In 1997, a young Mustafa Badrun vacationed for a week on a visit with his parents in Sapat subdistrict, located on an islet in Kuala Indragiri district, Indragiri Hilir regency, Riau province. He had just finished his schooling at Jakarta’s Darul Islah Islamic boarding school.
By
Syahnan Rangkuti
·6 minutes read
In 1997, a young Mustafa Badrun vacationed for a week on a visit with his parents in Sapat subdistrict, located on an islet in Kuala Indragiri district, Indragiri Hilir regency, Riau, about 340 kilometers from the provincial capital of Pekanbaru. He had just finished his schooling at Jakarta’s Darul Islah Islamic boarding school. After his holiday with family and childhood friends, he was supposed to return to Jakarta to continue his studies.
The plan did not materialize. His father Badrun, a madrasa teacher at a small kampung in Sapat, asked Mustafa to stay on. Badrun hoped his son could help with work in the kampung. Mustafa obeyed his father\'s instruction. Mustafa felt something was missing in the kampung. He no longer sensed the beauty of the Batang River that flowed in front of his house as he had during his childhood.
“As a child, I often played in the river. While playing, we caught prawns by hand. When I returned to the village, I could not find the big prawns. Even small shrimps were hard to find,” Mustafa said in late October on Sapat while conversing with Kompas.
After observing the residents’ behavior, Mustafa realized something was wrong with their fishing methods. They used poison. It was no wonder that the fish, shrimp and crab had disappeared from the river. The poison had killed them all.
Poison fishing was not the method the residents originally used. They had imitated fishermen from outside the hamlet and started to use poison, electricity and explosives to fish in the river.
“Our residents followed this behavior. They thought, ‘if outsiders can [poison fish], why can’t we’,” said Mustafa.
Although the Sapat residents lost their livelihood from the river, their lives were not significantly affected, as they had a better source of income in their coconut plantations.
The kampung on Sapat once had a beautiful mangrove forest where fish, shrimp and crab lay their eggs and bred. In the mid-1970s, dozens of residents from Sungai Luar of Batang Tuaka subdistrict, Indragiri Hilir, migrated to the area in search of new livelihoods.
Badrun moved to Sapat kampung in 1979 with Mustafa, who was 3 years old at the time. The newcomers then cut down the mangrove forests and planted coconuts. Before the coconut trees started fruiting, the people caught fish, shrimp and crab in the Batang River that ran through the mangrove forest to support their families.
When the fish died out from their use of poison, the residents turned to their coconut plantations. The price of coconuts was still very good then, at Rp 2,000 to Rp 2,500 per fruit. Each family produced an average 20,000 to 30,000 coconuts every three months. At Rp 2,000 per fruit, they made a gross income of Rp 60 million. After deducting the production costs, the farmers took home Rp 45 million per harvest, or Rp 15 million per month.
Last year’s coconut production declined sharply due to the damaged mangrove forests, which could not retain the salt water from seeping onto the land. The coconut trees started dying.
As the coconut plantations became damaged and production declined, the coconut price fell to Rp 700 per fruit. Meanwhile, they had no income from the river. With this double blow, the lives of the kampung’s residents had become extremely difficult.
Most residents could not endure the conditions. Over a decade, two-thirds of the residents of RW 005 in Sapat migrated to Tembilahan subdistrict, the mainland capital of Indragiri Hilir regency, seeking new livelihoods.
Patrol
Mustafa, who was elected the Sapat RW 005 neighborhood head, persevered. He began to think about how to save his kampung. In 2013, when he visited Tembilahan, he decided to hang a small banner with the message “Poisoning Is Prohibited. We must look after ourselves for our children and grandchildren”. Below the message were pictures of fish, shrimp and crab.
“I hung the banner by the river. Apparently, it was quite successful. The number of fishermen that used poison declined. On the other hand, [poison fishing] was still rampant,” said Mustafa.
After putting up the banner, Mustafa invited interested people to teach them how to catch fish without using poison. Initially, he faced resistance from fishermen that used poison to catch fish. However, over time, those who resisted decreased in number.
In 2016, Riau’s Mitra Insani Foundation (YMI), an environmental NGO, invited Mustafa to join its intensified efforts to save the mangrove forests in Sapat. Environmental management efforts also became more structured. The residents regularly conduct patrols as they catch fish and shrimp in the river.
“If a fisherman from neighboring village comes [here], we invite them to take care of the environment,” said Mustafa.
In mid-2016, the local residents almost took justice into their own hands when two neighboring fishermen used poison to catch fish. Fortunately, RT 013 neighborhood head Saidah, who was on the scene, was able to calm the angry mob. They tore up the fishermen’s net, but the fishermen were allowed to leave. The news of the incident spread far and since then, no fishermen have been reported for poison fishing in the Batang River.
Thanks to the YMI\'s assistance, at the end of 2017, the Environment and Forestry Ministry granted Sapat permission to use the mangrove forest in a social forestry program with three villages in Kuala Kampar: Perigi Raja, Sungai Piyai and Tanjung Melayu. Mustafa was appointed the chairman of the Sapat Village Forest Management Institution.
According to YMI’s local facilitator Abizar, the forests belonging to four Kuala Kampar villages were located in the same area. The Sapat village forest was in the center. If the mangrove forests of the other villages were damaged, Sapat’s efforts to conserve its mangrove forest would become meaningless. Therefore, the residents of the three other villages were invited to join the environmental effort. The community of Sapat, particularly Mustafa, became a role model for village forest management in Kuala Indragiri.
Ever since the use of poison was prohibited, fish, shrimp and crab have started returning to Batang River. When the price of coconuts plummeted, as they have today, fishing has been able to support the local families.
“Now we are developing ecotourism by inviting outsiders to fish in our river,” said Mustafa.
Mustafa said that since the anti-poison fishing campaign started, seafood production in Batang River had grown rapidly. In 2017, fishermen earned Rp 3.7 billion from managing fishing in the river that ran through the mangrove forests, especially from resources such as fish, shrimp and crab. In 2018, the Indragiri Hilir regent recognized the people of Sapat with the Gemilang Award for their efforts to protect the mangrove ecosystem.