Local Community Resilience Documentation for Sustainable Resilience

Various local initiatives have been proven to build community resilience in facing disaster risks, including in coastal areas. Documentation of local initiatives needs to be done so that the lessons learned can inspire disaster management efforts by various parties.

This was conveyed by the Deputy for Prevention of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Prasinta Dewi, when opening the National Disaster Preparedness Day Talkshow on April 26, 2024, in Padang, West Sumatra, themed Coastal Communities’ Resilience. According to her, one of the sources of knowledge is local wisdom, which can be replicated efficiently by utilising social capital for collective resilience.

In the talkshow, stories about coastal communities’ local initiatives were presented directly by activists from a number of coastal areas in Indonesia. There were Pati Haryose, founder and manager of the Jambak Sea Turtle Camp Pasir Turtle Conservation in Jambak, West Sumatra Province; Mohammad Mukhyi, a conservation activist in Rejo Beach (Cemara Beach), East Java Province; Jull Takaliuang, initiator of #SaveSangihe, North Sulawesi Province; and Eliza Marthen Kissya, Head of Kewang Negeri Haruku, Maluku Province. In addition, there was also a story from M. Ilman, Director of the Marine Program, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, who was working in the eastern parts of Indonesia, and Shofa Al Quds, General Manager of the Disaster Management Center Program of Dompet Dhuafa, who worked with coastal communities in Pacitan, East Java.

The responders in the talkshow included the Head of Disaster Mitigation Division of the Directorate of Coastal and Small Islands Utilization, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Fina Ardarini; the Expert Council of the Aceh DRR Forum and Lecturer of Disaster Management Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, University of Muhammadiyah Aceh, Risma Sunarty; the Lecturer of Marine Affairs and Fisheries at Bung Hatta Padang University, Harfiandri Damanhuri; and the Deputy for Systems and Strategy of BNPB, Raditya Jati.

In line with Prasinta, the Director of Preparedness of BNPB, Pangarso Suryotomo, said that learning from local initiatives in a number of coastal/coastal areas will serve as an important input for the development of disaster management policies. Therefore, it is necessary to document and disseminate stories of the resilience of local communities. This is done, among others, through the development of a book on the resilience of coastal communities. “By maintaining good knowledge of climate change adaptation practices and disaster risk management, sustainable resilience can be achieved,” he said.

This book on the resilience of coastal communities was compiled by taking stories from a number of coastal communities, including those who shared their stories in this talkshow. This book development is supported by the Australian Government through SIAP SIAGA Program. According to Simon Flores, Counsellor for Development Effectiveness of the Australian Embassy to Indonesia, collaboration in disaster management with Indonesia is very important because the Indo-Pacific region is the most disaster-prone region in the world. “One of the Australian Government’s commitments to support disaster risk management efforts in Indonesia is through the SIAP SIAGA Program. I appreciate BNPB’s commitment to promoting inclusive disaster management that is oriented towards local practices,” he said.

BNPB Deputy for Systems and Strategy, Raditya Jati, said that community resilience in coastal areas is important not only because Indonesia is an archipelagic country but also because of the high level of disaster risk in coastal areas. This is already accommodated in the Sendai Framework. “Which proposes that (the risk of archipelagic countries) be included (into the Sendai Framework) Indonesia, which is then approved by the international community. It is estimated that around 50 per cent of the world’s population in 2050 will live in coastal areas,” said Raditya.

Economic aspect

Looking at the stories of coastal community activists, disaster management efforts can be successful and sustainable when combined with economic empowerment activities. This method even helps them face various challenges.

Mohammad Mukhyi, for example, revealed that when he started planting beach she-oak (cemara udang) on the beach in 2011, his fellow fishers in the area refused to talk to him. Planting beach she-oak was considered to interfere with fishing activities on the beach when, actually, the purpose of planting the tree was to overcome the impact of strong winds and worsening abrasion.

“After the beach she-oak trees got bigger, around a year old, the fishers who initially refused finally gave their support because they understood the importance of beach she-oak trees in protecting the area from abrasion and strong winds. After mangrove and turtle conservation existed, fisher groups were more enthusiastic about conservation activities because ecotourism in our area was proven to be able to become a source of income,” he explained.

Harfiandri Damanhuri, a lecturer in Marine Affairs and Fisheries at Bung Hatta Padang University, West Sumatra, said that the economic aspect is important for growing community-based resilience development in coastal areas. Like Mukhyi’s experience in Banyuwangi, he mentioned that the turtle conservation in the Pariaman area, which has been visited by foreign tourists, has fostered the emergence of hundreds of small business actors. “From there, people can go further to mangrove planting and coral reef conservation,” he said.

According to Fida Ardarini, the Head of the Disaster Mitigation Division of the Directorate of Coastal and Small Islands Utilization of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the economic benefits that can ultimately be obtained by environmental activist communities in a number of these coastal areas are in line with the Blue Economy program. “We are greatly helped by community activities that are mentioned through the stories here, and they are in line with the vision of our ministry. The Blue Economy is not only about how to maintain the ecosystem but also how communities can obtain the economic value from this ecosystem,” she stated.

Eliza Marthen Kissya, or can be called Opa Eli, also expressed something similar. The economic benefits received by people in Haruku Island make conservation efforts carried out through the customary approach sustainable. This can be seen from the people’s compliance with the many sasis (prohibitions), both in the sea, mountains, and others, which aim to protect natural resources. One of which is the sea sasi, which means the prohibition of fishing activities for a certain period. “Every time during a duration where the sea sasi is lifted (removing restrictions or prohibitions), people are allowed to fish. And most recently, the fishing result reached 40 tons,” said Opa Eli, who has been the Head of Nature Guardian (Kepala Kewang) for 45 years.

The implementation of sea sasihas been going on since 1600. The abundant results people receive every time the sea sasi is lifted make them comply with various other conservation activities. Starting from mangrove planting and hatching maleo birds, to cleaning up garbage on the beach by children who are educated to be kewang, or nature guardians. This includes applying organic agriculture, which is one of the people’s economic pillars. These various conservation activities, which are cared for and enforced using a traditional approach, are carried out seriously because these residents have felt their positive impact.

Tradition is also a part of the resilience of the people in Sangihe Island, Sangihe Islands District. According to Jull Takaliuang, every time a new baby is born, the parents of the baby will plant a tree. This illustrates the close relationship between the people and nature. Therefore, even though Sangihe is vulnerable to natural disasters, ranging from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to rising sea levels, its people can survive. “For us, Sangihe is a living space. Any effort to preserve nature and conservation is a fight to maintain the people’s living space and livelihood, most of whom are fishers and farmers,” she said.

However, currently, the living space of people in Sangihe is under disaster threats resulting from illegal gold mining activities. Not only destroying forests, the gold mining activity also produces waste that endangers the people. Jull conveyed that a group of women in Sangihe suffered from poisoning after they consumed shellfish from the mangrove forest area polluted with gold mining waste. She hopes the government will be strict in ceasing these environmentally damaging mining activities, which in turn drives community resilience.

Risma Sunarty, a member of the Expert Council of the Aceh Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Forum, reminded us that in disaster situations, women are one of the most vulnerable groups. Therefore, disaster management activities must pay attention to women’s interests and needs. The implementation of the Gender, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) perspective becomes crucial. “So don’t position them as objects. Women and disability groups are experts in their fields. We have to involve them from the planning stage,” she said.

Collaboration

Coastal community activists in this talkshow also showed collaborative efforts with various parties to build resilience. Pati Haryose said that community-based conservation efforts are often hindered by the lack of funds. He has also experienced it firsthand since pioneering the Jambak Sea Turtle Camp Turtle Conservation in Pasir Jambak Beach more than 10 years ago. When he started to plant mangroves, out of 10 thousand tree seedlings needed, as many as 3,000 of them were donated by the private sector. This made him aware of the importance of collaboration.

“I then collaborated with anyone with the same vision. So, I helped several communities in other areas, such as Sibolga and Central Bengkulu, to carry out conservation. Even if we cannot yet ideally achieve the synergy in our location, it is still good if other communities can achieve it. Because, after all, we are racing with natural phenomena. Abrasion, for example, has eroded 50-100 meters of our coastal land. In other locations, the problem is similar,” he explained.

Various stories from these coastal community activists show that communities in coastal areas face similar disaster risks. Not only the risks present from earth activities and climate change but also human activities. However, they can also share and collaborate to become collectively resilient.

According to Kanjeng Pangeran Haryo Notonegoro, the Lead AdviserforSIAP SIAGA Regional Program, collaboration and knowledge sharing between coastal communities can expand when local practices are well documented. The main challenge for the documentation effort is how to collect, process, and distribute knowledge on these local practices into an easily accessible repository. This is because these good practices are useful not only for coastal communities in Indonesia but also for coastal communities in other countries. With the high disaster risk in Indonesia’s coastal areas, other countries also want to know what has been done in Indonesia so that they can learn to develop disaster management policies and promote resilience in their respective regions.

Related to this, BNPB, with the support of the SIAP SIAGA Program, is currently developing a Coastal Resilience Toolkit (CRT). “If it exists in one repository, and people can access that knowledge, then when there is a party or community that wants to do the same thing, there is no need to start from scratch,” he said.