Managing the Role of Customary Villages for Bali’s Resilience

Customary villages in Bali hold a critical cultural role for their residents, or krama, who are deeply connected to customary rules and practices. This cultural strength provides a significant foundation for building disaster resilience on the island.

Ida Bagus Ketut Arimbawa, Head of BPBD Karangasem Regency, highlighted the binding power of customary villages over their residents, reinforced through generations of customary rules. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jagabaya (customary village security officers) played a more prominent role in enforcing social restrictions than formal authorities. “Psychologically, residents are more inclined to follow customary rules,” he explained.

Given this strength, customary villages offer immense potential for disaster management activities with the right support. In Karangasem Regency, efforts to build resilience focus on encouraging customary villages to become more disaster-resilient.

Bali operates under a dual village system comprising customary villages and civil service villages. Civil service villages are administrative entities aligned with national governance, while customary villages focus on religious and cultural affairs. According to Article 6 of Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages, only one type of village—either customary or civil service—should operate in a given area to avoid overlapping authorities. However, Bali has chosen to retain both systems, with defined roles for each type of village.

Based on Bali Provincial Regulation Number 4 of 2019 concerning Customary Villages in Bali, a customary village is a unit of customary law community in Bali that has its own territory, position, original structure, customary rights, wealth, traditions, manners of social interaction passed down from generation to generation in a sacred place ( three kahyangan or village kahyangan ), duties and authorities as well as the right to regulate and manage its own household.

By maintaining the two types of villages, the civil service village and customary village in Bali are not separate entities. Both are interrelated. One civil service village can include one or more customary villages. Conversely, the customary village area can cross two civil service villages. Until now, there are 1,493 Customary Villages and 719 civil service villages in Bali. Meanwhile, Karangasem Regency has 190 customary villages.

Related to disasters, so far, following the flow of national governance, disaster management programs have been more focused on village services. One of them is through the disaster-resilient village program or Destana. However, such programs cannot touch customary villages that have their own procedures.

Dukuh Customary Village in Karangasem Regency, located in a Disaster-Prone Area (KRB) III of Mount Agung, illustrates the challenges customary villages face during disasters. While the neighbouring Sangkan Gunung Village had achieved Destana status, Dukuh lacked critical disaster preparedness measures.

I Nyoman Menget Mardiasa, Bandesa (Head) of Dukuh Customary Village, recounted the chaos during the 2017 Mount Agung eruption. Government-issued evacuation orders led to confusion and overcrowded evacuation routes, increasing the risk to residents. “The roads became chaotic with jostling and no coordination,” he said.

Economic pressures also compounded the challenges. Due to the difficulty of evacuating their animals, many residents were forced to sell livestock at drastically reduced prices—up to 50% below market value.

According to Mardiasa, when facing disasters, the residents of Dukuh Customary Village are accustomed to relying on values and customs that have been passed down from generation to generation. Starting with warnings of danger with traditional tools, helping each other spontaneously between residents, and holding a number of rituals according to the instructions of the niskala (something that the senses cannot capture). All of that still needs to be done continuously. However, the eruption exposed the need for structured disaster preparedness and risk management.

Resilient Customary Village

The need for structured disaster risk management was addressed when Dukuh Customary Village was selected as a trial location for the Implementation Guidelines for Customary Village Resilience in Disasters. This initiative was a collaboration between the Bali Customary Village Council (MDA), the Bali Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (FPRB), and the Bali Provincial BPBD, supported by the SIAP SIAGA Program. The guidelines were developed based on participatory approaches, including Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) and Participatory Disaster Risk Appraisal (PDRA), conducted in 2020 in Karangasem Regency, Badung Regency, and Denpasar City. Mardiasa welcomed the trial, emphasising the need for a guide. “We are eager to learn how to address disaster risks because we don’t currently have a framework,” he said.

In the trial, efforts were made to encourage the resilience of the Dukuh Customary Village within the customary corridor. Dukuh Customary Village does not need to change the awig-awig (customary law) because disaster preparedness regulations can be stated in the form of pararem, which is a kind of technical instruction from the awig-awig. Pararem is decided through paruman or deliberation of the customary village residents

Through this process, Dukuh Customary Village has gained many things, starting from socialisation and various trainings, starting from the preparation of KRB, contingency plans, and other disaster documents. They also have a Disaster Management Working Group (Pokja). The division of roles has now been carried out in the working group so that the spirit of mutual assistance can be more coordinated and does not rely on spontaneity. For example, when a disaster occurs, there are already those responsible for logistics, evacuation of residents and livestock, the division of tasks at the evacuation site, starting from the public kitchen, administrative services, credit services through village credit institutions, and the implementation of traditional ceremonies.

Almost seven years after experiencing the devastating eruption of Mount Agung, in November 2023, the residents of Dukuh Customaryl Village participated in a volcanic eruption disaster simulation. “You could say that we are now more prepared if a disaster occurs. In fact, we are sure that even if there is no support from external resources in the future, we will still carry out preparedness activities, such as conducting continuous socialisation. Because basically, disaster preparation is carried out by the community and prajuru (village officials) on a voluntary basis,” he said.

Rule alignment

The head of BPBD Karangasem Regency, Ida Bagus Ketut Arimbawa, explained that customary villages generally already have rules related to disasters, and residents comply with those rules. However, the implementation of such rules is not yet structured and relies more on habits. As a result, when an emergency situation arises, residents are never truly prepared.

With the strengthening of the resilience of customary villages, customary village residents will be better prepared in the future. Especially when aspects of disaster management are also included as part of the awig-awig and pararem, customary villages will have clearer guidelines. Customary village residents will also comply with these rules better.

According to Arimbawa, the alignment between aspects of disaster management with customary rules is one of the important points in encouraging the resilience of customary villages. This includes the alignment of disaster terms with the terms in each customary village. For the evacuation team during a disaster, for example, some use the term Baga Pawongan. There is also the term Baga Palemahan, which refers to the team responsible for securing infrastructure and the environment. The existence of this alignment space makes customary villages enthusiastic so that new ideas related to disaster management strategies in customary villages emerge.

“During the eruption of Mount Agung in 2017, together with the residents, we immediately set up tents for refugees at evacuation points. When heavy rain fell, many of the residents’ belongings were swept away because the tents were without a base. Well, in discussions during the trial process, the idea arose to use a wantilan (a kind of meeting hall) as a place of refuge. In addition to the relatively safe building structure, there are also public facilities such as bathrooms and kitchens,” explained Arimbawa.

Another aspect that is no less important in efforts to encourage the resilience of customary villages is the budget. According to the CustomaryVillage Regulation, the Bali Provincial Government is required to allocate a budget for customary villages. In 2024, the value will reach IDR 300 million per customary village. With these funds, there is room for customary villages to allocate funds for disaster management activities. “Hopefully, a certain percentage can be used for disaster management,” added Arimbawa.

Collaboration between customary villages and government agencies

Regarding the budget, the Head of the Human Resources Development Division of the Bali Provincial FPRB, Dewi Reny Anggraeni, emphasised the need for written references so that customary villages can use the budget from the Bali Provincial Government for disaster management. Therefore, disaster regulations need to exist so that disaster issues are officially regulated in customary village institutions. The ratification of the rules provides customary villages with references for implementing disaster management and budgeting. “So that disaster regulations also cover all stages of disaster management up to the rehabilitation process,” she said.

That consideration is what prepared the pararem the final target in the trial of the Implementation Guidelines for Customary Village Resilience in Disasters, after a series of training, preparation of disaster documents, and disaster simulations. In addition to the Dukuh Customary Village, the trial was conducted in the Komala Customary Village and Temukus Customary Village, all of which are located in Karangasem Regency and are included in KRB III Gunung Agung.

Looking back, Dewi added that the idea of involving customary villages in disaster management in Bali started from an evaluation of the lack of enthusiasm of residents when invited by villages/sub-districts to discuss disaster management. This is in contrast to activities involving customary villages. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a civil service village or a customary village; what’s important is achieving a disaster-resilient community. Indeed, if it can be integrated, it would be very good, not just customary villages and civil service villages doing it alone,” she said.

According to Dewi, a collaboration between customary villages and administrative villages is possible. She gave an example of what happened in Temukus Customary Village, which is located in Besakih Village. When the Temukus Customary Village management was invited to attend the village development planning meeting (musrenbangdes), the Temukus Village Management communicated the results of the trial process, especially regarding the need for a disaster budget that could not be met only from the customary village allocation funds. As a result, there was an agreement to budget for the installation of disaster signs in Temukus Customary Village in the 2025 Besakih Village Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBDes).

Head of Bali Provincial BPBD I Made Rentin said that customary villages have indeed had disaster mitigation efforts passed down through generations, which can be seen from the architecture of traditional houses with earthquake-resistant foundations to the existence of jagabaya, better known as pecalang, as the vanguard of customary village resilience. This capital made the trial efforts in customary villages run smoothly.

“The achievement of the trial process facilitated by FPRB in the field has impressed many parties. BNPB (National Disaster Management Agency) requested that the initiative and strategy related to the customary disaster village in Bali be applied nationally, considering that several other regions also have unique characteristics in the form of customary villages,” he said.

Expansion

The strength of cultural capital in customary villages has been proven to be an important factor in encouraging the resilience of customary villages in facing disaster risks. Support from outside the customary village in the form of the willingness of the parties to collaborate for the resilience of the customary village is a driving factor. Various activities in this collaboration can identify problems and formulate recommendations for solutions based on the values that apply in the customary village, starting from aligning disaster management regulations with customary village regulations to identifying budget items to support disaster management activities in customary villages. In the future, efforts to encourage the resilience of customary villages in Bali will continue to be expanded to other customary villages. Along with this process, lessons learned from the results of trials in Dukuh Customary Village, Komala Customary Village and Temukus Customary Village can be tested in other areas that have characteristics similar to those of customary villages in Bali. That way, traditional villages in various regions, with their respective wisdom, will be stronger in facing disaster risks and become pillars of subnational resilience.