Nixon Watem, Nature Teacher from Kofiau

KOMPAS/MOHAMAD FINAL DAENG

Nixon Watem

For many years, Nixon Watem, 45, was nature’s “enemy” on Kofiau Island in Raja Ampat Regency, West Papua. He suddenly changed sides to become nature’s “friend” when his life’s path led him to enlightenment. Today, the teacher has found a powerful weapon in his efforts to protect the environment, especially the sea.

Some time ago, the a pleasant afternoon breeze that swept up the coast of Deer kampung in Kofiau district, Raja Ampat. Nixon sat surrounded by about 20 elementary and junior high school-aged children in a wooden beach hut with a palm leaf roof.

He was showing the children photographs of coral reefs and explained their benefits for the environment and human beings. Nixon cracked a joke now and then, keeping the atmosphere cheerful. After a long talk, he checked to see if the children understood.

“If the coral dies, will there be fish or not?"

“Nooooo,” the children said in unison.

“So, what do tong pu [we have] to do?” Nixon asked.

“Protect!” the children answered in unison.

Satisfied with their response, Nixon advised, “So, tell your father, mother, [that] when tong [we] come here from the farm or go to the farm from here, not to drop anchor on the reef.”

The farms of Deer’s residents are located on another island. There are many coral reefs in the strait that separates the two islands. Commuting by boat is part of the local people’s routine activities, including dropping anchor in the middle of the strait, which could damage the reefs.

Nixon’s message has a dual purpose. First, of course, is to teach children about the need to protect coral reef ecosystems. Second, but equally important, is to send a message to their parents to change behavior that is not environmentally friendly.

A message from their own children was sometimes taken more to heart than a message from another adult. “Ugh brother, the children have admonished us not to take kima [protected giant clams]. We won’t do it again,” Nixon said with a smile, recounting what one parent told him.

Nixon is a teacher at SD Negeri 28 Awat elementary school on the next island. However, he frequently visits four other villages in the district to provide informal environmental education to children, such as in Kampung Deer.

Former destroyer

However, Nixon today is very different from who he was a dozen years ago, when he knew nothing about conservation. In fact, he was one of those that destroyed nature, especially the marine waters of Kofiau.

From the 1980s to the early 2000s, destructive fishing methods were commonplace in Kofiau, including the use of dynamite and potassium (fish anesthesia). Nixon admitted that he was part of that dark age, when he was not a teacher. He worked the family’s farm and caught fish for daily consumption.

In 2004, the The Nature Conservancy (TNC) came to Kofiau with a mission to encourage its residents to save the sea. Like many other villagers, Nixon was initially suspicious of the institution.

“When TNC was socializing its programs, we protested. We suspected that they wanted to ban people from exploring the seas and catching fish,” he said.

Despite his opposition to the organization’s presence, Nixon continued to participate in its activities. Over time, he also grew to understand that the program did not intend to prohibit people from catching fish, but rather aimed to change their fishing methods so that the sea would not be harmed.

On realizing this, Nixon joined TNC as a village facilitator in 2006. He faced many challenges then, including many residents who refused to abandon bad fishing practices. “I was once chased by people with machetes during a campaign,” he said.

However, he did not give up or retreat. Instead, he became even more motivated to ask people to turn to good practices, including members of his own family. His persistence eventually eliminated destructive fisheries practices on Kofiau.

Teaching module

In 2007, Nixon was offered a job as a non-permanent teacher at YPK Ebenhaezer elementary school in Dibalal village on Kofiau Island. It helped pave the way for spreading conservation awareness among the community from an early age.

A year later, TNC selected Nixon to take part in a training workshop to draft a non-formal teaching module on the environment that it held with several partners. The resulting module was then used as non-formal teaching material for children on Kofiau.

The Raja Ampat Education Agency then became interested in developing the module for formal teaching at elementary schools. The regency administration, together with TNC and other stakeholders, began working on the Environmental Education module.

Nixon was involved on the module design team until it was finally completed in 2016 for use in grades 4-5 at all district schools. A year later, work continued on developing the module for a grade 6 Tourism and Climate Change class, which was launched in 2018.

Nixon said that in the early days of environmental education, both formal and informal, the children had difficulty with the new subject. The teachers who received civil servant (PNS) status in 2015 were gradually able to overcome this obstacle.

One method was to use the local language to teach. Complex and foreign terms were replaced with local, more familiar terms so the children could digest the material more easily. “For example, konservasi [conservation] was replaced with sasi, karang [coral] was replaced with koru, ikan [fish] with iyen, bakau [mangroves] with koer,” said Nixon.

As a result, many of Kofiau’s children have now absorbed the value and importance of conservation, to the point that they reported several activities that harmed the sea.

Nixon hopes that the children will actively implement the values of conservation and then pass these down to the next generation to maintain the beautiful and rich natural environment of Kofiau for all time.

Nixon Watem

Born: Dibalal, Oct. 27, 1974

Education: Senior high school

Occupation: Teacher, SD Negeri 28 Awat elementary school Awat

Wife: Astuti Elsa Mambrasar

Children: Alferis Watem, 15; Rinelda Watem, 13; Zeth Rumbat Watem, 10; Fera Watem, 7; Noam Watem, 5