Activities

In the context of the project "Capacity Building of Village Government Institutions and Social Forestry Management to Develop Community-Based Ecotourism", a collaboration between GIZ PROPEAT and DESMA Center, a series of training on ecotourism development was conducted for youth groups, Pokdarwis, village governments, HKm management groups in Atap Village and Setabu Village, Binusan Village and Belagaone Mangrove Ecotourism Area in Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan.

Online coaching and mentoring of a series of village ecotourism development trainings consisting of Pokdarwis Village Tourism and Virtual Tour Institutional Strengthening Sessions, Financial Literacy Sessions, Ecotourism Strengthening Sessions and Principles of Environmental and Cultural sustainability in Village Ecotourism Development, Business Model Canvas Strengthening Sessions - Specific Tourism Products and Services and Institutional Strengthening Sessions for Tourism Management in the Village, were held hybridly on 8 and 9 December 2021 from 08:00 to 18:00.

The online coaching and mentoring was opened with a few remarks from the Director of DESMA Center, representative of GIZ PROPEAT coordinator Mr Aminuddin, Head of UPTD KPH Nunukan represented by Mrs Wahyuni Sulityawati, S.Hut, M.AP. Then Mrs Dra. Raden Widayanti Bandia, M.Si; Coordinator of Destination Development II Area II, Directorate of Destination Development II, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy gave a speech and opened the training. In her speech, she expressed her deep appreciation to GIZ PROPEAT for providing facilitation and assistance for tourism development in the Kalimantan region that contributes to national tourism development; especially the development of tourism villages which is currently the focus and priority of national tourism development. She also closed the online coaching and mentoring activities on the second day. 

Presenters from the DESMA Centre team were Wiwik Mahdayani, Dwi Setijo Widodo, Made Wiranatha, and Pahrul Azim (Director of Bilebante Green Tourism Village, Lombok) with co-trainers Dicky Mardyan and Firra Kholisha Mustika.

This online coaching and mentoring training series is a continuation of a series of institutional strengthening activities, FGDs, informal meetings and training series that have been carried out in Nunukan District during September, October and November 2021. In this interactive coaching and mentoring session, participants asked more questions; the trainers also encouraged participants to participate in brainstorming to ensure their understanding of the training materials.

One of the challenges that appeared was that the participants still did not yet comprehensively understand the development of tourism and ecotourism, especially in considering the principles of sustainability in their villages. An interesting finding during brainstorming was the village community who considered the level of visits as one of the benchmarks for the success of tourism development in their village by mentioning the indicator of a very fantastic number of visits.

Participants were then invited to think about how these benchmarks were related to the carrying capacity of the area, nature conservation, and the capacity of the village community. The final conclusion was drawn together that the measure of success is not merely the number of visits if the quality of life of local communities declines, tourists are uncomfortable, nature and culture are damaged which requires greater costs to maintain.

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The project "Capacity Building of Village Government Institutions and Social Forestry Management to Develop Community-based Ecotourism" implemented by DESMA Center, is a Peatland Management and Rehabilitation Project-GIZ PROPEAT, which is implemented in the context of Indonesia-Germany government cooperation in reducing emissions from the forestry sector and improving the lives of rural communities.

One of the GIZ PROPEAT programmes is to strengthen the capacity of village governments and village forest managers in an effort to support sustainable management of peat and mangroves. As a form of conservation of environmental utilisation and protection through sustainable ecotourism management. 

Within this framework, GIZ PROPEAT together with DESMA Center conducted a series of activities that included (1) Developing a feasibility study of community-based ecotourism in Atap and Setabu Villages, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan; (2) Developing a Village Ecotourism Master Plan for Atap Village and Setabu Village, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan; (3) Facilitating and implementing integrated concepts and practices for the development of Sustainable Village Ecotourism with Pokdarwis and Village Officials in Atap and Setabu Villages, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan; with capacity building activities through a series of training and coaching, institutional strengthening and assistance in drafting village regulations on ecotourism.

The North Kalimantan Provincial Government has set climate and natural resource protection goals through the Kayan Sembakung Delta revitalisation plan as a follow-up to national initiatives for peatland restoration and management. One of the missions of the Kayan Sembakung Delta strategic plan is to encourage inclusive rural-based economic growth that has the advantage of fisheries, agriculture, plantation, forestry and tourism production systems through the development of sustainable environmental services businesses and products (including water, non-timber forest products and tourism). GIZ PROPEAT has a programme to strengthen the capacity of village governments and village forest managers in an effort to support social forestry management and sustainable peat and mangrove management, one of which is through the preparation of a Feasibility Study and Master Plan for ecotourism development in Atap Village, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan.