Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 21 Jul 09;
Standing on a pier on a sunny day in Pulau Pahawang village, a group of villagers was enthusiastically attending to a lesson in "magic" tricks for tourism.
The speaker was Citra Persada, a facilitator in a workshop on Conservation and Maritime Tour Development and lecturer at Lampung University's technical school. The villagers were getting training in becoming tour guides, and one of the main attractions of the area is its clean environment.
The lesson was in the sapta pesona (seven spells), or the seven principles that will attract tourists to Indonesia: safety, order, cleanliness, a cool environment, beauty, friendly people and fond memories.
"So, ladies and gentlemen, if in the village there's rubbish scattered around, or piled up near the pier, this means that this village is not yet suitable for welcoming tourists," said Citra Persada.
"If you ladies meet foreign tourists and you are still too frightened to welcome them, or are too shy to smile, that also means that the sapta pesona principles have not been accepted. So, let's practice our smiles."
The future tour guides responded with applause.
And then they practiced. One day they studied the sapta pesona and smiling. The next day, the workshop participants learned how to assess the Pulau Pahawang tour development program through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.
Pulau Pahawang village is located in the waters of Lampung Bay on the southern tip of Sumatra, about 50 kilometers south of Bandarlampung city, and can be reached by motorboat (about one hour) from Ketapang harbor in South Lampung.
The village, which spans more than 1,000 hectares, is in Pesawaran regency in Lampung province. Although it is near the beach, 80 percent of its 400 households (about 1,600 residents) make a living from agriculture, the rest from fishing.
Supporting the village and its endeavors is Mitra Bentala, a local environmental NGO that cares for the community life in the coastal region in Lampung, and Heifer International Indonesia.
The Pulau Pahawang community is making preparations so it is ready to welcome tourists who want to visit the beautiful village and neighboring islands, in the lead-up to the launch of the Conservation and Maritime Tour Program in December this year.
Preparations for the program by the community and the NGO have included the workshops to train those who will be working as tour guides as well as educating all members of the community about the best ways to deal with tourists.
Some of the villagers' houses will be used as homestays for tourists; other tourists will stay in simple cottages with a village garden.
"We're also teaching the community to make handicrafts, which can be sold as souvenirs to all the tourists," said Herza Yulianto, the director of Mitra Bentala.
Herza said that Pulau Pahawang's tourist potential, which will be the basis for tour packages, lies in the well-maintained condition of the local environment and the natural and clean beach village. Success in tourism, if and when it happens, will have been a long time coming.
"Before it could be ready to be *sold' to tourists, all the communities around Pahawang village had to learn for 12 years the best way to save the mangrove forest and the coral ridges that are exposed at low tide. "Now dozens of hectares of mangrove forest are being looked after. The coral ridges that are exposed at low tide and the clean sea will become powerful tourist attractions," Herza said.
"It's time now for the Pulau Pahawang community to reap the benefits from their work in saving the environment and the mangrove forest over the past 12 years. With many tourists visiting Pulau Pahawang, then hopefully the local economy will just get better and better."
In 1978, the mangrove forest, which covers 141 hectares along the beach of Pulau Pahawang, came close to being destroyed by newcomers to the area, who set about building shrimp ponds for farming.
Then Mitra Bentala began its association with the community in 1997. Since then, the NGO and the community have worked together, with about 30 hectares of mangrove forest being successfully replanted.
The work has been backed up with a village regulation (perdes) to protect the mangroves. The regulation makes it an offence for anyone, whether from the village or not, to cut down mangrove trees, and sets out punishments for offenders.
Supriyanto, an activist with Mitra Bentala, said that the community passed the perdes not only because of the success of the NGO's environmental conservation campaign, but also because of a widespread local belief that failure to protect the mangrove forests could result in another major disaster.
"In the 1980s, there was a huge natural disaster in Pulau Pahawang village with a cyclone and flooding that inundated the entire village," Supriyanto said.
"All the village elders believed that disaster occurred because Mpok Awang, an ancestor of their village founder, became angry because the mangroves had been cleared."
According to the Pulau Pahawang village's community beliefs, Mpok Awang, a Betawi woman of Chinese descent, was one of the first people to live in their village in the 1800s. She was believed to have been holy. When she died, her body was buried at the top of the village hill.
"The building housing her grave is still there, but it has been damaged because people outside the village broke into it looking for hidden treasures," Supriyanto said. "Somehow the word had got around that there was treasure hidden in Mpok Awang's grave."
The Mpok Awang legend became established as part of local wisdom. Because of the legend, individuals in the community were prohibited from touching or cutting down trees on the hill or removing rocks from the hill because the area is sacred to the village.
"Because of that legend the forest on the hill of Pulau Pahawang has been preserved to this day," said Supriyanto. The forest protection has had benefits for the local natural environment, he added.
"Because the forest has been preserved, some of the water in Pulau Pahawang isn't salty," he said. "The water is not polluted and is suitable for drinking."
Whatever the truth behind the Mpok Awang legend, it is certain that of all the people in Pulau Pahawang village, there is not one who will dare to cut so much as a twig off a mangrove tree.
Instead, for many years they have been planting and caring for the mangrove trees together. If anyone new to the area seeks to cut down a mangrove tree or bomb any fish on the beach, they can be sure the community will gather together to kick the destructive intruder out.
Pulau Pahawang is one of the many small islands that make up the Pahawang group. The others are Maitam island, Kelagian island, Pahawang Lunik island, Lalangga Balak island, Lalangga Lunik island, Tanjung Putus island, Lunik island, Balak island and Lok island.
All these islands are considered to be beautiful and pristine, and their beaches are still clean. The coral ridge also is beautiful.
Any tourists who visit Pulau Pahawang village can also travel around the small islands, perhaps while on a fishing trip.
"If there are tourists who want to look at the water around Anak Krakatau mountain, the owner of boat is also ready to take them around," said Herza Yulianto.
"The natural underwater environment is as good as at Senggigi beach in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara. If you're lucky, you can even see the amazing beauty of the hot lava flows of Anak Krakatau mountain. Tourists can also grill fresh fish caught in the sea," he added. "We're ready with a package to satisfy all visitors."
