Case Study

Agroforestry and Adaptive Agriculture in Ammatoa Kajang, Indonesia

Posted: 12, Nov 2025

Updated: 12, Nov 2025

Asia - Indonesia

CHALLENGE

Indonesia’s Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area faces climate change-related floods, droughts, landslides and seawater intrusion, compounded by limited public resources and institutional challenges linked to its customary forest status.

SOLUTION

The Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area tackles climate risks through agroforestry, adaptive agriculture, and watershed management, enhancing resilience and empowering households with sustainable solutions.

OVERVIEW

In Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area in Indonesia, 12 of 14 villages are highly or moderately vulnerable to floods, droughts, landslides, and seawater intrusion, primarily driven by extreme weather events. Limited access to education, healthcare, infrastructure, and electricity, along with legal and institutional constraints tied to the area’s customary forest status, further increase vulnerability.

To strengthen resilience, the project promotes agroforestry and adaptive agriculture across 14 villages, establishing nurseries and demonstration plots for sustainable crop cultivation, diversifying crops for stable income, and training communities through an agroforestry field school. A multi-stakeholder watershed forum also supports integrated governance and the development of a climate adaptation action plan aligned with Indonesia’s National Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation (RAN-API).

DETAILS

In Indonesia, the right to manage forest areas typically falls under government jurisdiction, with some exceptions, such as when an area is designated as a customary forest area. The Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area was recently appointed as such, and its management is entrusted to the indigenous Ammatoa Kajang people living in and around the area (Payo-Payo, 2022). The project will be carried out in 14 villages within the Indigenous People of Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area.

The customary area faces several climate change-induced risks, including floods, landslides, seawater intrusion, and drought (BNPB 2016). These risks stem from extreme weather events and village vulnerability factors such as education, health, road networks, electricity, and proximity to settlements around riverbanks and water sources. Twelve villages are categorized as highly or moderately vulnerable, while two have low vulnerability to climate change-induced disasters.

The project aims to enhance the Ammatoa Kajang’s climate resilience and build adaptive capacity among the indigenous community. Planned interventions include establishing and promoting climate-adaptive livelihood models in 14 target villages through agroforestry and integrated adaptive agriculture systems. Additionally, the project plans to provide a collaborative management plan, such as establishing a multi-stakeholder watershed management forum, to improve the watershed’s ecological capacity.

Agroforestry systems and integrated adaptive agriculture

This effort aims to build strong community resilience to climate change by focusing on the Indigenous People of Ammatoa Kajang’s economic sector. The project involves developing climate-adaptive sustainable agriculture, plantations, and livestock. The agroforestry system offers both long-term and short-term crop options. For example, long-term options like timber trees can be harvested in 10-15 years, meeting long-term economic needs such as building houses or funding education. Trees such as cloves, cocoa, rubber, and pepper can cater to annual economic needs, while short-term crops like chilies, peanuts, sweet potatoes, or cassava can cover daily needs.

Establishing agroforestry systems begins with creating nursery houses and demonstration plots in 11 target villages. These facilities will house various types of trees and fruits, such as white teak, avocado, mahogany, and nutmeg, along with pepper and red ginger plants. These nurseries are maintained by community groups of five to ten people per village.

Agroforestry field schools provide practical knowledge about agroforestry to the community. These schools educate community members on the economic and environmental benefits of agroforestry, offering hands-on training in seed house construction, grafting practices, planting methods, plant maintenance, composting, and fertilization, as well as pest management.

Collaborative management plan as an institutional intervention

The collaborative management plan aims to establish multi-stakeholder, integrated watershed governance and formulate a sustainable integrated watershed management action plan. This combination seeks to engage all relevant stakeholders and integrate the watershed action plan as a derivative of Indonesia’s National Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation (RAN-API).

Discussions with stakeholders led to the formation of a regency-level forum, the “Bulukumba Regency Watershed Management Coordination Forum”. This forum increases coordination effectiveness by covering 33 watersheds and including representatives from government, academia, private sectors, NGOs, and community members, with 46 governing board members (34 males and 12 females). The forum also conducted several workshops to prepare the Integrated Watershed Management Plan and Climate Adaptation Action Plan. These workshops collected information about village-level institutions, community livelihoods, land use histories, and relevant policies.

Future agenda

The project plans to introduce goats as additional livestock to the agroforestry system as an alternative commodity. Additional training, such as constructing shelters and producing organic fertilizer, is planned alongside the introduction of livestock. The project aims to promote agroforestry as an adaptive, sustainable livelihood to 1,775 households within the Ammatoa Kajang customary area. Further workshops will continue to formulate the integrated watershed management plan and climate change adaptation action plan, aiming to finalize the regency climate adaptation plan and establish it as regional policy through regent regulation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article draws from the comprehensive work by Kemitraan, Payo Payo – OASE Consortium, and the Adaptation Fund detailed in the report “Adapting to Climate Change through Sustainable Integrated Watershed Governance in Indigenous People of Ammatoa Kajang Customary Area in Bulukumba Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia”. AP-PLAT extends its appreciation to the original authors for their invaluable insights and findings, and to Faris Salman of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) for preparing the manuscript.