Banda Aceh establishes a new ‘Model Climate Village’ in Gampong Peurada

Banda Aceh City is the capital city of Indonesia’s Aceh Province, which is located at the northern tip of Sumatra Island.  The city was one of the worst affected locations during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, where over 160,000 people perished. Its experience with such a massive disaster highly motivated leaders and citizens to prioritise long-term resilience and preparedness to face future challenges.

In line with this, Banda Aceh City is actively implementing the Climate Village Programme(Program Kampung Iklim; ProKlim) – a national programme coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF), which aims to enhance local capacity to mitigate GHG emissions as well as to adapt to climate change impacts at the grassroots level. Model Villages are certified by MOEF to have specific levels of achievements in terms of sub-components, including waste management, disaster risk reduction and environmental quality improvement. 

As of 2024, the city has already established a total of 36 Model Villages under ProKlim, and Gampong Peurada is one of the newest villages selected by Banda Aceh City to participate in ProKlim and receive support for capacity building and pilot project activities funded by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) under the ASEAN SDGs Frontrunner Cities Programme (Phase 2). 

During 22 - 23 December 2024, the Department of Environment of Banda Aceh City and IGES conducted a meeting and site visits to monitor and evaluate the completed project activities, covering four topics: i) awareness raising on climate change and environmental sustainability; ii) enhancing food security; iii) circular economy and the 3R’s; and iv) drought and flood risk management.

After receiving a series of training on the topics above, 50 villagers (representing 50 households) were received training and tools to implement several pilot activities, including: i) conducting waste separation at source, composting and recycling; ii) establishment of community and home gardens, including with hydroponics and verticulture systems; iii) small-scale production of foods and household cleaning products using the harvest from farms and gardens, such as liquid compost and cleaning agents;  and iv) installation of ‘biopori’ underground drainage holes for excess water, which also function as a container to compost organic and food waste.

Of all the activities, the urban gardening component was evaluated as the most successful and impactful. Over multiple rounds of harvests, the villagers progressively sharpened their gardening capacity and managed to consistently produce a high quantity of quality organic vegetables and fruits. The amount grown was not only high enough for self-consumption and distribution to neighbours, but also for selling at markets and food fairs. The income from the sales were re-invested into new seeds, tools and equipment to enlarge the scale of gardening. Part of the income was also pooled for distribution to the less privileged villagers and social welfare activities, and furthermore, the newly established gardens made the streets greener and more beautiful – spreading benefits from the 50 participating villagers to the overall community. 

The villagers – who mostly had no previous gardening experience – greatly appreciated this project, not only for elevating their knowledge and skills, but also providing the platform to enhance their friendships and cooperation. Through the project, the women communicated daily and encouraged each other through a WhatsApp group, where they shared their experiences and achievements, and also helped each other troubleshoot any problems. In comparison with similar initiatives in other Model Villages, the women are more tight-knit and also motivated to make progress, which is partly due to the involvement of external partners such as IGES. This has enabled the project activities to become naturally self-sustaining, where the villagers took the initiative to innovate and learn from each other without follow-up instructions from the city’s Department of Environment.

With the ASEAN SDGs Frontrunner Cities Programme’s support, Gampong Peurada was successfully certified as an ‘intermediate’ level Model Climate-friendly Village under ProKlim. Not only that, the city government recognises Gampong Peurada’s case as showcasing the possibility of nurturing sustainable and community-driven sustainability projects. In other villages, activities tend to falter after the initial stage of awareness raising and training, without constant follow-up and instructions from the city officials. Learning from this, the city government plans to promote Gampong Peurada as an outstanding model within the city, and tailor Gampong Peurada’s project approach plus the key success factors for replication in both the existing and upcoming Model Villages.