence of dormitories and mosques as places for students live and study.
Khalafiyah is a type of pesantren which is better known as modern pesantren. Islamic boarding schools have a formal education system established by the government, such as SD/MI, SMP/MTs, SMA/MA/SMK and Private Islamic Religious University (PIRU). Even though it uses a formal system and management, the khalafiyah pesantren also still uses elements in the Salafiyah pesantren but with a less full portion than Salafiyah.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Al-Ittifaq Pesantren, Bandung, West Java, and KH. Fuad Afandi is the leader of the al-Ittifaq Pesantren and the Ecopesantren Community located in Pejaten Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, which has been granted a research permit. Thanks also to Dr. Moch. Khafidz Fuad Raya from the Center for the Study of Muslim Society has corrected this manuscript regarding substance and language.
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Subaidi, Tantowi, A., Cholid, N. et al. Eco-pesantren: Islamic Education in Forest Conservation Landscapes. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 16, 541–567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00386-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00386-w