How much vitality is present?
A combined view of five dimensions.
Biocultural Vitality Index · IVB
See what is thriving. Help it keep growing.
The IVB helps us understand how well nature, culture, and community life are sustained in a place, and where attention is needed.
Vitality means the ability to stay alive, thrive, and continue into the next generation.
Why does vitality matter?
Heritage needs to be lived.
Counting forests, languages, or traditions is only a start. We also need to know whether they remain part of everyday life.
A language is spoken
A language stays alive when people use it to tell stories, learn, and communicate across generations.
Knowledge is passed on
Local seeds have a better future when they are still grown and the skills to care for them are passed on.
Communities have a voice
Nature and culture are better supported when communities have rights and a say in how they are cared for.
What does the IVB look at?
Five dimensions. One connected life.
These five dimensions are read together so that a place is not reduced to a single number.
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Nature
Are forests, water, and biodiversity in good condition?
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Culture and language
Are languages, traditions, and knowledge still used and passed on?
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Rights and governance
Are community rights recognised, and can people shape how their territory is managed?
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Farming and food
Do diverse crops, farming practices, and local food knowledge continue to thrive?
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Wellbeing
Do community wellbeing and a healthy environment support each other?
Four readings
One number is not enough.
The IVB separates richness, vulnerability, urgency, and readiness so strength in one area does not hide collapse in another.
How many fronts are failing?
Counts dimensions below their thresholds.
How quickly is loss unfolding?
Reads pressures that require early response.
Can local actors act?
Assesses the actor ecosystem and capacity to move.
National findings v0.5
Signals strong enough to begin a conversation.
0,44 mean national vitality
149 areas vulnerable across three or more dimensions
8 + 39 critical emergency + high urgency
0,34 mean national readiness
District decisions still require field checks, local context, and community consent.
Ten district signals
Numbers open questions; district stories give direction.
Locations of the ten IVB areas A map of Indonesia with five alarm locations and five opportunity locations. 
1 Pegunungan Arfak 2 Teluk Bintuni 3 Mesuji 4 Kota Tangerang 5 Pasangkayu 6 Sigi 7 Kota Yogyakarta 8 Kapuas Hulu 9 Tabanan 10 Blora
1 Pegunungan Arfak 2 Teluk Bintuni 3 Mesuji 4 Kota Tangerang 5 Pasangkayu 6 Sigi 7 Kota Yogyakarta 8 Kapuas Hulu 9 Tabanan 10 Blora - 1 Pegunungan Arfak West Papua · alarm
- 2 Teluk Bintuni West Papua · alarm
- 3 Mesuji Lampung · alarm
- 4 Kota Tangerang Banten · alarm
- 5 Pasangkayu West Sulawesi · alarm
- 6 Sigi Central Sulawesi · opportunity
- 7 Kota Yogyakarta DI Yogyakarta · opportunity
- 8 Kapuas Hulu West Kalimantan · opportunity
- 9 Tabanan Bali · opportunity
- 10 Blora Central Java · opportunity
Markers use district or city centre coordinates to show the geographic spread. Administrative boundaries are not shown.
Pegunungan Arfak
Highest urgency; ecological strength may mask decline in other dimensions.
Teluk Bintuni
A leading “hidden collapse” case: the combined score looks adequate while dimensions are deeply uneven.
Mesuji
Urgent pressure meets an actor network that is weak or not yet documented.
Kota Tangerang
Low vitality can sit inside a city that appears economically prosperous.
Pasangkayu
An oil-palm frontier facing emergency pressure and a governance gap.
Sigi
High vitality and strong community agency; coordination is the challenge.
Kota Yogyakarta
Highest readiness despite thin ecology and agrobiodiversity; suitable for a policy pilot.
Kapuas Hulu
High vitality and low urgency; the best time to protect is before crisis.
Tabanan
Relatively whole conditions and strong civic capacity; formal actor mapping remains incomplete.
Blora
Very strong agrobiodiversity, but governance must improve for that richness to endure.
Method and limits
Methodological honesty is part of the result.
Real data, no synthetic fills
All used cells come from public sources. Eight indicators are shown as context but are not scored because they are not yet sufficiently comparable.
Patterns, not false precision
National data quality is Tier C because some indicators still use provincial data. Read patterns and groups; do not treat decimal gaps as certainty.
Weights are tested, not hidden
Initial weights are normative. Equal weighting produced a 0.86 rank correlation; 3,000 simulations show extremes are more stable than the middle. BVS is weight-free.
Association is not causation
The dependency layer is built, but the data is still cross-sectional. The IVB does not yet claim validated forecasting or intervention effects.
Reference audit
Of 56 references, 44 were cleared, 7 corrected, and 5 remain flagged as unverified. Corrections and flags were applied to paper v4.0.
Community consent and control
The next phase must use FPIC, community data governance, and co-selected indicators.
What comes next
From a national prototype to a shared decision tool.
Validate concepts
Re-test definitions, indicators, thresholds, and weights through peer review and public deliberation.
Strengthen data
Unlock restricted sources and build repeated waves so change can be observed over time.
Build the community layer
Include local experience, causal knowledge, and priorities through participatory mapping.
Pilot in districts
Connect evidence, policy clinics, and Living Labs to learn from real action.
From measurement to action
Make the next step clearer.
The IVB helps communities, researchers, and governments recognise local strengths, identify threats, and agree on priorities.
Understand conditions Set priorities Act together
About the data and development stage
The IVB is being developed to assess conditions across 514 Indonesian districts and cities. Public data provides the foundation, while fieldwork and community knowledge add context. Some components still use province-level data.
Scores need to be read alongside their breakdowns and data limitations. The index informs discussion; decisions still require local knowledge and community participation.
Want to contribute to the knowledge behind the IVB?
Explore the research fields