Adaptation of the Local Community of Telaga Village in Improving Livelihoods

Telaga Village, located in Katingan Regency, Central Kalimantan Province, holds many stories about the lives of the local community. The village is situated on the banks of the Katingan River and is also surrounded by abundant forests. The village’s topography, dominated by river basins and encircled by forests, makes fishing and fish processing the main livelihoods in the village. Thus, the local community heavily depends on the natural resources around them.

However, the people of Telaga Village, who rely largely on the river and nearby lakes, also face challenges in their daily lives. The village often experiences seasonal flooding every year, which results in fewer residents working as farmers or gardeners. During the flooding season, fish become difficult to find, causing fish prices to rise. Due to the difficulty in catching fish, the people of Telaga Village create “beje” or fish ponds. Beje are constructed during the rainy season and harvested during the dry season. Besides using beje, “pengilar” traps are also a strategy employed by fishermen to catch fish. Since pengilar traps can be used year-round, they are an efficient tool for fishermen when the village experiences flooding.

The challenges faced by the community have also inspired the development of a typical village food, namely amplang crackers. Amplang crackers are made from flat fish or snakehead fish caught by the community in the Katingan River and processed with special techniques to produce delicious and savory crackers. Amplang crackers have become a symbol of the resilient fishermen’s efforts to utilize local resources.

In developing social forestry as an effective and sustainable scheme for conservation and improving livelihoods in Telaga Village Forest through the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program, CFES together with the Telaga Village Forest Management Institution (LPHD Telaga), through the Amplang group “Harapan Maju,” conduct various activities to strengthen and enhance the group’s skills in business strategies, financial management, and marketing. One such effort is capacity-building training using the Business Model Canvas (BMC) method. This capacity-building also provides an understanding of how to optimize the business model, starting from identifying weaknesses and strengths of the model, and learning strategies to improve operational efficiency and business competitiveness.

Activities like these provide the Harapan Maju group with opportunities to collaborate and share experiences and knowledge. This creates a dynamic learning environment where group members inspire and support each other to build successful business models. The expected outcome is that LPHD Telaga, through the Harapan Maju group, can protect, implement, and utilize PES to support the long-term management of the group’s business and contribute to the community’s livelihoods.

The active role of KUPS Harapan Maju in improving the living standards of women in Telaga Village not only strengthens their status in society but also drives the overall economic progress of the village. In this regard, the women of Telaga Village have made significant contributions and are given opportunities to actively participate in decision-making related to the business. Through this role, positive impacts on the community’s economy can occur, while also empowering women to actively participate in development and improving quality of life.

The story of Telaga Village provides much inspiration that a life balanced with nature can be realized. Amid the challenges of climate change, forest and land fires, and dependence on surrounding nature, the village community remains steadfast in preserving their local wisdom to maintain environmental sustainability. Through increasing skills and cooperation, they are able to adapt and optimize the resources they have to improve their living standards and protect their environment.