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Probably to two greatest challenges facing the world in the 21st century are the Environment and poverty. In recent years the worldwide push towards globalisation, economies without borders, has been beneficial for successful areas of the world able to take part and compete. For those people unable to participate in the world’s economic activity there is no opportunity to improve their circumstances and for many they are left vulnerable to exploitation and the loss of their valuable resources such as forests or minerals. Poor people turn to the land to support them, in their desperation, lack of understanding and lack of resources the environment is further damaged and as a result poverty deepens.
The clearest indicator of extreme poverty is malnutrition, the result of people’s failure to meet the most basic of all human needs. For such people survival through each day is their only priority, planning for the future or protecting their environment are luxuries they cannot afford.
Unfortunately poverty and the environment are very often inextricably linked.
This project aims to address both issues simultaneously. It is based on the premise that unless the environment in the target area can be rehabilitated attempts to reduce poverty will fail.
The Eastern Islands of Indonesia are areas of poverty and disadvantage. It has been recognised for a along time that East Nusa Tengarra and West Irian (the areas to the East of Sumbawa Island) are the poorest areas in Indonesia. Only recently has the incidence of malnutrition alerted people to the fact that East Lombok and Sumbawa (both in West Nusa Tengarra) has a situation almost as serious as in the islands further east.
Recent figures from the Deapartment of health in Indonesia indicate that of a total 398,000 children in the island of Sumbawa 13,000 suffer malnutrition and
For the past nine months FOCUS Indonesia has been studying Sumbawa. The people struggle to survive, they have no work and live in a landscape that has been severely degraded. They are losing the fight with poverty levels and malnutrition increasing and ever more desperate attempts to eke out an existence from land that is becoming closer and closer to desert.
The recently started ANTARA project, based in Kupang in East Nusa Tengarra, acknowledges that while many projects have been carried out over the past 20 years in that region little meaningful progress has been made and that new approaches must be developed.
The background work that FOCUS has undertaken has been carried out to understand the fundamental issues involved and to identify the areas of opportunity that exist.
Our assessment is that strategic ‘holistic’ solutions are required that target the root causes of the situation and that achieve meaningful practical change on the ground. Solutions must tackle several interrelated issues at once and in a logical progression. Short, medium and long term solutions need to be implemented over an extended time frame of at least five if not ten years. Planning must allow for constant review and adjustment. As one series of initiatives achieves progress then new initiatives must be commenced that consolidate and move on to further stages.
The target area of this project is the island of Sumbawa concentrating effort in the district of Bima in the first instance. Bima has been selected because of its strategic position, both geographically and circumstantially, in the region.
Bima is a transport hub, the last island down the Island chain from Java that is easily accessible by road. It has a well established port and an airport. Bima district has one of the highest levels of child malnutrition in the country. The land is severely degraded but there is still time to save it but time is running out fast. The government of Bima, headed by a new Bupati who is popular with the people, is stable and keen to bring improvement to the circumstances of the people. Sumbawa is an island with relatively low population density providing opportunities for allocation of economically viable parcels of land.
If meaningful change can be brought to the Bima District then Bima will be able to stimulate further change in the surrounding regions and islands.
The key to this project is a strategic approach that correctly identifies and effectively addresses the fundamental causal issues. Our work has identified the following issues:
1 Serious land degradation caused by deforestation such that the land cannot support the people who live on it.
2 Very low levels of financial base in the local economy. Efforts at enterprise fail because no one has any money.
3 Serious levels of poverty which force people to further destroy their environment. Malnutrition is the result of insufficient protein in peoples diet.
4 Local government inability to tackle the situation.
5 Ignorance and attitude of the people.
Most of the forest on Sumbawa has been removed over the past twenty years. Some areas of forest still exist on higher ground particularly in West Sumbawa and around Mount Tambora. The people are still cutting down trees for cooking fuel and for building houses.
The loss of forest cover has changed the local climate, the land is much drier, rivers have ceased to flow, dams are drying up and in many areas desertification is advancing. The wet season is only four months of the year and through the dry season the land is dry and parched.
Soil erosion has become a serious problem. Valuable topsoil is lost, rivers are polluted and so is the sea destroying reefs and killing fish.
Struggling to survive the people do further damage slashing and burning the land to grow meagre crops. As the land becomes hotter and drier these activities have progressively moved further up the mountains where it is cooler and wetter.
The fundamental aims of the project are;
1 To rehabilitate land
2 To build financial resource within the local economy.
3 To involve as many people as possible in the local economy.
4 To develop a culture and level of knowledge that will build strong communities and provide for a secure and sustainable future.
The following philosophical approaches are being incorporated in devising solutions:
The project aims to rehabilitate the land through means that provide economic and other benefits for the people thereby addressing the two key issues simultaneously.
Initiatives must be devised that the people will embrace and propagate themselves. If initiatives can be started that require little capital to start but provide meaningful benefit for the people then they will pick them up and run with them. This is the only way that the required scale of activity can be achieved.
Short, medium and long term strategies must be developed that provide a logical progression in addressing issues as they come to the fore. For example the people are cutting trees for cooking fuel, they have no money for kerosene. Until alternative low cost cooking fuel can be made available attempts to reforest land will be hindered.
This project aims to provide direct assistance to the people who need it most. While governments must be involved in the process previous projects have expended resources in government services (both national and local) with little effect being achieved on the ground. Once the people become empowered and are able to generate wealth then the task of rebuilding government capacity and services will be easier to resource and will more closely match the people’s needs.
A coordinated approach is needed that addresses the many interrelated issues involved. Health, transport, education, food, water supply, sanitation, governance, law and order, banking, housing, energy supply and leisure facilities must be considered to support the long term success of the project. Community participation is a key factor in working through all these issues.
Strengthening communities is a fundamental goal in comprehensively reducing disadvantage and empowering the people to look after their own long term interests.
People and communities must become motivated to help themselves. Strategies must not build dependence on external assistance.
One of the fundamental issues to be faced is the fact that the local economy in Sumbawa has very little base level of capital. The total wealth held within the region is so low that attempts to start economic activity are hindered because people have no money to spend.
A healthy local economy has money within it that can circulate and activities that circulate the money.
To build a healthy local economy the first challenge is to build up reserves of wealth within the region. Money must be attracted to the region through exports, the provision of external services or tourism. Leakage of wealth from the region must be minimised.
Well distributed job opportunities must be created to circulate the wealth and allow people to participate in the economy.
The project has been devised to follow five main threads of activity.
1 Reforestation of protected forest areas. These areas are in the higher areas of the mountains and the catchment areas of dams, their purpose is to reduce surface temperatures, increase rainfall and river flows, provide water in the dams and stop soil erosion..
2 Establishment of industrial forests. These areas will provide further reduction of surface temperatures and land stabilisation while also providing short medium and long term sources of work and income for the people.
3 Establishment of marine and land based sustainable agricultural practices. These activities will provide income generating work, plentiful supply of protein for the people and, in the longer term, generate export income.
4 Establishment of small and medium enterprises to provide income generating work, exports for the district and reduce imports into the district.
5 Development of support structures including building of strong communities, government capacity building and the provision of infrastructure such as water supply, electricity and sanitation,
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