How to build local people awareness


“Life improvement through eco-tourism”
By Jimmy Pontoh

Aerbanua village
From Manado city, it takes about 3 hours to Aerbanua village on Talise island. A small island that is isolated but beautiful and rich in natural resources.
The people are friendly and hardworking with a total population of 570 people. Their incomes are from fishing, agriculture, and as farm laborers in other areas.
This village has limited access and facilities such as transportation, electricity, markets, schools, health, and event information.
Some residents were forced to move temporarily to cities or other places to work. Because of this, the village only looked crowded on the weekends when they returned home.
In addition to fish and agricultural products, the village also has the potential to become a new tourist destination to encourage rural economic growth. It will provide more business and work opportunities for the community.

Aproachement
To become an ecotourism village, Firstly, I approach the local government, the communities, and the school. It takes careful planning and time management for this.
During these meetings, I provided motivation, ideas and alternative solutions to build community awareness of the importance of preserving nature and its benefits for the economic growth of villagers.
The second action is a follow-up through programs such as;
- Planting trees, including AEON Japan work camp coordinated by JAFS
- Cleaning the beach from plastic waste



Obstacles
There are many obstacles included failures that are encountered, like long distances, time management and the most difficult is how to make an approach to build community awareness about the natural potential for them.

To gain their trust, I must understand the character and habits of the local people by regularly visiting and communicating with them. The considerable distance from where I live is quite difficult in managing the schedule of activities and operational costs.

Results
From the activities that have been carried out, now the government and village communities have implemented several programs as a result, such as;

1. One person plants one tree; each person will plant and maintain one tree.
2. Saturday clean program; clean the beach from plastic waste.
3. Establishment of Tourist development Community
4. Protecting forest and wildlife
5. Protecting fish and coral
Now Airbanua village is starting to get attention and piloting from surrounding villages about activities related to environmental conservation.
For maximum results, this village still needs help for environmental conservation activities until it can become independent and a pilot village for other villages.

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