South Kalimantan prepares climate change mitigation village through Sasangga Banua

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The Provincial Government of South Kalimantan is intensifying the Sasangga Banua Village program to prepare rural communities to face climate change.

"About 517 villages in South Kalimantan have been identified as highly vulnerable to disaster," said Head of South Kalimantan Environment Agency Hanifah Dwi Nirwana in Banjarmasin, Monday (Sept 13, 2021).

She said floods and forest and land fires are still the main disasters in South Kalimantan.

As one of the efforts to mitigate natural disasters, she said, the Sasangga Banua program is intended to assist villages that do not have knowledge about adaptation and mitigation on the impacts of climate change.

The success of one village in adapting and mitigating climate change, she said, is also expected to be replicated in other villages.

It is also aimed to accompany the Climate Village Program (Proklim) conducted by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

To keep the Sasangga Banua program sustainable, the agency establishes partnerships with the business world, in order, the environment preservation efforts are in line with the efforts to improve people's economy.

"Among them are businesses in forestry by planting productive trees or agroforestry, fisheries, and utilizing palm oil waste," she said.

One of the efforts being promoted this time, she said, is planting coffee on peatland.

"Coffee plants can be used for land revitalization. I have suggested the BRG (Peat Restoration Agency) to plant Liberika coffee," she said.

With a branding of an environmentally friendly peatland coffee, she said, this type of coffee can be done by farmers from planting to processing of coffee beans.

She said the major floods that hit several areas in South Kalimantan in January 2021 have been a valuable lesson for both the community and the local government that the environment is a very important issue.

"So much of the infrastructure that we work hard to build was destroyed by floods," said Hanifah Dwi Nirwana.

The floods in early 2021 hits several cities and districts in South Kalimantan, namely Banjarmasin, Tanah Laut, Banjar, Tapin, Banjarbaru, central Hulu Sungai, Balangan, South Hulu Sungai, and North Hulu Sungai. The water level varied from 30 centimeters to 3 meters, that South Kalimantan declared an emergency response status.

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