Unair's TEP develops disaster-mitigation-based ecotourism in Manokwari
The Patriot Expedition Team (TEP) from Airlangga University (Unair) Surabaya is developing ecotourism in Prafi District, Manokwari Regency, West Papua, integrated with a disaster mitigation system, infrastructure protection and economic empowerment.
Neffrety Nilamsari, head of Group VI of the Unair Patriot Expedition Team, said in Manokwari on Thursday that before carrying out the assessment, risk mapping and development interventions, the team first conducted community outreach.
“This programme uses a community-based disaster mitigation approach. The community is not only a beneficiary, but is always on alert and able to recognise risks,” she said.
She explained that Prafi District is one of the transmigration areas in Manokwari that has ecotourism potential in the form of natural resources, rivers, agricultural land and various arts as part of local wisdom.
“Ecotourism development is directed at paying attention to aspects of community safety and resilience, infrastructure protection and environmental sustainability,” she said.
After the outreach, Nilamsari said, the team will map flood- and landslide-prone areas, form and train disaster-resilient village cadres, and develop a community-based early detection system.
The activities also include providing first aid facilities, preparing mitigation modules, evacuation process training, disaster simulations, as well as protecting infrastructure using local vegetation.
“After education and outreach, our team continues with further technical activities,” she said.
According to her, ecotourism development is not only integrated with the mitigation system but also with an economic empowerment programme through the formation of tourism awareness groups (Pokdarwis) as participatory area managers.
The development of disaster-mitigation-based ecotourism is expected to open economic opportunities for the community without discriminating by gender or education level in managing the tourism potential of the Prafi area.
“The community will also later be trained to process superior products, such as selimut chips and aromatherapy candles made from used cooking oil as ecotourism supporting products,” she said.
She said the field assessment aims to identify vulnerable points, examine infrastructure conditions, conduct participatory mapping with the community, and the results will serve as the basis for determining intervention priorities.
The pentahelix approach involving local government, the community, universities, the private sector, security forces and mass media is intended to ensure that the disaster-mitigation-based ecotourism development programme can run optimally.
“On the environmental aspect, the community is introduced to waste selection and processing into useful products, including the development of eco-enzyme,” Nilamsari said.