Life before and after the Conservation Cooperative with Eka.

“The community truly feels the impact from forming our very own Conservation Cooperative, and are now much more aware of balancing livelihoods and the sustainable preservation of natural resources.” - Eka Legiowati

Eka Legiowati with her students in Mengkalang Jambu Village in West Kalimantan

Meet Eka Legiowati, she is an inspiring literacy tutor dedicated to her numerous students inKubu Raya in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. She works to foster an environment of learning - elevating education and literacy levels which help her students compete effectively in the national job market. She also helped form a Conservation Cooperative in her village.

     We asked Eka to write some reflections on her experience with the formation of her village Conservation Cooperative (PUMK). Here is what she said.

Introduction:

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eka Legiowati and I am involved in the Literacy Working Group as a Literacy Tutor for the Conservation Cooperative (PUMK) Jambu Mandiri, in Mengkalang Jambu Village. I joined the co-management of our village PUMK when it was first established in December 2018 in Mengkalang Jambu Village.

Prior to when this PUMK was formed, the community was a bit hesitant to commit to the process of creating it. However, the community still participated in the PUMK education and introduction program organized by Planet Indonesia, since we were invited. This event helped us understand the objectives, goals, and structure of how to establish a PUMK in our village. After a few meetings, we began to realize the benefits and positive impacts we could experience by forming a PUMK in our village, so we all started to join in on developing the PUMK.

Now, additional members of our community regularly come and register themselves as a part of the PUMK partnership because they are now familiar with how it works and understand the benefits they can enjoy from being a part of it. As for our impact on the environment around us, the community has really begun to observe tangible evidence for positive change since participating in our PUMK.

After experiencing these positive impacts, in addition to the increased opportunities and activities facilitated by Planet Indonesia, we and several other partner communities are really beginning to become very knowledgeable about the health of the surrounding environment, how to safeguard nature, and how to utilize our fisheries sustainably. 

What was the community relationship like with the surrounding environment before you started partnering with Planet Indonesia?

We are intertwined with nature because we rely on natural resources to meet our daily needs, such as acquiring food and making money to pay for our children's school fees. However, due to our limited knowledge of the management and conservation of natural resources, these activities have led to the deterioration of the environment around our village.

For example, we used to catch fish in a destructive way by poisoning, electrocuting, and even using explosives to catch more fish or shrimp. Because this practice was done continuously, the fish and the shrimp eventually disappeared. Before Planet Indonesia’s support, we were entirely unable to find large shrimp around our village.

In previous generations, natural resources were abundant, especially with shrimp and fish. But over time, as the number of people increased in the community, the demands on natural resources also increased. This demand outpaced our understanding of proper fisheries management techniques, and we became accustomed to fishing in unsustainable ways. Apart from that, through development, we began encroaching on mangrove habitats as we were unaware of how important this habitat is for crab and shrimp reproduction. 

What is the community relationship like with the environment now after working with Planet Indonesia and forming a PUMK partnership?

After forming this partnership with Planet Indonesia, we received a lot of benefits and support such as additional capital and incentives, as well as helping build environmental awareness, training, and counseling, which is very useful for us.

With the establishment of our PUMK, we had little experience with organizational affairs, but are now efficiently managing our own governance institution. There has been a lot of educational development as well among the community because Planet Indonesia has provided a structured learning process. We have improved competency in things like how to communicate effectively and how to manage and interact with the larger community.

We have also received support on how to effectively organize a community by providing direction, providing input, giving lots of constructive criticism, and even developing solutions to challenges. We have learned to accept input from the outside, whereas before, we weren’t as accepting of outside ideas and opinions. We have also started to learn to collaborate with additional groups that may have a similar positive impact on us. Some of our PUMK administrators have developed confidence and have begun to speak in front of other communities. All of these activities associated with our PUMK have not only had a positive impact on the whole community but on us as individuals involved in the PUMK management.

The positive impacts that we receive from the Literacy division of the Governance Body are facilitation in equality education activities through informal education. For the community members who took part in this activity, there were four people who became village administrators because they received a High School Certificate (Paket C Program). Additionally, there were several participants who applied for jobs at the Sintang Raya Corporation and became foremen at the company.

Through the Healthy Family Division of the PUMK governance body, we were supported by being trained as Health Ambassadors. We became knowledgeable of the identification and care of possible health problems. We were also trained to collect important data in family households and facilitated in counseling/socialization activities related to good health. This increase in the understanding of human health care is important for us as a community. 

For the Resilience Fund Division of the PUMK governance body, we have received many benefits, such as being able to access loans for local business funds and borrow funds if there are urgent needs in the community. We also learned about how to develop savings accounts and now have a better understanding of how to save money that we can withdraw at any time. Access to the local bank is difficult because it is quite far away from our village. We were assisted and trained in the management of finances, managing savings and loans, and also learned how to do effective bookkeeping.

The community in Mengkalang Jambu Village has also started caring more about the ecology and animal life around the village. The community has started to plant mangrove seedlings. This incentive comes not only from an effort to increase our income and stabilize our livelihood but also from the understanding that healthy mangrove forests are important for the ecosystem. Because of these programs that are facilitated by Planet Indonesia, we have also aggressively started to protect shrimp, and thankfully, the village leader supports this endeavor and is eager to facilitate training between Planet Indonesia and the community. Now, the community no longer carries out destructive fishing techniques like poisons or bombs. The community is even involved in resource patrol activities and has started to address negative actions that destroy nature.

This change in the way of protecting nature began with these patrol activities, and the community is now aware of its relationship with nature and willingly takes on the responsibility to protect it. The rate of illegal logging has decreased, and fishers are no longer using destructive fishing techniques, like poisoning or bombing. If there are community members out fishing, the patrol team will check in on them and monitor whether those people are fishing sustainably and following the rules outlined by the community. The communities have really started to get involved in protecting nature, even by people who are not members of the patrol. If they find any destructive actions, they immediately inform the patrol team. So it's not just the patrol officers, but the community also participating in this safeguarding effort. We are now feeling the positive impact of the restriction on destructive activities such as fish poisoning and logging. Now, when the community fishes for shrimp, they can catch large shrimp that haven’t been historically available. The community truly feels the impact of forming our very own Conservation Cooperative, and are now much more aware of balancing livelihoods and the sustainable management of natural resources.

The mangrove forest of West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Bahasa Indonesia

Introduction: 

Perkenalkan nama saya Eka Legiowati, saya Pokja sekaligus Tutor Literasi PUMK Jambu Mandiri Desa Mengkalang Jambu. Saya sudah bergabung dalam kepengurusan PUMK sejak awal berdirinya PUMK pada Bulan Desember Tahun 2018 di Desa Mengkalang Jambu.

Saat awal terbentuknya PUMK, masyarakat belum percaya. Masyarakat hanya sekedar datang karena diundang. Terkait pemahaman, maksud dan tujuan didirikannya PUMK, kami belum sepenuhnya mengerti. Seiring waktu, dengan adanya pendampingan, seperti di awal, sebelum berjalannya kegiatan simpan pinjam kami juga belum percaya. Namun, setelah beberapa kali pertemuan kami pun tahu manfaat dan dampak baik yang akan kami dapatkan, barulah kami mulai mau ikut bergabung.

Untuk saat ini masyarakat datang sendiri mendaftarkan diri karena sudah percaya dan tahu manfaat-manfaat yang kami dapatkan serta bagi lingkungan sekitar kami. Masyarakat juga sudah mulai percaya dengan bukti-bukti yang dilihat sendiri.

setelah melihat dampak baik yang diperoleh dari kegiatan-kegiatan sosialisasi, peningkatan kapasitas dan yang difasilitasi oleh YPI. Kami dan beberapa masyarakat yang lain juga mulai sadar dan peduli dengan lingkungan sekitar, bagaimana cara menjaga alam yang baik, bagaimana menangkap ikan namun tidak merusak. 

Kondisi Sebelum Pendampingan YPI (Hubungan Masyarakat setempat dengan lingkungan sekitar)?

Hubungan kami dengan alam itu sangat erat karena kami juga mengandalkan sumber daya alam untuk memenuhi kebutuhan kami. Memenuhi kebutuhan makan, biaya anak sekolah, dan yang lainnya. Namun, karena keterbatasan pengetahuan kami dalam pengelolaan dan penjagaan, yang akhirnya merusak alam dan lingkungan sekitar kami.

Kami terbiasa menangkap ikan dengan meracun, menuba, menyetrum, bahkan me-ngebom untuk mendapatkan ikan atau udang yang lebih banyak. Karena dilakukan terus-menerus akhirnya punah, bahkan sebelum pendampingan YPI ini untuk udang saja kami sudah tidak menemukan yang besar lagi.

Sebelumnya di generasi nenek moyang kami sumber daya alam melimpah ruah, udang, ikan sangat berlimpah. Seringnya waktu jumlah masyarakat semakin bertambah, kebutuhan-kebutuhan hidup juga meningkat namun tidak berbanding lurus dengan pengetahuan kami, kami tidak mengerti bagaimana mengelolanya, kami tidak mengerti bagaimana menangkap ikan yang benar tanpa harus merusak. 

Selain itu kami juga terbiasa melakukan perambahan pohon-pohon bakau. Karena sebelumnya kami tidak tahu ternyata di bawah pohon bakau tersebut tempatnya udang, kepiting dan ikan tinggal.

Kondisi setelah pendampingan YPI (setelah terbentuknya PUMK)?

     Setelah ada pendampingan dari YPI kami banyak mendapatkan manfaat dan bantuan. Baik bantuan berupa materi dalam bentuk tambahan modal dan insentif, maupun bantuan berupa informasi-informasi dan pengetahuan dalam bentuk kegiatan-kegiatan sosialisasi, pelatihan ataupun penyuluhan yang sangat berguna bagi kami.

     Dengan terbentuknya PUMK ini kami yang tidak tahu sama sekali masalah berorganisasi menjadi tahu. Ada perubahan pengetahuan bagi kami karena ada proses pembelajaran. Kami  diajari bagaimana cara berbicara yang baik, di ajari bagaimana cara berhadapan dengan masyarakat banyak.

    Selain itu ada juga pengetahuan-pengetahuan dari pengorganisasian. Seperti memberikan pengarahan, memberikan masukan, banyak memberi kritik-kritik yang membangun, memberi solusi. Jadi kami belajar menerima masukan-masukan dari luar. Kalau sebelumnya kami juga tertutup dengan dunia luar. Kami juga sekarang sudah mulai belajar berkolaborasi dengan hal-hal yang berdampak positif. Beberapa masyarakat kami yang menjadi pengurus PUMK juga sudah mulai berani berbicara di depan masyarakat, jadi kegiatan-kegiatan di PUMK ini berdampak positif tidak hanya bagi masyarakat namun bagi peribadi personal masing-masing yang terlibat di kepengurusan PUMK.

     Dampak baik atau manfaat yang kami dapatkan pada program literasi seperti adanya fasilitas pendampingan program literasi khususnya pada kegiatan Kejar Paket (Pendidikan Kesetaraan). Dari masyarakat kami yang mengikuti kegiatan tersebut sudah ada 4 orang yang menjadi pengurus desa karena mempunyai Ijazah SMA (Paket C). Selain itu ada juga beberapa peserta yang melamar pekerjaan di perusahaan Sintang Raya dan menjadi mandor di perusahaan tersebut.

     Kalau dari Program Keluarga Sehat kami sangat terbantu dengan adanya pelatihan kader, kami tahu masalah kesehatan, kami juga dilatih melakukan pendataan ke rumah-rumah selain itu kami juga difasilitasi dalam kegiatan penyuluhan-penyuluhan terkait kesehatan. Sosialisasi ini menjadi tambahan pengetahuan bagi kami.

     Kalau kegiatan Dana Ketahanan kami juga mendapatkan manfaat seperti bisa meminjam modal untuk usaha, kami bisa meminjam jika ada kebutuhan-kebutuhan mendesak, kami juga belajar untuk menabung, karena sekarang lebih dekat bisa menabung, kapanpun bisa ambil karena akses ke bank cukup jauh. Kami difasilitasi untuk mengatur keuangan, simpan pinjam, dan mulai belajar bagaimana pembukuan.

     Kami sebagai masyarakat yang ada di Desa Mengkalang Jambu ini mulai peduli dengan kehidupan baik hayati maupun hewani, masyarakat mulai menanam bakau, memang alasannya bukan hanya karena ada insentif untuk menambah penghasilan mereka. Karena ada kegiatan-kegiatan sosialisasi yang difasilitasi oleh YPI. Kami juga sudah mula gencar untuk menjaga udang, dan syukurnya Pak Kades juga mendukung dengan baik, merespon dengan baik dan menyalurkan lagi kepada kami apa-apa ilmu dari YPI ke masyarakat. Sehingga  masyarakat tidak ada lagi yang meracun, mengebom, bahkan sekarang sudah patroli, sudah mulai dijalankan, mereka sudah memiliki kesadaran mereka sendiri, sudah mulai berani menegur tindakan-tindakan yang merusak alam.

     Perubahan penjagaan alam ini juga dimulai dengan adanya aktivitas patroli sehingga masyarakat di sini semakin paham dan mau bertanggung jawab dengan alam, tidak ada lagi penebangan sembarangan, tidak ada lagi yang meracun, ngebom, bahkan jika ada orang yang memancing masyarakat sekitar langsung memantau apakah mereka benar memancing, atau menyetrum atau melakukan tindakan-tindakan yang merusak alam. Secara tidak langsung masyarakat mulai mau melibatkan diri untuk menjaga alam bahkan untuk masyarakat yang bukan anggota patroli. Mereka juga jika menemukan ada tindakan-tindakan yang merusak langsung di informasikan kepada kelompok patroli, jadi bukan sebatas petugas patroli nya saja, masyarakat juga turut serta dalam penjagaan ini. Kami juga merasakan dampak baik dari aktivitas yang merusak seperti tidak boleh meracun, tidak boleh sembarangan menebang. Karena sekarang kalau masyarakat memancing udang sudah mulai ada udang yang besar yang sebelumnya sudah tidak pernah ada lagi. Karena sudah hampir punah. Dan masyarakat merasakan dampak itu sehingga ada kesadaran untuk saling menjaga.

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