Support Sustainable Livelihoods

This project intents to re-establish the very means of livelihood of Indonesian people who suffered from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004 – agriculture. However, it is necessary to acknowledge the physical and ecological degradation of the land and its resources due to poor agricultural practices even prior to the destruction from the tsunami. These include a long history of slash and burn, illegal logging of timber, monoculture plantations,and shifting cultivation. Along with the devastating loss of habitats and lowland forests from the tsunami, it is now critical to implement and adopt more sustainble, community-oriented means in managing natural resources.

The following design strategy includes 3 prototypical plans to integrate sustainable forestry and agricultural practices in order to regreen and increase biodiversity, minimize and mitigate further soil degradation, and promote locally-based practices to provide social and economic recovery in tsunami devastated communities. In addtion, a series of suggestions is made on practical components of tropical agriculture after careful research and consideration of the various scales of farming systems along the lowland forest of the Aceh Province.

These 3 different prototypes take place at three different scales of development: the garden (small-scale), the farm (medium-scale), and coastal reforestation (large-scale) community-based agroforestry strategies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These design strategies are generated based on the most devestated lowland forest areas in Aceh Province:

+ Low latitude; equatorial and tropical zones
(i.e. 10ºN to 10ºS)
+ Continuously warm; frost free, and approximately
1000cm of annual rainfall.

These suggestions can be evaluated and adopted based on specific site conditions, community-needs, and resource availability.

Each management plan is composed of a series of phases that adapts to the changing ecology of the forest as well as the changing needs and social development of the respective community. The phasing timeline coincides with the growth and maturity of particular tree and plant species present. Secondary growth rubber forests can take approximately 20 years to mature, as opposed to the rapid growth of a stand of fruit trees that may take only 3 to 5 years to mature.