Sarawet Residents in North Minahasa Feel Climate Change Impacts, Here's How They Adapt

Image: article cover, from Isdomo and Nurlita (2019), Jurnal Wasian, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

A research team from the Manado Environmental and Forestry Research and Development Centre examined how residents of Sarawet Village, West Likupang District, North Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi, understand and adapt to climate change. The results show that 96.67 per cent of residents say they have already felt the symptoms and impacts of climate change, especially seasons that feel extreme or shifts in the timing of the rainy and dry seasons. This study was published in the Wasian Journal in 2019.

The impacts most widely felt by residents are crop failure, declining agricultural income, and drought. According to this study, these perceptions indicate that information about the environment and forestry is still lacking in the community. To cope with this situation, residents have taken a number of measures themselves, including replacing crop varieties with those more tolerant of water shortage, and meeting their clean water needs from a central well and utilising springs from the upper reaches.

For coastal communities such as Sarawet, the ability to adapt is key so that livelihoods from agriculture and water sources can survive as seasons shift. Based on a SWOT analysis, the research team considers that the appropriate strategy to encourage adaptation in this village is to enhance the community's adaptive capacity, among other things by providing climate and environmental information that is easier for residents to understand.

Source and how to cite

This story is based on the research article Perception and Adaptation of Coastal Community Toward Climate Change at Sarawet Village of North Minahasa Regency by Isdomo Yuliantoro Isdomo and Nurlita Indah Wahyuni Nurlita, published in Jurnal Wasian Vol. 6 No. 2 (2019). The full article is free to read on the Jurnal Wasian website.

Cite the original article (APA 7):

Isdomo, I. Y., & Nurlita, N. I. W. (2019). Perception and Adaptation of Coastal Community Toward Climate Change at Sarawet Village of North Minahasa Regency. Jurnal Wasian, 6(2), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.62142/wr13cn30

If you use these findings in coursework, a thesis or other writing, cite the original article above, not this news story. The original article is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.