CRiSTAL’s experience in Flores, Indonesia

PHOTO: BURUNG INDONESIA DOCS

Prepared by

Burung Indonesia Jl. Dadali No. 32, Bogor 16161 PO BOX 310/Boo, Bogor 16003, Indonesia Phone: + 62-251 8357 222 | Fax: +62-251 8357 961

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Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 2

2. METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 2

3. CLIMATE CHANGE BACKGROUND IN INDONESIA AND FLORES .................. 3

4. ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ......................................... 4

4.1 Climate Hazard, Impact and Coping Strategies in Nanga Bere ................................ 4

4.2 Livelihood Context in Nanga Bere ........................................................................... 4

4.3 Project Activity Screening ........................................................................................ 6

4.4 Project Activity Adjustments .................................................................................... 7

5. Lesson Learn ................................................................................................................... 8

Appendix 1. The Map of Nanga Bere Village .................................................................. 10

Appendix 2. Participants List ............................................................................................ 11

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1. INTRODUCTION Rural communities where Burung Indonesia works in Flores depend on nature and its services in providing their livelihood. They are one of the most prone communities to the changing climate. Comprehensive preparedness to impacts of climate changes to their livelihood will be keys to community adaptation in facing climate change. Improvement of the people’s lives is closely intertwined with the potential impact of climate change to livelihood resources. Burung Indonesia has launched and worked on Mbeliling Landscape (BAM) Program, a community development program using a productive and sustainable landscape approach since 2010. Mbeliling is the area in West Manggarai Flores and consists of different kinds of landscapes. The program itself aims to maximize the structure and function of the land use mosaic in Mbeliling landscape and to obtain optimal and sustainable benefit for the stakeholders and the ecosystem. The purpose of this assessment is to map community vulnerability in Nanga Bere village in Flores, Indonesia and their dependence on natural resources. There are four activities being screened with CRiSTAL and they are part of the BAM Program. Their suitability were assessed with climate change trends, including both the negative and positive effects. The four activities are nursery planting, micro credit scheme, water spring conservation and production of education material for schools CRiSTAL was applied in Nanga Bere Village, one of Burung’s working sites in Mbeliling, West Manggarai – Flores, Indonesia. The discussion with the people of Nanga Bere village was implemented on Monday, November 21st, 2011 in Kwitu Sub-Village, Nanga Bere Village. Fortynine participants, consisted of 19 males and 30 females joining the discussion. Please see Annex 1 for map and Annex 2 for participants list.

2. METHODOLOGY This assessment uses a community-based approach to assess the implications of climate change on agro-pastoral and fishermen livelihoods in Nanga Bere village, Flores. It seeks to compile some of the perceptions and experiences of the people who are on the frontlines of climate change. Consultation group participants come from local government, women farmers, women from family welfare movement, youth representatives, customary representatives. Their ages ranges from 30-45 years old. The assessment involved three main stages. The first stage is a mini workshop on climate change to disseminate the issue to village facilitators in May 2011. They are the ones who developed season calendar, conducted PRA within their assisted village. In short, they get along well with the community and understand the local context, in geographical, cultural and language wise. Topics covered are; Understanding Global Warming and Climate Change, Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, Mitigation, Vulnerabilities and Coping Strategies, Ecosystem and Climate Change. In addition to dissemination, the workshops also sought to develop terminology about climate change that was easier for the people to understand. Another mini workshop with village facilitators as the second stage was held in June 2011. It was held to discuss their

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experiences in disseminating climate change in their respective villages. The last stage is the village meeting in Nanga Bere to discuss climate change, how climate change occurs and its causes on November 21 2011. Afterwards, the discussion focused on three items; livelihoods, livelihood resources and community vulnerabilities related to climate change. Participants were asked to brainstorm about livelihood resources and to fill in the vulnerability matrix.

3. CLIMATE CHANGE BACKGROUND IN INDONESIA AND FLORES At the regional level, there will be increase in temperature trend for South East Asia with an overall temperature increase of 3 degrees in Asia in the decade of the 2050s. Inter-seasonal, inter-annual and spatial variability to rainfall patterns, resulting in higher annual rainfall in some areas and lower annual rainfall in others. Increase in frequency of extreme events including forest fire, typhoons, tropical storms, floods and landslides. There will be change of agricultural production and areas suitable for cultivation.1 At the level of Indonesia, there will be trend of rainfall decline in southern region and rainfall increase in northern region. Observed changes in extreme events and severe climate anomalies include droughts normally associated with ENSO (El-Nino Southern Oscillation years in Indonesia. Fires in peatlands of Indonesia during the 1997-98-El Niño dry season affected over 2 million ha and emitted an estimated 0.81 to 2.57 Pg C to the atmosphere. The 1997/98 ENSO event in Indonesia triggered forest and brush fires in 9.7 million hectares, with serious domestic and trans-boundary pollution consequences. It is also projected to experience severe flood risk with rising sea levels.2 The average rainfall in this province is between 36 - 4,127 mm/year with the average humidity in Kupang (on the neighboring island) reached 76 % RH during the period of January -December 2001. The temperature is around 20,3 C-31,7 C. The average wind speed is 6 knots per hour and atmospheric pressure is around 926.3 millimeter bar.3 The majority of the Nanga Bere community relies on marine transport for access to markets and services, which is significantly affected by strong winds and gales. The access to other villages is also mainly by water transportation. It takes 2.5-3 hours by boat to the neighboring village and during bad weather/strong winds, the boat will not operate. The other alternative is a 6 hour walk on trails through the savanna and forest. During low season when food supply is low and the weather is bad, it is even more difficult to have access to food since they have to go to other villages (Lembor) for their food supply. People in Nanga Bere Village depend on one big river (Wae Raja River) that passes through the village for washing, but the water availability is very limited especially during dry seasons. Wells are available although the water is salty. Water springs are present; however, they are located in difficult areas and far from people’s residences. In 2012, water piping was developed and people currently have access to clean water. (Tiburtius Hani, personal communication, Aug 8, 2013).

1 http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch10s10-1.html#10-1-1 2 http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/contents.html 3 http://www.kadin-indonesia.or.id/en/doc/reg_info/reg_info_EastNusaTenggara.pdf

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4. ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY

4.1 Climate Hazard, Impact and Coping Strategies in Nanga Bere Nanga Bere village is located on the southern tip of West Manggarai District. The southern area faces Sawu Sea. See Map in Appendix 1. The people in Nanga Bere village, Flores experience uncertain seasons, including extended wet or dry periods. Their planting methods and planting seasons are changing as the climate is changing. Seed and food stocks are depleted. The main climate hazards are lack of annual rain fall, pests and strong winds. The relationship of climate hazard, the impacts and the coping strategies can be seen in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Table of Climate Hazards, Impact and the Coping Strategy of People in Nanga Bere Village

Climate Hazards

Impact Coping Strategy

Lack of rainfall

• Failed planting • Failed crops • Starvation

• Livelihood diversification and becoming entrepreneur®

• Harvesting rattan/honey* • Fishing or harvesting sea grass and snail* • Plant crop that are more resilient to less

rainfall# • Improve village food security through

sustainable resources harvest# Pests • Failed crops

• Starvation • Poverty

• Application of traditional pesticides® • Application of chemical pesticides* • Submission* • Develop alternative, locally available pesticides# • Plant local resistant variety#

Strong winds

• Falling trees/crops

• Collapsed houses

• Stalled transportations

• Build stronger house® • Finding safe shelters (far from unstable

constructions and trees)* • Protect plantings from winds by planting wind

breaks, planting in strategic locations#

Note: ® : effective and sustainable coping strategies * : not effective or sustainable coping strategies # : coping strategies that have been or could be implemented

As can be seen from the Table 4.1, coping strategies that they have implemented for each climate hazard vary from effective and not effective coping strategies. From the discussion, the participants started to think other coping strategies that they can implement.

4.2 Livelihood Context in Nanga Bere Although Nanga Bere village is located in a coastal area, their livelihood depends mainly on agriculture (paddy, cassava and corn). People rely on nature for their livelihoods. Other

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livelihood activities are; fishermen, construction workers, hunting for deer, harvesting forest honey, and managing kiosks.

Based on the discussion with the people, they identified their summarized key livelihood resources in Nanga Bere village as follows; the natural resources considered most important to livelihood were identified as water, soil and seeds. The physical resources are tools, transportation means and buildings while human resources cover the way of thinking, power and will. When discussing economic resources, the participants concluded that capital, market and employment are their crucial ones while collaborations, mutual cooperatives, cultural rituals are their key social resources. When these resources are linked with climate hazard, then we can see the matrix as seen in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 The impacts of climate hazards on key livelihood resources in Nanga Bere Village

Resources Climate Hazard Lack of rainfall

Pests Strong winds

Nat

ural

Water High None Moderate Soil/land High None None Seeds High High High

Hum

an

Way of thinking

High High High

Power High High Moderate Will Moderate Moderate Moderate

Phys

ical

s Working tools None None None Transportation None None High

Buildings Low None High

Econ

omic

s Capital High High Moderate Market High High Moderate

Employment None Low Moderate

Soci

al

Collaborations None None None Mutual cooperatives

None None None

Cultural rituals None None None The coping strategies identified in the previous sub chapter show how dependent the Nanga Bere community is on a healthy and productive environment to support their lives. Thus, natural resources are really the most important livelihood resources. Their capacity to be able to develop new, technical strategies should be increased. Social and human resources are also important to ensure their strategies to cope with the impact of climate change. It can be seen that climate hazard doesn’t impact any of social resources, indicating the high social resources people in Nanga Bere have.

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4.3 Project Activity Screening There were four project activities as part of BAM Program being screened by CRiSTAL in Nanga Bere, Flores. Those project activities are; 1) Increase and support the development of plant nursery, including fruits, wood and other productive plants in a small scale, 2) Further increase a sustainable micro finance scheme at the village level, by following recommended design, 3) Keep planting and increase tree planting around springs and in other important catchment areas and 4) Plan and develop production of educational material in cooperation with the Education Agency and related institution in the area. Table 4.3.1 below summarized the screening results. Key livelihood resources that were sensitive to climate change are all the natural resources, transport, capital, market, way of thinking and man power. It was shown that activity 1 and 3 provided positive impact to the key livelihood resources because the nature of the activity that directly tackles natural resources. Impact from other activities such as micro finance and education are not considered to positively contribute to the livelihood resources. Table 4.3.1 Table Livelihood Resources sensitive to climate change and the Impact of Project Activities No

Livelihood Resources (LR) that are CC sensitive

Impact of Project Activity 1 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 2 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 3 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 4 on LR

Pos Neg Neu Pos Neg Neu Pos Neg Neu Pos Neg Neu

1 Water x x x x 2 Land/Soil x x x x 3 Seed x x x x 4 Transport x x x x 5 Capital x x x x 6 Market x x x x 7 Way of

Thinking x x x x

8 Man Power

x x x x

There were more livelihood resources that were important to coping strategies and Table 4.3.2 summarized that. Similar trend also occurred from the discussion of livelihood resources important to coping strategies and the impact of project activities. Project activities that directly deal with nature conservation such as project number one and three were considered to give positive impact to the livelihood resources; especially to the natural ones. Project number three and four were not considered to give positive impact to natural resources. However, these two later projects were considered to give positive impact to social resources.

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Table 4.3.2 Table Livelihood Resources Important to Coping Strategies and The Impact of Project Activities No

Livelihood Resources (LR) that are important to coping strategies

Impact of Project Activity 1 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 2 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 3 on LR

Impact of Project Activity 4 on LR

Pos Neg Neu

Pos Neg

Neu

Pos Neg

Neu Pos Neg

Neu

1 Water x x x x 2 Land/Soil x x x x 3 Seed x x x x 4 Working

tools x x x x

5 Storage building

x x x x

6 Capital x x x x 7 Market x x x x 8 Employe-

ment x x x x

9 Way of Thinking

x x x x

10 Man Power

x x x x

11 Will (Motiva-tion)

x x x x

12 Collabora-tion

x x x x

13 Culture x x x x

4.4 Project Activity Adjustments Adjustment needed to be made on project activities number one and three. After CRiSTAL application, there are certain emphasize to conserve local species, both for productive plants and for spring conservation. Important issue that also emerged from the discussion with the people in Nanga Bere village is the variety of food crops and productive plants planted in their available land. One of the communication strategies in Mbeliling landscape is to engage as many stakeholders as possible and to implement activities in collaborative way. The initial efforts to increase the condition and availability of natural resources in Mbeliling landscape can be synergized with adjusted activities and a deeper understanding of the communities’ current livelihood and vulnerabilities to climate change.

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Table 4.4 Table Project Activities and The Adjustments in Nanga Bere Village Project Activities Adjusted Activities 1 Increase and support the

development of plant nursery, including fruits, wood and other productive plants in a small scale.

Activities will be done by paying attention to the balance of availability and usage of land for food crops. Homogenous plantation is not recommended and multi stakeholders will be endorsed to plant local species.

2 Further increase a sustainable micro finance scheme in village level, by following recommended design.

No adjustment

3 Keep planting and increase tree planting around springs and in other important catchment areas.

Emphasizing on the use of local, native tree for spring conservation.

4 Plan and develop production of educational material in cooperation with the Education Agency and related institution in the area.

No adjustment

5. Lesson Learn Based on Burung’s experience implementing CRiSTAL, the lessons resulted are as follow: 1. Climate change is too abstract a concept at the village level, but when we talk about how the planting season is changing they understand and can analyze the implications. This means that the organization has to prepare materials/tools that are adapted to the local context. 2. Organizational investment of time, funding and human resources are needed to incorporate climate change perspective into the work. Capacity building of local government, local education agency, and other stakeholders is critical to ensuring that climate change is incorporated into local policy and planning. 3. Community facilitators must have the resources and the capacity to apply the tools and to incorporate the result of this assessment to their routine programs. The CRiSTAL excel forms are in English and need to be translated to local language or at least the national language of the country. Community facilitators need to be equipped to understand how to use the forms as well. At organizational (Burung Indonesia) level, CRiSTAL application has contributed to the integration of CRiSTAL result to a productive landscape ecosystem is applicable in Mbeliling. The organization is thinking of replicating this process in Sumba. At village level, the community gains insights on climate change issue and causes. CRiSTAL is an effective tool to stimulate discussion on climate change at the community level. They have better understanding of why the seasons are changing. Some community members are already taking steps to adapt their livelihood strategies to climate change. The steps also carried out collaboratively between villages that share similar threats.

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After the application of CRiSTAL in 2011, there have been several follow up actions being implemented and have been implemented in Flores. Workshops have been conducted to ensure an exchange of lessons learned between already established Community Groups (referred as Conservation and Development Group/CDG), including the strategy of adapting and mitigating climate change. Public awareness meetings have been undertaken in the 27 villages, covering topics on climate change, the impact and the adaptation of vulnerability assessment to BAM. Burung also has done a comprehensive assessment of current and potential new local economic activities and their market chains to increase community income and livelihoods. The assessment takes into account the impact of climate change and the activities that would be able to increase community resilience in the face of a changing climate. To outreach more people, Burung has also started to disseminate climate change and its impacts on radio and in the local newspaper. Burung is also in close collaboration with the district Education Agency and related agencies in the district to produce teaching material covering ecosystem functions and services, unique and local biodiversity and the climate change trends and impacts to local environment.

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Appendix 1. The Map of Nanga Bere Village

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Appendix 2. Participants List List of participants of meeting on Vulnerability Assessment of Climate Change in Nanga Bere Village No Name M/F Title Area 1 Abdul Ganir M Head of Village Bangko 2 Surdi Sahidin M Teacher Kewitu 3 Siti Suryatilis F Homemaker Kewitu 4 Rosalia Mada F Homemaker Kewitu 5 Agata Angur F Homemaker Kewitu 6 Siti Amina Hamnu F Homemaker Kewitu 7 Dominika Pileng F Homemaker Kewitu 8 Yustina Imat F Homemaker Kewitu 9 Siti Arwia F Homemaker Kewitu 10 Monika Senai F Homemaker Kewitu 11 Siti Amina Sahidin F Homemaker Kewitu 12 Siti Remi F Homemaker Kewitu 13 Siti Juria F Homemaker Kewitu 14 Siti Mariama F Homemaker Kewitu 15 Mikael Maha M Head of Household Kewitu 16 Ismail Lejang M Customary Leader Kewitu 17 Siti Fatima Nuel F Homemaker Kewitu 18 Siti Ami F Homemaker Kewitu 19 Dortea Daiman F Homemaker Kewitu 20 Siti Enati F Homemaker Kewitu 21 Maria Resia F Homemaker Kewitu 22 Siti Arnita F Homemaker Kewitu 23 Siti Suria F Homemaker Kewitu 24 Ahmad Hamnu M Head of Household Kewitu 25 Silfester Senudin M Head of Household Kewitu 26 Muhamad Midin M Head of Household Kewitu 27 Petrus Buang M Head of Household Kewitu 28 Abdul Sudin M Head of Household Kewitu 29 Siti Fatima Lini F Homemaker Kewitu 30 Siti Jewia F Homemaker Kewitu 31 Siti Hadina F Homemaker Kewitu 32 Siti Hasina F Homemaker Kewitu 33 Siti Arfan F Homemaker Kewitu 34 Sisilia Desin F Homemaker Kewitu 35 Abdul Haris M Head of Household Nangatangga 36 Ali Nuda M Head of Household Kewitu

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37 Antonius Jandu M Head of Household Kewitu 38 Siti Jelita F Homemaker Nangatangga 39 Siti Fatima F Homemaker Kewitu 40 Sudi M Head of Sub-Village Kewitu 41 Agustinus Adil M Head of Household Kewitu 42 Siti Fima F Head of Household Kewitu 43 Wihelmus Weli M Head of Household Kewitu 44 Bernadus Janu M Head of Household Kewitu 45 Siti Hamida F Homemaker Kewitu 46 Siti Fatima F Homemaker Kewitu 47 Moh. Ishoka M Head of Household Kewitu 48 Maksimus Juma M Head of Household Kewitu 49 Abdul Herman M Head of Household Kewitu