Strengthening Coastal Communities of Tileng, Girisubo

By Trustha Rembaka.

Education must reach every element of society, covering age groups, various backgrounds, and residents in an urban and rural areas, so that people have access to development and welfare. Everyone or institution must have a spirit to progress by taking part in bridging the gap in education, economy, technology, and others. This spirit also exists within Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta by responding to a collaboration with students group for field works in Tileng, Girisubo, Gunungkidul, by sending Trustha Rembaka as training facilitator on Maritime-based Creative Economy and Environmental Conservation at Sekolah Alam Pesisir, Tileng village (Sunday, 14/8/2022). This is a follow-up of Education in Advanced Technology: Leaving No One Behind.

Tileng Village is one of the villages in kapanewon (district) Girisubo, Gunungkidul regency with an area of 17.721 hectares which is directly adjacent to the Indian Ocean along 7,2 km with cliffs. The area has three areas, settlement, dry fields or rainfed rice fields, and sea borders or coastal areas. The population is 4.336 people, the majority of whom work as rain-fed farmers and ranchers.

In the discussion, Trustha explained that Tileng village is one of the pioneers of maritime villages in the Special Region of Yogyakarta to improve the people’s welfare. This is a manifestation of the Governor of DIY's vision to make the south coast to be the front yards and to increase the welfare of the community. The maritime economy is a pillar of the economy on the south coast of DIY, not only relying on fisheries and marine but also agriculture and tourism. The first step covers the development of human resources through the Sekolah Alam Pesisir (Coastal Nature School), training on marine fish processing, and loan for farmers and fishermen. This is a good opportunity to realize the welfare of the community if they know what to do, what the potencies are, how to develop it, and who is taking part. The facilitator guided a group discussion consisting of fishermen, workers who process seafood, farmers, and traders. They identified the potencies of the sea, fields, trade, and tourism, and listed what they produced from the marine fish products, shredded tuna and nuggets from tuna, several types of vegetables, peanuts, and sweet potatoes. Furthermore, the facilitator and the participants explored the development of product processing, such as fish fillets, and variants of nuggets, and identified the unique flavors of fish.

On the topic of environment conservation, the facilitator asked participants to mention the beaches in Gunungkidul and their uniqueness, including Sadeng beach as a port, Jogan beach with waterfalls, and Nglambor beach with its snorkeling area. He also reminded the participants about the existence of beach tourism in Gunungkidul is growing, on one hand, it brings income, but on the other hand, the utilization of beaches without ecological study changes the environmental balance, even damage, for example, toilet disposal waste, packaged food waste, and food waste, destruction of karst cliffs for road access, until the loss of natural habitat for turtles to lay eggs, where Gunungkidul is a nesting place for the world's rare turtles. The existence of the Sekolah Alam Pesisir (Coastal Nature School) can be a medium for public education to get the benefits of maritime welfare without harming the environment's sustainability.

From this discussion, one of the participants, Mujito revealed that he found new insights about the Tileng village's economic growth opportunities, from the sea with fish products that can be processed into various processed products, developing cassava into chips and ‘patilo’ products, processing peanuts into crackers and various egg-flavored peanuts.

The community's enthusiasm to learn and achieve a progressive life needs to be accompanied by the availability of community learning facilities and the ease of accessing them. It is where the stakeholders must act, even though the village is outskirt but no longer marginalized. Keep growing Tileng village. ***