A new project in a cooperation with EWDE, Germany, local government
and local instutions is being implemented in West Manggarai District of
Flores Island, NTT. Under the Project No. 2012.0394 G, title: Community
based integrated rural development and small-scale economic
development in West Manggarai District, Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur
(NTT) , Indonesia.
The surveys were conducted with a team of
DPF, key actors of local community, and local government district of
West Manggarai in early August and September 2012. Planning has
involved the prospective project participants. The project
beneficiaries will be involved in almost all stages of the project. In
the stage of project planning and design; The project has been designed
on the basis of needs assessments and analyses in which the target
groups and other key actors have actively taken part; the results of
these analyses have been extensively discussed with them before being
validated. A depth of analysis could be achieved by establishing
linkages with local institutions in Flores NTT. The first phase of this
project is implemented in a period of 3 (three) years, which began in
early 2013 until late 2015.
West Manggarai District covers an
area of 9,450.00 km2. Of the total area, the total land area which
consists of Flores Island, Komodo Island, Rinca Island, Longos Island,
and several other small islands are 2,947.50 km2, while the total sea
area is 6,052.50 km2.
The climatic and topographic conditions in
the districts are dry (4 months of rainfall; dry season of six
months). It is a hilly island and land degradation has become
widespread because of intensive cultivation and poorly adapted
agricultural practices such as slash and burn. Water is very scarce in
the dry season.
It is a hilly region with low rainfall and poor
irrigation facilities. Conditions are however slightly more favourable
because of less erosion and more fertile lands; measures against erosion
such as terracing are however not that well applied. Moreover, much
quite fertile land is still left uncultivated.
Most farmers
apply a mixed farming system, but without a high degree of integration
between farming and livestock activities. Slash and burn cultivation
practices were rampant in the area till a few years ago and have led to a
degradation of the forest. Nevertheless, forest products remain an
important source of income for a part of the population.
The community has staged a rebuttal action to large-scale mining in
West Manggarai which they feared will contaminate the waters around
Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park (KNP).
The mining industry
brings negative impact on the quality of sea water chemistry and
biology. If there is a significant adverse change in the quality of sea
water, it can harm all aquatic flora and fauna such as fish and other
marine life including coral reefs.
If the disposal of wastewater
or tailings in the process of separating soil and gold is flowed into
the sea, and the ocean currents move to wherever directions, it will
inevitably pollute the sea water around Labuan Bajo and Komodo National
Park. It will eventually penetrate the waters of Bima in NTB and Flores
Sea. It is feared that the waters around Labuan Bajo and the KNP will
be polluted by the mud that will bring negative consequences on the
quality of seawater chemistry and biology.
The decline in oil and gas production is the other reason that requires the government to develop tourism industry to earns bigger foreign exchange. One of the international renowned tourism destination is Komodo National Park (TNK) with komodo (Varanus komodoensis or Ora in Manggarai language) as its main object interest.
Komodo National Park is located in West Manggarai District, at the heart of Komodo Island and Rinca Island. This place is able to attract 29,330 tourists on average each year in 2004—2007 period, which consists of 17,022 foreign visitors and 12,308 domestic visitors (Diparbud West Manggarai 2007).
The West Manggarai natural beauty should become a resource to improve its people welfare, by which most of them are living in poverty. However, up to now the community is not prepared to take advantage of the tourism sector.
In one hand, there is mismanagement of forest exploitation (illegal logging) and the environment because of poverty and the inhabitants surrounding forests are not offering any solution to the economic difficulties of the community. In the other hand, the forests and the environment offered wide range potential for the development of eco and community-tourism to improve the welfare and lifting people out of poverty. However, the community is not prepared to play a role in tourism industry while the tourism objects have not been prepared to accommodate tourists.
Map 01: West Manggarai District, Flores Island of NTT
Mabar (West Manggarai) is no doubt still trap in the poverty cycle, and the underdevelopment of access to education makes people stay below the poverty line with very minimal human resources. Although formal education infrastructure has been built in every sub-districts, it can not guarantee that people get an equitable education, not to mention the high cost of formal education hamper many people to get education because they are unable to pay the tuition, which is Rp.75.000/month for Elementary school, Rp.600.000/year for Junior High School, and Rp. 1.200.000/year for High School. It is beyond their reach. Their financial condition is unable to match the high cost of education. The difficult economic situation led to a tendency for people to get married at an early age, farming with little knowledge, generally lack of formal education due to their inability to pay the tuition, and dependency on parental inheritance. The communities' awareness and skills have not been able to overcome the problem of poverty and to improve the economic conditions.
Globally spoken, the project target groups in Flores of NTT consist of two different groups:
Both target groups are not mutually exclusive. It often happens
that members of the first category become micro or small entrepreneurs.
Moreover, many micro and small-scale entrepreneurs who were guided by
DPF have in the meanwhile developed their business. Many of them
continue to liaise with DPF and provide valuable services to its
programmes. They also play a role in the association of alumni and the
entrepreneurs’ co-operative.
Beneficiaries (farmers and
entrepreneurs) will be directly involved in the project. As mentioned
earlier, participants belong to two slightly different groups, which
will be approached using different strategies (CBED and SED). CBED
beneficiaries will be organized in self-help groups in rural areas.
Small entrepreneurs, both in rural and urban areas, will mainly (but not
exclusively) be guided on an individual basis. For both groups, the
following general selection criteria have been fixed with regard to the personality of the candidate:
The project wants to contribute to the following goals (long term):
1 A survey in West Timor and Nusa Penida have indicated that, prior to DPF’s intervention, nearly 80 % of the population faced periodically difficulties to fulfil their basic needs.