While Indonesia enjoys a rich, natural environment and has many of the world’s leading tourist destinations, it is also prone to frequent disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis. As a result, the government is promoting disaster risk reduction in tourism as one of the top priorities.

 

Building on past experience and networks cultivated through past projects, A-PAD Indonesia has developed the “Disaster Resilient Tourist Village Guidelines” and is focusing on strengthening regional disaster resilience.

In December 2023, A-PAD held a workshop to exchange feedback in West Nusa Tenggara. Various stakeholders in the region participated including village leaders from four nearby villages, local tourism departments, Regional Disaster Prevention Bureaus, Indonesian Red Cross Society, and Disaster Risk Reduction Forum colleagues. 

The “Tourism Village Assessment” was conducted by each village leader and shared lessons learned.

Batukumbung Village is working with a health training center to train health care providers and develop action plans during disasters with Al-Azhar University. The village leader said, “We are working on mitigation measures to prevent the local industry from collapsing.”

Karang Bayan Village is building disaster resilient infrastructure. The village leader cited having a difficult time rebuilding a fishing village during the pandemic when processed products could not be sold on the market. “We would like to partner with other villages that rely on fishing and maintain a strong supply chain management.”

 Saribaye Village has been receiving capacity building training for disaster management personnel from the Indonesian Red Cross Society. “During the earthquake in 2018, there were no villager casualties and that led me to think we were well prepared. But I learned that it was because all the villagers were outside at the time of the earthquake.”

 The head of the Village Association (Badan Permusyawaratan Desa: BPD) reflected, “One village was flourishing but the disaster was a declining point” and emphasized the importance of strong leadership.

 After the assessment exercise, the participants discussed the development of their own Disaster Resilient Tourist Village Guidelines and highlighted the importance of sharing the DRR concept for tourism villages to other communities.

 This project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan’s Grant Aid for Japanese NGO Projects.