SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 | | 31

TE

MP

O/A

MA

ND

A S

IDD

HA

RTA

OutreachDevelopment of Indonesia’s Outlying Areas

MOST people living along the coastal ar-eas of Mimika Regency in Papua rely heav-ily on their 200,000 hectares of mangrove forests for their livelihood. Hence, the lo-cal government, with the assistance of USAID, has initiated projects to conserve the environment and improve people’s lives in a sustainable way. One example is to prevent the overexploitation of the mud crabs that are endemic to the area and in great demand around the coun-try. Towards this objective, the chief of Ohotya village has applied strict regula-tions against the abuse of mangrove for-ests and warning people of the dire con-sequences should the mangroves be de-stroyed or their products depleted. As an alternative source of income, the women of Pigapu Village pick mangrove leaves to produce a form of herbal tea. Tempo Eng-lish reports from Papua on the occasion of International Mangrove Day on July 26.

Life-Preserving Mangroves in Papua

48 | | SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

Outreach

OUTREACH TEAMProject Coordinator: Amanda Siddharta | Editors: Hermien Y. Kleden, Purwani Diyah Prabandari | Writer: Amanda Siddharta | Photographer: Agung Chandra | Design & Layout: Ahmad Fatoni

OHOTYA village in Mimi-ka Regency, Papua, was lively in the afternoon. Children came out to play around their stilt houses as

the adults � nished their daily chores. Ansalma Matnarewa, one of the villag-ers, just returned from the mangrove forest not far from her village. She was carrying a medium-sized noken, a tradi-tional woven bag.

Ansalma put the bag on the � oor of her kitchen and checked her catch of the day. Unprepared, she accidental-ly let out a large mud crab (Scylla serra-ta), also known as karaka in the local language. Still covered in mud, the crab walked sideways across the room, its claws up in the air ready to attack.

“Careful, those claws can hurt people badly,” the 32-year-old woman told Tem-po English last month.

She took her small child, who had been watching her in the kitchen, out of harm’s way and grabbed a long, thin metal hook to hold down the mud crab. With ease, Ansalma held the wetland creature right in the middle of its shell and quickly tied the claws with plastic rope to incapacitate it. She did the same thing to the two other crabs in her no-ken, one looked smaller than the others.

MONEY-MAKING MUD CRABS

“The big ones I can sell for Rp50,000. For the small one, I can probably get Rp40,000,” Ansalma said.

She sold the mud crabs to collectors in the village. These collectors would gath-er as many crabs as possible from the villagers and transport them to Timi-ka, the capital city of Mimika Regen-cy. Karaka is a popular delicacy in Pap-ua, especially in the Mimika Regency. Its large size and shell hide a lot of crab meat. Visitor can easily � nd karaka dishes in Timika. There are many res-

taurants all over the city that sell mud crabs.

Ansalma said the price of mud crabs was better now because the village chief had come up with a rule that stip-ulates collectors take turns in harvest-ing the crabs. Previously, the villagers could sell however many crabs to the 10 collectors in the village. This pushed the price of the crabs down since the collec-tors took a long time to gather enough crabs to transport to Timika.

“They have to make sure the crabs are alive. Dead crabs are worthless,” said Lukas Harepa, 35, a villager who hunts mud crabs for a living. That is why the collectors must bring the mud crabs to the city as fast as they can.

However, the boat ride from the vil-

The people of Ohotya village

in Papua, rely on mud crabs

for their livelihood. The village

chief works with the local

fi sheries agency to ensure the

sustainability of the crustacean

delectable.

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 | | 49

lage to Timika takes about two hours along the river. The crab collectors will lose money over the transportation cost if they only bring a small number of mud crabs at a time.

“A villager can catch two to three mud crabs—four if we’re lucky,” Lukas said. “We usually don’t go hunting on Sun-days because we go to Sunday service at church.”

Around 125 families currently live in Ohotya village. With the village rule in force, the collectors can gather enough

crabs within a day or two. But Ansalma is unhappy as she must work harder to catch the mud crabs in the mangrove forest.

“There used to be so many karaka around here. We didn’t have to travel so far or spend too long to catch them,” Ansalma said.

These days, Ansalma has to go by boat to an uninhabited island nearby be-cause Ohotya village has no more mud crabs. The villagers had harvested mud crabs without care for sustainability.

Despite last year’s marine affairs and � sheries ministerial regulation prohib-iting the capture of crabs less than 15 centimeters in length and fertilized fe-male crabs, Ansalma was getting fewer crabs this year. She admitted sometimes she would still sell the smaller or fertil-ized female crabs to the collectors.

“It’s against the regulation, but I need to earn money for my family,” Ansalma said.

■ ■ ■

DANIEL Bipowaro, the village chief, was fed up with the disorganization among the collectors and villagers that was costing them not only money but also valuable time.

“Karakas have to be cooked fresh so PH

OT

OS

: T

EM

PO

/AM

AN

DA

SID

DH

AR

TA

Children of the Kamoro tribe playing in the mangrove forest nearby Ohotya Village,

Mimika, Papua.

Ansalma showing the mud crab she caught.

50 | | SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

PH

OT

OS

: P

RIV

AT

E D

OC

.

Outreach

Villagers’ meeting at the Ohotya village

hall, Papua.

get-togethers on the new mud crab reg-ulation since it � rst came out in 2015.

“We did another one a few months af-ter that,” she said.

Facilitated by the United States Agen-cy for International Development (USAID) Lestari program, Sopiah and

they must be alive by the time it reach-es the consumer, unlike � sh that can be preserved or processed,” Daniel said.

In January, he gathered all villagers, including the collectors to announce his plan for a � xed timetable for the 10 collectors in the village. He said that it was not easy in the beginning because those collectors like to compete against each other. But Daniel convinced them and the villagers that they can save time and money by transporting more mud crabs at a short period of time to Timika.

“There will also be less chance of the crabs dying in the middle of the journey,” he said. Neverthe-less, a few deaths along the way are usual as long as the number is below 5 percent of the total num-ber of mud crabs transported.

He then put up a large timeta-ble with all the names of the col-lectors in the village hall. Each of them gets three days to collect and transport mud crabs. During this time period, the other col-lectors are not allowed to do the same.

Daniel said that the regula-tion was effective in stabilizing the price of mud crabs in his vil-lage. Lately, however, the price for them has gone down because of lower demands for them in the city.

“The prices are slightly low-er now. The big ones could fetch more than Rp50,000 before,” the village chief said.

Because the village rule is not formally codi� ed as a village reg-ulation, collectors face no sanc-tions when they break the rule by working outside their allocat-ed time slots. “It can be a problem at times since they often � ght each other,” he added.

By year’s end, Daniel will alter the village rule by imposing sanctions and penalties against those who break them.

“But � rst I will gather the collectors and hear them out. After that, we will draw up a regulation that will bene� t everyone, including the villagers,” he

said.The village chief also calls on the col-

lectors to stop buying small or fertilized crabs from the villagers. Although the villagers know of the ministerial regu-lation against the practice, the villagers continue to sell such crabs because the collectors buy them.

Sopiah Katili, communication staff at the Mimika Regency marine and � sher-ies agency, said her unit has done social

her team also had a session for women only in the village. She explained that Ohotya villagers were from the Kam-oro tribe and their women usually went out hunting for mud crabs. “The women can then remind the men about the reg-ulations,” she said.

Sopiah expressed her appreciation for Ohotya village chief’s cooperation and support. A new round of social get-togethers on the regulation will take

place in September since the vil-lagers continue to � out it due to economic constraints.

In addition, Sopiah’s unit plans to hold vocational training pro-grams for the villagers on culti-vating mud crabs in the village. Sopiah realized that it would be di� cult to ask villagers to re-turn the mud crabs they caught. “What we can do is offer a solu-tion,” she said.

Sopiah pointed to the village’s potential for aquaculture and the short time it would take to grow the crustaceans to a desired and legal length and weight.

“With aquaculture, we can stop the overexploitation of Pap-uan mud crabs in the village,” she said. “This can also improve their quality and selling price.”

Meanwhile, Rini Sulistyowati, the USAID Lestari � eld commu-nication and advocacy special-ist, said the villagers could uti-lize Yapero Island—an uninhab-ited island a few kilometers away from Ohotya village—as an area for aquaculture.

“We want them to care more about the environment because Ohotya is part of the Lorentz Na-tional Park. At the same time,

they will have economic empower-ment through sustainable processing of mangrove resources,” said Rini.

Sopiah highlighted the importance for villagers to preserve their envi-ronment. “For people in the city, their ATMs (automated teller machines) are in banks. For the villagers of Ohotya, their ATMs are in the mangrove forests. That’s where they get their money,” she added. ■

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 | | 51

B ERLINDA Mawane sat on the porch in front of her house in Pigapu Village, Mimika Regency, Papua. She had a bowlful of dried

leaves on the table next to her, with a tea pot and two small cups. She took a hand-ful of the dried leaves, put it inside the pot with hot water.

“Let it steep for a couple of minutes,” Belinda said. She explained the tea she was making was not just normal tea, but herbal tea made of the Acanthus leaves that grow in the mangrove forest. The 45-year-old woman said that she regu-larly drank the tea every morning and afternoon because she felt that it im-proved her health.

“I had lung problems before, but ever since I started drinking the mangrove tea, the problem seems to have gone away. It also calms me down,” she add-ed. After a couple of minutes, the water

turned a darker color and gave a grassy aroma. She took a sip of the tea, saying that it was supposed to be consumed without sugar.

Berlinda produces the tea on her own. In addition to drinking it herself, she also sells the product. Every few times a week, she goes to the mangrove for-est near her village to collect the Acan-thus leaves. She then cuts the leaves into small pieces and put it on a large woven tray to dry it under the sun.

“It can take up to two days if the weath-er is nice and sunny, but it’s di� cult dur-ing rainy season because it might take a week,” Berlinda said. When the leaves have turned light brown, that means it is ready to be packed. Berlinda said she could produce around 10 small packag-es of tea a day.

Berlinda admitted that at � rst, she did not know the leaves that grow abun-dantly around her village can be made

into tea. But even when she learned that she was given the opportunity to join the coastal � eld school facilitated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Indonesia Forest and Climate Support (IFACS) and Man-grove Action Project (now known as Blue Forests), she was apprehensive to learn.

“I thought it would be too much work. Other people here usually just catch mud crab or make noken (traditional Papuan woven bags) and they can get money immediately,” she said, high-lighting the hunting and gathering cul-ture in the village.

Her husband Sebastian, however, con-vinced her to give it a try. After learning to make mangrove tea and discovering the health bene� ts that she feels from drinking the tea herself, Berlinda was grateful. She can get an extra income by selling it to other villagers.

Moreover, she participates in an ex-hibition in Timika, the capital city of Mimika Regency, twice a year. Berlinda said she could make around Rp600,000 from her mangrove tea alone at each event.

Last year, she was also invited to an TE

MP

O/I

QB

AL

LU

BIS

TEA OF LIFEThe women of Pigapu Village in Papua learn to make herbal tea

from mangrove leaves. They have exhibited their products

in several cities.

Drying Acanthus

leaves for herbal tea

at Pigapu Village in

Mimika, Papua.

52 | | SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

Outreach

exhibition in Makassar. “I wouldn’t imagine it before, but I have visited the cities and stayed in a hotel,” she said. They now have a group of 10 women in the village who produce mangrove tea.

Meanwhile, Sebastian, who is the vil-lage chief, said that because he had seen how useful mangroves were for their livelihood, he encouraged the villagers to maintain their mangrove forests.

“If it’s gone, our livelihoods are also gone. So it’s important for us to protect our environment,” he said.

✮ ✮ ✮

THE coastal � eld school, or Sekolah Lapang Pesisir in Indonesian, is a pro-gram carried out by the USAID with the help of Mangrove Action Project, now renamed Blue Forests, in 2014 as the sub-contractor.

Rio Ahmad, site manager for Blue Forests, said that the concept of coastal � eld school was applied in eight villag-es in Papua, one of which being Pigapu. He added that it was similar to the voca-tional training developed by the Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO), which is customized so that the participants can learn more by practicing in the � eld.

“But their program is usually in the lowlands or highland, and mostly for agriculture.” said Rio. “Ours is speci� -cally for the people in the coastal area.”

The team from the USAID and Man-grove Action Project � rst did an assess-ment on each village. The local people were involved in the process. They were the ones who had to identify potential resources in their area. Rio said that the training program was different for the each villages. “Some have a program in processing palm sugar, while others in cultivating mud crabs,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rio said, Pigapu wom-en were taught to make mangrove tea leaves and cakes by using the leaves and fruits that grow abundantly in nearby mangrove forests.

Rio added that there had been re-search and studies on mangrove tea made of Acanthus leaves in India and Bangladesh. “There are studies that say the mangrove tea is good for health. Ber-linda is also drinking it everyday for her health,” he said.

Nevertheless, it was not an easy task to convince the villagers to participate in the vocational training. The villages are mainly composed of the Kamoro tribe, whose livelihood depended on gather-ing food from the forests or rivers.

“That’s the main challenge, if creat-ing a product involves a long process, they usually would not remember it well. And once the facilitation is over, they would forget everything,” he said.

That is why the main goal for the USAID and Mangrove Action Project in this case is to � rstly change the mindset of the people. “Economic empowerment is only secondary, our primary focus is to change people’s perception,” Rio ex-plained.

In Pigapu Village, 15 women initial-

ly participated in the coastal � eld train-ing. They went through 10 classes with the facilitators. Rio said that after two or three classes, they started to leave be-cause some of them felt like they had not seen the result fast enough.

But with the help of Berlinda, some of the women participants returned. Now, there are 10 women who are ac-tive in producing mangrove tea. Rini Sulistyowati, USAID’s � eld communi-cation and advocacy specialist, said that when they � nally participated in an ex-hibition in Timika, they received praise from visitors because of their mangrove products.

“In that moment, they felt appreciat-ed and their hard work � nally paid off, some of them even shed a tear,” she said.

After facilitating their training, Rio will help the women of Pigapu with mar-keting strategies so that they can sell the mangrove products outside Mimi-ka Regency and get the certi� cate from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM). “We will start next year,” Rio said. ■

Herbal tea made of Acanthus leaves that

grow in the mangrove forests of Mimika

Regency, Papua.

TE

MP

O/A

MA

ND

A S

IDD

HA

RTA