Maria Fryna Angelica Andris
Mar 4, 20233 min
Updated: Mar 24, 2023
CarbonEthics and Bintan Coastal Farmers (Petani Pesisir Dompak Laut -PPDL) held another climate training entitled Selayang Pandang on 26-27 December 2022. Throughout the Selayang Pandang program series, CarbonEthics has been focusing on strengthening and developing the community farmers' capacity building by providing skills, knowledge, tools, equipment, and other resources needed to adapt and mitigate climate change.
According to Economist Impact, roughly 40% of the world’s population lives near the coasts, and over 3 billion people rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. Nevertheless, the acceleration of climate change causes various adverse impacts on the coastal ecosystem and local communities. In the report “Turning the TIde: Adapting Climate Change in Coastal Communities” by International Federation of Red Cross, several effects include rising sea levels, severe coastal floods, intensifying storms and cyclones, and warming ocean temperatures.
Pak Mulyadi, one of CarbonEthics mangrove farmers in Bintan, also directly experiences the effects of climate change. “Back at my young age, it was easy to find food in the sea. All I needed was a headlight and a scoop then swam around the coast. But, now it’s difficult. Due to tidal waves and rising temperature, there is a decrease in marine biodiversity around coastal areas. I have to move further into a deeper area to find crabs of fish and even risk my life due to the tidal waves,” pak Mulyadi explained.
Alert of such urgency, as a result, CarbonEthics' Community Development team and Science & Operations team raised the theme "Adaptation & Mitigation for Coastal Communities to Climate Change and Climate Solutions" with the objective of empowering Bintan coastal communities to climate change. The CarbonEthics member divided the program into two sessions: theoretical session and practical session.
To further elaborate about the climate adaptation and mitigation, the CarbonEthics team adapted three units (Unit 3, 4, and 5) of the Carbon Voice Curriculum. Unit 3 explained the blue carbon ecosystem, unit 4 showed the underlying threats to oceans and the blue carbon ecosystem, and unit 5 elaborated on climate actions people can take to restore nature. Furthermore, the community farmers received capacity building on land conservation management projects and health, safety, and environment (HSE) to empower them to restore, conserve, and manage blue carbon ecosystems independently. Throughout the climate training, CarbonEthics team implemented the BOPPS methods (Bridge in, Outcome, Pre-Assessment, Participatory Activity, Post-Assessment, and Summary) to deliver practical results on the lessons.
The community farmers were involved in several fun and educative sessions adapted from the units of Carbon Voice Curriculum mentioned above. The valuable lessons gained from the first session were: a) assessing the effects of climate change in the coastal area - rising sea levels, tsunami, biodiversity loss, etc., and b) utilizing different paths for mitigations - physical solutions like a seawall, natural climate solutions, and community-based solutions.
The second activity taught about climate adaptation which sourced from the article written by Laura Sinay and Bill Carter. In the paper "Climate Change Adaptation Options for Coastal Communities and Local Governments," Sinay and Carter proposed three possible methods – Retreat, Defend, Co-Exist – for decision-making related to coastal development and management of existing coastal resources:
Retreat: refers to relocating resources and local communities to safe areas less vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Defend: implemented strategies to protect local communities and coastal ecosystems, such as utilizing natural climate solutions to minimize the impacts of flooding and water erosion.
Co-exist or adapt: the ability to live in changing conditions using innovative planning measures. Effective measures from this strategy can be done through education and public awareness, community participation, integration with multiple levels of government, labor and professional skills enhancement, high disaster risk mapping, warning system, and evacuation plan.
The last session was an end-year post-test about all thematic climate sessions conducted within 2022, ranging from community development to science & operations materials entitled “Piala Petani”. The community farmers listened to the questions given and answered them verbally.
For every correct answer, they received points. The top six winners were Pak Darwis, Mak Long, Bang Fadil, Pak Zainul, Bang Fisa, and Bang Arif, and they received goods for their basic daily needs.
Selayang Pandang tears down knowledge barrier and opens free access for CarbonEthics' community farmers to climate materials that sometimes seem unreachable and can only be discussed or circulated within the middle to higher-level communities. This program hones their hard skills (e.g. conservation management) and soft skills (consciousness, empathy, and leadership). Throughout the Selayang Pandang program, all farmers showed confidence in sharing their knowledge. And within their confident answers lies the hearts to conserve blue carbon ecosystems at all costs.
About CarbonEthics
CarbonEthics is an organization that aims to restore the climate balance through nature-based solutions with pioneers in blue carbon conservation. When you conserve with CarbonEthics, you are not only creating positive environmental change, but you are advancing social impact by directly enhancing the livelihoods of our local community partners.
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