Mangroves play a critical role in protecting coastal areas. They reduce storm waves, flooding, wind speed, tsunami impacts and erosion. At the same time, these ecosystems support rich biodiversity, providing critical habitats for fish, crustaceans and birds, and sustaining the livelihoods of millions.
In Indonesia, the community-based organization Penjaga Pulau—meaning Guardians of the Island—is combining mangrove planting with innovative community-led solutions to strengthen coastal defenses, improve livelihoods and strengthen resilience to climate change. With support from the UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA), Penjaga Pulau is working alongside the Bajo community in Labuhan Bajo, a coastal village in Sumbawa district, West Nusa Tenggara province, to turn these ideas into action.
The village of Labuhan Bajo and the silvofishery area. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
For the small coastal village of Labuhan Bajo, these threats are especially urgent.
Indonesia faces increasing coastal flood risks due to climate change, with projections indicating up to a 37 percent rise in flood risk by 2030. Sea levels could rise by approximately 10 centimetres within this timeframe, alongside more frequent extreme weather events, including cyclones.
Empowering Labuhan Bajo: Building coastal resilience through community action
To turn awareness into action, Penjaga Pulau is equipping the Bajo community with practical tools and knowledge to better plan for the future. This includes training, technology and partnerships that put climate data directly into the hands of local people.
To this end, the organization has thus far trained 50 community members in coastal monitoring and provided specialized training to 16 participants—including nine women—in spatial planning technology. This technology helps visualize climate risks and supports long-term community planning.
“I now understand that sea level rise can be predicted. This is a very important information for us, at Bajo Community, who live right in front of the coastline. Some of our houses are built on the water, so information on how high the sea water in the future will be, helps us to think about our future housing, where to build and how.” – Rusmin Nuryadin, fisher and local Kabete Bajo group leader.
Penjaga Pulau collaborated with the University of Mataram and research students to support the community with drone technology and spatial mapping. Together, they developed an interactive dashboard that presents historical and future sea level data for Labuhan Bajo.
Rusmin Nuryadin, sharing his spatial planning data at a community meeting. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
During community meetings, residents identified severe storms as their greatest concern, particularly due to the damage caused by strong winds, often resulting in the loss of roofs and high repair costs. To help address this, Penjaga Pulau installed a weather station and deployed drones to collect real-time weather data. The village now benefits from 48-hour weather forecasts, with a focus on wind speed.
“It combines the use of science from academics, the use of spatial planning activity and, of course, the use of the community knowledge and perceptions. The local people know the area very well, and then the scientists have the parameters for the sea level rise. So, there is a combination between the science and the community knowledge.” – Eni Hidayati, co-founder of Penjaga Pulau
Notably, women made up the majority at the first community meeting on climate risk – 35 out of 57 attendees – marking an important shift from past engagements in which their voices were often missing. Overall, Penjaga Pulau is prioritizing the inclusion of women’s voices in village planning sessions and other community activities.
The first community training opened new space for women’s voices in local climate decision-making. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
Silvofisheries: a successful combination of mangrove planting and fish farming
Equipped with climate data and early warning systems, the community expanded efforts to reinforce their coastline while creating sustainable livelihoods through silvofishery—a system that combines mangrove conservation with fish farming.
Recognizing the dual benefits of mangroves as coastal protectors and vital habitats, Penjaga Pulau established five hectares of silvofishery areas, maintaining a balance of 60 percent mangrove coverage and 40 percent fishponds, alongside a one-hectare mangrove nursery.
“Aquaculture is very profitable, but oftentimes at the expense of environmental impacts. I now learned that through silvofishery we can still get income from aquaculture while at the same time sustaining the mangroves which are a natural home for many species.” – Heni Sasmita, Kabete Bajo group secretary.
Heni Sasmita holds an Avicennia marina seedling in the mangrove nursery. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
The community planted around 3,330 mangrove seedlings in the silvofishery area, achieving a survival rate of 90 percent. An additional 1,800 seedlings were planted in the nursery for future sale to other coastal communities engaged in mangrove restoration, aiming to generate US$350 from the sales in the period of eight months.
Collecting mangrove seeds for the nursery. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
Following the planting, the community introduced 5,000 milkfish into the ponds. Milkfish are low maintenance and hardy against disease, providing increased harvests. Part of the initial harvest was distributed among community members, while the remainder will be sold when fully grown. Encouraged by this success, the community has since added 25,000 milkfish fingerlings (baby fish) to the ponds and is preparing to diversify by farming seaweed and sea cucumbers. Penjaga Pulau has already secured 200 kilograms of seaweed seeds to test the next phase.
Scaling up coastal climate adaptation: Lessons from Labuhan Bajo’s success
Spatial planning has helped the community of Labuhan Bajo better understand coastal erosion and sea level rise, providing a foundation for informed local decision-making and supporting the sustainable expansion of silvofishery activities.
These efforts not only offer a reliable source of income but also present opportunities for future growth. Through the UNDP-AFCIA programme and in collaboration with the Global Resilience Partnership, Penjaga Pulau partnered with an MBA intern from Harvard University to develop a business model combining silvofishery with education-based tourism. The local government is actively supporting this initiative and has begun working with community groups and academic partners to design a development plan for education-focused tourism.
The first milkfish harvest shows promising results for the future. Photo: Penjaga Pulau
The early success of Labuhan Bajo’s integrated approach offers a scalable model for other coastal villages in Indonesia and similar regions. The data and experience gained are already contributing to wider planning processes at the sub-district and district levels, positioning Labuhan Bajo as a leader in community-driven coastal adaptation.
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Supported by financial contributions from the Adaptation Fund and the European Union, the UNDP-AFCIA programme has awarded 44 micro and small grants to locally led organizations across 33 countries worldwide, accelerating their innovative solutions to build resilience in the most vulnerable communities.
UNDP-AFCIA is one of two featured programmes under the Adaptation Innovation Marketplace (AIM), a multi-stakeholder strategic platform that promotes scaled-up adaptation at the local level.
