It’s incredible how much change can happen in two decades. What happened to the forest that surrounded the Village of Manuju, in Gowa district, South Sulawesi? Without the collective effort of the villagers and other stakeholders, natural resources like forests, rivers, and springs can be lost to agriculture, housing, mining, or other forms of human development.
“Twenty years ago, the local forest was well-protected. Native trees like candlenuts (Aleurites moluccanus), sour longans (Dimocarpus longan), santol (Sandoricum koetjape) were abundant. The rivers were overflowing with plenty of fish, prawns, and crabs,” recalled Hardiansyah, the chairperson of a religious boarding school. “It’s a shame that kids nowadays would never experience that.”
In 2023, with the help of the community, USAID IUWASH Tangguh conducted an assessment to identify challenges and necessary steps to address water resources issues in the village. The study showed that Manuju’s once vibrant ecosystem has badly deteriorated over the last 20 years. Uncontrolled land clearing for farming, livestock, and plantation has altered the land, making it more susceptible to landslide, floods, and forest fires. These unfortunate events, occurring repeatedly since 2019, became a wakeup call for many residents.
After the completion of the assessment, USAID IUWASH Tangguh helped the local government and its residents analyze clean water problems and find best-practices for community-based solutions. The team also assisted the village stakeholders on how to develop a collective action plan to improve water resources conservation and ecosystem-friendly farming approaches.
The action plan encourages farmers to transition away from monoculture practices and embrace agroforestry, which has many benefits for the environment and local economy. They can combine seasonal crops like rice and maize with perennial crops such as durian, avocado, rambutan, lime, and stinky bean. The agroforestry approach will contribute to replenishing water tables, springs, and rivers, which is crucial for the Jeneberang water utility that manages the Manuju water treatment plant, one of the largest in Gowa, in supplying safely managed water for tens of thousands of residents in the region.
Local farmers will set up the nursery and prepare the seedlings. “I hope USAID IUWASH Tangguh can train us prepare the seedlings and support us in managing the replanting process.” said Herdiansyah. On January 28, 2024, experts from USAID IUWASH Tangguh and the district’s Crops and Horticulture Office trained 24 farmer groups in Manuju on growing seeds and setting up nurseries. They also learned to use mWater, an open-source survey application, to track seed supplies and monitor seedling growth.
The training piqued the interest of Hastuti, a farmers’ group representative. “The vegetative propagation methods, like the top-grafting and side grafting, were truly inspiring.” She exclaimed. “I’m eager to try planting durian and rambutan – my kids love those fruits! This training was incredibly helpful, and I’m determined to pass it on to my friends in the group.”
USAID IUWASH Tangguh’s initiative has triggered a domino effect, kick starting positive transformation among the residents of Manuju. The creation of a community seed garden is testament of their commitment to make significant impact to their lives and involving students from the nearby religious boarding school in their village will ensure that meaningful changes are more sustainable.
Available in 
