Lukmanul Hakim pioneered a movement to transform their neighborhood into an ecotourism destination.
By
KHAERUL ANWAR
·5 minutes read
Kompas/Khaerul Anwar
Lukmanul Hakim
The annual flooding and landslides that loom over Kerujuk hamlet in West Pemenang village, North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, worried Lukmanul Hakim, 29. He thus pioneered a movement that encouraged youth and other villagers to transform their neighborhood into an ecotourism destination. At first, many rejected his idea. Over time, however, they joined his initiative.
“It was difficult to make the local people understand, especially because they did not have a good impression of tourism. However, we worked hard and, eventually, they supported us,” Lukman said.
Lukman said that the social reality of the area was the reason behind his plan to transform the 2-square-kilometer hamlet into an ecotourism destination. Some 90 percent of the village’s 1,553 people (of 456 households) grow crops and harvest trees (or meramo in the local dialect) for a living. In order to find trees, villagers often walked deep into the jungle, and the journey could take a day.
Local woodcutters often die from getting crushed by the logs when carrying them through the forest. The woodcutters also need to evade patrolling rangers. Their meager income of Rp 60,000 (US$4.44) per log is not worth the risks these woodcutters face every day. Continuous encroachment into the forest had also caused forest degradation over time.
Twenty years ago, it took rainwater a week to subside in the Kerujuk watershed. The worst incident was in 2002, when floods and landslides washed away three houses and a number of cattle. “These days, the water will subside in a matter of hours after rain,” Lukman said.
The flooding had encouraged Lukman to think of how he could free his village of the natural disaster. However, he did not dare speak of his ideas with the other villagers. In 2014, a government agency helped the villagers build fishponds and seed them with tilapia and pomfret hatchlings in order to develop a fishery business. However, the attempt failed.
The failure gave Lukman an opening to talk about his idea. In 2014, a civil society organization had planned to implement a village empowerment program. The plan included seeking and mapping potential natural resources that could improve the village economy while still protecting the environment.
The organization eventually opted to provide recreational facilities for ecotourism. The goal was to develop ecotourism activities that benefited the local residents. Furthermore, the village was located on the edge of a jungle that had many fruit tree species, comprising durian, mangosteen, sugar palm and mango, as well as 12 bamboo species.
The village also has rare fruits, including juwet, bune kepundung, ceruring,singgapur and sebek (a kind of tuber). The several waterfalls in the area, including Tiu Pane, Tiu Loang Bukal and Tiu Kelambu, are perfect for nature tours, trekking and hiking.
The idea to develop ecotourism was disseminated through the village in various ways. “We were this close to becoming desperate about convincing the villagers that the tourism we wanted to develop was unlike the tourism that they knew,” Lukman said. He then asked his friends to show the other villagers what they had been working on.
Donations
Fortunately, there were six villagers who owned 3 hectares of rice fields and farmland and were willing to donate their land as the site for an outbound recreation spot. Numerous facilities, including a mud pond, traditional games and selfie points, were established on the land.
The construction of the recreational facility used locally sourced materials, such as discarded wooden planks, bamboo and natural twigs. The villagers then established the Kerujuk Lestari tourism awareness group. Local contributions came in, and the villagers also worked together to build a 100-meter footpath from the center of the hamlet to the tourist sites. The footpath was built after several rice field and farm owners gave permission for their land to be used as an access way between the hamlet and the tourist sites.
The ecotourism village was finally launched in 2015. In the last two years, the village has seen an increasing number of local, domestic and foreign travelers. “In one week, we receive around 150 or 200 visitors, including those from Lombok and other regions,” Lukman said.
The people are now enjoying the fruits of nature tourism in their village. Kerujuk Lestari secretary Jon said that it was arranged so that everyone in the village, including orphans, got their share of tourism profits. “On busy days, each landowner can receive Rp 1 million a day,” Lukman said.
In order to protect the forest and the river, the people must obey certain rules, or awiq-awiq. These include bans on using electricity or potassium in fishing, throwing garbage into the river and cutting down trees. Violators will be fined. Violators of the fishing rule, for instance, must pay a fine of Rp 10 million and provide 10 new fish for each fish that is caught using illicit methods.
These days, ecotourism is not the only thing being developed in North Lombok’s Kerujuk hamlet. Forest encroachers, with their years of experience in journeying deep into the forest, now work as nature tour guides. They accompany travelers that wish to visit the many natural waterfalls in Pusuk forest, West Lombok.
“How to change the local mindset regarding the forest and how to derive economic benefits from the environment, these were what drove me to come back home,” Lukman said.
In building mutual trust among its villagers, Kerujuk hamlet has now become a magnet that calls its migrant sons and daughters home.
The name of the hamlet, kerujuk, is believed to come from the name of a species of freshwater crab that emerge in the millions every three to five years in the local watershed. Another version says that kerujuk is an Arabic loanword meaning “to return”.
“Perhaps it is the meaning of kerujuk that has led me home,” Lukman said, laughing.
