building sustainable communities case study: the making of eco-pesantren daarut tauhiid, bandung,...
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Building Sustainable Communities
Case Study: The Making of Eco-Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid,
Bandung, Indonesia
by
Budi Faisal, Ph.D. ∗
Putrikinasih, S.T. **
Husen Gani, S.P. ***
presented at
Global Conference on ‘Enhancing The Role of Philantrophy in Challenging Times’,
22-23 July 2009, Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
∗ Head of Eco-Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid Foundation ** Architect – PT. Tsana Mulia, Associate of Eco-Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid *** Coordinator of Eco-Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid’s Agriculture Division
I. OUR UNEQUAL WORLD
Global Issues: “Un-sustainable” Development
Today, the world has filled with such insufficiencies in many aspects. The
raise of energy consumption has come to main issue of the century. On
May 31, 2009, the United States Census Bureau estimated Earth's
population is 6,763,557,000.i World births have levelled off at about 137
million/yr, since their peak at 163-million in the late 1990s, and expected to
remain constant. However, deaths are only around 56 million/ yr, and are
expected to increase to 90 million in 2050. Since births outnumber deaths,
the world's population estimated to reach about 9 billion by the year 2040.ii
Still, there will be no escalation in the number of habitable area. We are
practically running out of living space in the world because of the erratic
population growth. To make it worse, we were introduced to other two
prominent topics today i.e. the climate change and global economic crisis.
As we all know, there are numerous natural disaster happened for the last
10 years. A part of those happens spontaneously and the other part caused
by excessive exploitation on non-renewable energy resources. Global
climate change is one of the results. The warmer temperature creates
imbalance ecosystem, endangers the human life. The Earth is the only
planet in this solar system that can be inhabited by human being. There is
no replacement when the quality is running toward devastation.
Increases in global average air and sea temperature, ice melting and rising
global sea levels all help us understand and prepare for the coming
challenges. In addition to these observed changes, climate-sensitive
impacts on human health are occurring today. Human beings already
exposed to the effects of climate-sensitive diseases and these diseases today
kill millions. They include malnutrition, which causes over 3.5 million
deaths per year, diarrheal diseases, which kill over 1.8 million, and malaria,
which kills almost 1 million.iii The irony is the domination of human being
generates ecological disasters. Therefore, human being must learn to live in
harmony with the nature.
The Gap: Developed vs. Developing Countries
There are major disparities between the developed and the developing
countries in their energy consumption issues. In “Sustainable Architecture”
(1997) James Steele stated that typical American uses 11.5 kilowatts of
energy per day. That is to say that if you take all of the energy that is used
in United States by industry and commerce, residential, transportation, and
all other purposes, divide by the population equals to 11.5 kilowatts. In
Japan, it is 5 kilowatts and in the third world is less than one. A similar
case is made for the production of carbon dioxide as shown in table below.
All this in a country which represents only 5 percent of the world’s
population and in a group of nations, once the industrialized north that now
share post-industrial status that comprises 24 percent of it.iv
Country CO2 Production Level
Uni Soviet & Eastern Europe 25.8%
USA 23.8%
Western Europe & Japan 23%
China 11.4%
India 4.9%
Latin America 4.4%
Africa 2.7%
Middle East 2.5%
Korea & Taiwan 1.5%
Table 1 Production of Carbon Dioxide
World Trend: Toward Sustainable Communities
Global awareness of sustainable development has grew from numerous
environmental movements and become a global trend ensue the scarcity
issues. Sustainable development implies a broad view of human welfare, a
long-term perspective about the consequences of today's activities, and the
full involvement of civil society to reach viable solutions.v In brief,
sustainable development forces us to fulfil our own basic needs and
develop a self-sufficient manner among ourselves. Furthermore, human
being is not only responsible for the environmental sustainability, neither
natural nor built environments. To develop a sustainable manner, we have
to make it as our way of life. As a sustainable community has reached, it
will be much easier to develop a sustainable environment.
Indonesia as Part of the World
The total tropical equatorial zone is 27% of total world’s land-mass, 11%
of it lies in Indonesia. This makes Indonesia responsible to 40.7% of total
tropical equatorial zone. Abundant sunlight and rainfall make most of the
land in Indonesia cultivatable for a whole year. In the contrary, as an
agrarian country, Indonesian development is still focusing on non-
renewable resources exploitation.
Indonesia’s estimated population in 2009 was 240,271,522, giving it an
average population density of 132 persons per sq km. In 2009 the
population was growing by 1.1 percent a year. With an estimated
population of 101,742,120 in 2000, Java contains somewhat less than half
of Indonesia’s people.vi The fact is, although 60% of its population lives in
rural area as a farmer and food production focused in the village, Indonesia
is still importing its basic food commodities from abroad, especially rice
and sugars. Farmers are socio-economically marginalized and fall into
poverty. Moreover, most of the malnutrition and deficiency cases happen in
the villages. The over-use of agriculture fields has degrades soil nutrition in
Indonesia and extensive usage of chemical component, such as pesticides,
resulting negative environmental impacts, i.e. cancer and birth deformity.
Urbanization has become so notorious amongst the Indonesian villagers
since many years ago. It is considered as the side effect of centralization
policy that adopted in Indonesia for more than 30 years under the New-Era
regime. This movement distinguishes villages from the cities, pushing it
away from modernization issues. Many villagers believe that the cities have
more modern and dynamic life, with more job opportunities, complete
facilities, and more qualified educational institutions. Lack of farming
fields and job opportunity multiply their determination to leave villages for
cities. This seems to be rational regarding the fact that 58-62% of money
distribution is sprawling in Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia, while 29-31%
of it disperses in other big cities and only 7-13% of it left for the villages.
Agricultural tools and products also still depend on the city supply. To
worsen, the agricultural industries do not generate enough benefits to the
farmers. As a result, we can see the city becomes slum and the villages are
left behind.
On the other hand, village has more forgotten valuable things to see. Its
abundant land fields are longing to be ploughed and its people are still as
generous as they were before. In Indonesia -presumably- village is the only
place you can see a sincere generosity. Its people are welcome to help each
other freely. Now, the village, more the city does, needs a lot of
rejuvenation. Indonesians, especially the villagers, are lacking such morale
to struggle and survive in today’s difficult conditions. There are also not
enough pioneers and leaders to act as a “motor” in efforts of improving
villagers quality of life.
II. OUR CONTRIBUTION THROUGH ISLAMIC PHILANTROPHY
Followers of Islam make up more than 80% of the population, making
Indonesia the largest Islamic country in the world.vii Islam entered
Indonesia through the matters of trading (not through battle). Moslem
merchants from Gujarat and Persia began visiting Indonesia in the 13th
Century and established trade links between this country and India and
Persia. Along with trade, they propagated Islam among the Indonesian
people, particularly along the coastal areas of Java, like Demak.viii Since
there are more than 300 ethnics in Indonesia, Islam in Indonesia deals with
various custom and traditions, acculturated with them.
Basically, Islam is deliberated to be a blessing for the universe (rahmatan
lil ‘aalamiin) and human being, especially Moslems, carries a duty as the
Earth’s guardians (khalifah fil ardh) by maintaining and enhancing its
quality. Al Quran, as the primary source of Moslem’s value system, has a
central role in guiding our behaviour toward nature. Allah the Merciful has
granted human being with such intelligence that must be used to maintain
natural resources as good as they are capable of. Human being must not
make any damages in the world because each and every single deed is
going to be counted on the judgement day.
Like many other customs in the world, Islam also taught certain generosity
mechanism. It is believed that we have to maintain a good relationship with
other people and nature as well as spiritual faith to Allah the Almighty.
Moslems also believe that if we do waqf, we will earn a continuous
personal reward from Almighty Allah. Waqf is an inalienable religious
endowment in Islam, typically denoting a building or plot of land for
Muslim religious purposes. It is conceptually similar to the common law
trust.ix This is one of the most common Islamic philanthropic values
applied in current setting.
III. SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE MAKING
Traditional Method of Teaching Islam through Pesantren
For many years, Islamic and Quranic teaching was taught in a traditional
Islamic Institution called Pesantren. It has been existed almost in every
rural area in Indonesia. Conventional pesantren is focusing its education in
religious study only. Pesantren has three important elements, i.e. Islamic
education system, Islamic values, and santri (pesantren’s students). It is
usually located in a remote rural area, isolated from local community, and
associated with the students in peci and sarong carrying antiquated
yellowed book.
However, those days have passed. Nowadays, we have been introduced to a
new level of Islamic teaching through pesantren. As an example, there is a
well-known pesantren in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia named Daarut
Tauhid Pesantren. Not like any other previous pesantren, it is located in
urban area, with distinctive integration between Islamic way of life, urban
lifestyle, and West Java’s culture. Its basic concept is advancing Moslem’s
economy through modern-day practices of business with spiritual values,
and developing Islamic education and religious subjects as well as
economy and management substances. Established in 1990s, it has once
become one of the most visited places in Bandung, even though not spotted
in any of the tourism destination maps. In Daarut Tauhid Pesantren, santris
not only learn the religious studies, but also theory and practice of a good
business, entrepreneurship, and leadership agility. In addition, it has no
physical segregation with the local community.
Pic 1:
Public gathering at Pesantren Daarut
Tauhiid, Gerlong Girang, Bandung
The setting, allows the santris and the neighbours to involve in almost
every day-life activities. Majority of visitors stay in a rented homestay
owned by local communities. This condition is really goes along Daarut
Tauhid’s philosophies: independency, generosity in helping others,
connection’s strength between neighbours that lead to one big family, and
the ability to have a spiritual way of life without neglecting the worldly
life.
However, after 14 years of contribution in various activities, since 2005
Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid tried to create a village pesantren located in rural
area. The design of this new pesantren is planned based on sustainable
development principles, that is why it is called Eco-Pesantren DT (DT
stands for daarut tauhiid).
Pic 2: Location Comparison: Daarut Tauhiid Urban Pesantren and Eco-Pesantren DT
Eco-Pesantren DT: The rural based pesantren
As mentioned before, Indonesia is facing a serious mental problem,
especially in the rural areas. The villagers are lack in self esteem; make
them hard to adjust themselves in the difficult economy situations
nowadays. Moreover, as the major result of urbanization, village is running
out of youth to develop the region.
Eco-Pesantren DT is one of our solution offering, make the most of
Indonesia’s potentials described above. Because rural area is considered to
be closer to a conservation of natural resource compare to the urban, Eco-
Pesantren DT is planned to be an ecological friendly built environment
located in one of Northern Bandung’s rural area. It is brought to become a
model of self-sufficient built environment, which is based mainly on
renewable resources and conduct sustainable way of life. With its several
basic concepts – self-sufficient community, organic food farming,
sustainable buildings, water and waste recycling – it is also expected to
participate in an effort to empower and enhance the quality of life of
villagers through agriculture technology and renewable energy resources to
produce agents of change who have respected manner with strong sense of
leadership and entrepreneurship.
Unlike the existing urban model of Daarut Tauhiid Pesantren which focus
in short term spiritual training (maximun 6 month), a rural model of Eco-
Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid is planned to have more long term formal
education from Junior High school up to Academy level. The curriculum of
this formal education is designed to put nature as the main inspiration.
In this regard, Richard Louv once said in his book “Last Child in the
Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” (2008) that
children needs to contact with nature as they need to eat nutritious foods
and enough of sleep. It explained the children who often play in natural
area tend to have a better motoric ability. Researches in England and
Sweden also proof that such contact with natural elements reduce
anxiousness, anger, and depression. Another research held by
Environmental Psychologist from Cornell University (2003) revealed that
children, who often play in the natural environment, tend to act with lower
behavioural level of chaos, anxiety, and depression compared to those who
seldom or never play in the natural environment.x
Environmental Concern
Eco-Pesantren DT is located on a high plateau of Bandung region (±1200
m above sea level) which consider as a water catchment area for the city of
Bandung. In response to that, in June 10th 2006 Eco-Pesantren in
cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, the Sedaun Foundation and
Trans TV planted 700 Eucalyptus trees in the land reforestation program.
Some trees have also been given to the surrounding communities to be
planted in their own land. In addition to that, the Department of Forestry,
West Java Province planted as many as 2500 Robusta coffee trees seedlings
in the Eco Pesantren area.
Together with farmers and surrounding communities, Eco-Pesantren DT
also manages the agricultural waste program. This waste that comes from
decomposed plants during the harvesting period used as an organic
fertilizer for vegetables planting.
Programs and Facilities in Eco-Pesantren DT
There are three main field of concerns i.e. training and educational field,
agricultural field, and environment preservation activities. Eco-Pesantren
DT plan to have training and educational activities that include Islamic
formal education through junior and senior boarding high school and
agricultural applied science and technology institute. While the agricultural
activities take account of agriculture production and supply, agricultural
cooperation for farmers, and agricultural visit program; the environment
preservation activities concerns are more to the land-reforestation program,
renewable energy source usage, waste recycling, and water treatment
programs.
The future formal education in Eco-Pesantren will strongly emphasizes in
building character (entrepreneurship and leadership), enhancing the
understanding of applied technology – especially those related to
agriculture, and encouraging sustainable way of life to the students since
their school age.
The facility within Eco-Pesantren will consist of agricultural, educational
and religious facilities. Educational and religious facilities in Eco-Pesantren
consist of a Mosque and Multifunction hall – which is currently become the
centre of all educational and social activities although the progress of
construction is still in the finishing stage – and junior and senior boarding
high school that is planned to be built in any near period. To support the
continuous activity in Eco-Pesantren, it will also be equipped with other
supporting facilities such as santri’s boarding house and dormitory, as well
as waste recycling and water treatment facility.
Each and every building inside Eco-Pesantren complex will be designed to
be environmental friendly and sustainable building. Stage-platform
building construction concept is used in most of the buildings to reserve the
water reservoir area and maximize open green spaces for santri and
agricultural matters; besides its tropical architecture principle. The
buildings are also designed to be able to generate and manage both its
energy and waste using the renewable energy sources. It is apply the use of
solar-cells as the electricity source, rain and grey water treatment and
recycle process to be re-used, also waste separation and recycle process.
Eco-Pesantren is also maintain land reforestation and water preservation
concepts by filling the land with productive hardwood plants that
strengthen the soil structure and enhance the rain water soil infiltration.
The mosque has become the main activity centre in every pesantren in
Indonesia. In Eco-Pesantren, the mosque is also dedicated as a model of
sustainable public building. The use of stage-platform building construction
concept and other tropical architecture principles – pitched roof, natural air
and light handling – are applied in this building. As a model of sustainable
public building, it is also designed to use solar-cells as the main electricity
source. The grey-water treatment facility also attached to the building to
make it possible to be used for toilet flushing and plant watering.
What Eco-Pesantren DT Has Achieved So Far As stated earlier, in the first two years of its Establishment, Eco-Pesantren
was focused on agriculture, especially in vegetables production. During
that period we find that farmers have many limitations in terms of land
ownership, lack of capital, as well as accessibility to the market. These
conditions created dependency on the middleman called
Bandar/Tengkulak. Meanwhile, there were only few financial institutions
that can provide capital loans to farmers because of bankability issue.
Since 2006, Eco-Pesantren created partnership program with farmers’
community around the pesantren area. This program is ranging from
providing pesantren’s land, capital loan for seeds and fertilizers, field
assistance in the use of appropriate technology, and marketing program.
Technical assistance has been given to farmers in order to manage the
planting pattern so that the production will be in accordance with the
market’s need. This includes quality, quantity, and sustainability of
vegetable products.
Pic 3: Vegetables Planting in Eco-
Pesantren, Cigugur Girang, West
Bandung
Currently the numbers of farmers who are joining the program are 105
people who are spread in 3 districts in West Bandung regency. Vegetables
produced by farmers consist of 10 types: broccoli, lettuce, cauliflowers,
lettuce head, string-bean, kyuri, zucchini, snow-peas, kailand and red-
pepper, it’s ranging from 300 - 600 kg/day. Eco-Pesantren is responsible to
sell these vegetables to supermarkets as well as traditional markets.
Besides having partnership with vegetable farmers, Eco-Pesantren DT also
develops partnership with flower plant farmers. This partnership is to
accommodate the local potential of the community around eco-Pesantren
which is well-known as one of the biggest flower plant production centre in
West Java.
Pic 3: Flower & Ornamental Plants Partnership with Local Farmer
Since the end of 2007 Eco-Pesantren is supported by the Ministry of
Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia, through a LM3 program. The
objective of this program is to empower farmers focusing on marketing
skill enhancement with the supervision of the established Pesantren in
Indonesia. One of the innovative programs of this is the creation of the
Farmer Market - famously called the Agrospot Festival.
Pic 4: farmers directly selling
their product in the Farmer
Market -Agrospot festival
Farmers Market is intended to increase the added value of the farmer’s
products by reducing the chain distribution of the product. Instead of
selling product to the Big Supermarket, farmers can directly sell their
product to the customer, so that the margin received by farmers become
larger and at the same time, the customer can get a lower price compare to
the supermarket’s price. Farmer market provides flexibility and freedom to
farmers to be able to communicate directly with consumers, so that farmers
can see the lack of their products. Products displayed in this market are
fresh products and processed products such as vegetables, fish, processed
foods, traditional medicine (spice), flowers, and merchandise.
It is important to note, Farmer Market is not aiming to compete with
traditional market (pasar tradisional) because the quality of the product is
as good as supermarket’s, while in the traditional market, the quality of the
products is usually lower. Unfortunately, Farmer Market which was
previously planned to be on monthly basis could only be carried out 2 times
in 2008. But some group of farmers get benefit from this activity for
getting a direct order from the company from big cities like Jakarta and
other areas.
In the last 9 months, instead of selling fresh vegetables, Eco-Pesantren is
focused on marketing of processed agriculture products, i.e. fruits chips and
vegetables chips. The packing process is done by neighbours and farmer’s
wife that live around Eco-Pesantren area. This activity has tightened our
social connection among communities as well as earning some little money
for the farmer’s family.
Since the beginning of 2008, Eco-Pesantren is involved in joint
collaboration project with the CIP (Centro Internacionale della Papa),
IVEGRI (Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute), Swisscontact, DAFWA
(Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia), University of
Adelaide, and Department of Agriculture, Government of Indonesia. The
main objective of this project is to connect farmers, especially potatoes
farmers to the market. At the moment, Eco-Pesantren sells potato chips to
Jakarta and Bandung. In Bandung, our product can be found in the snack
food store, while in Jakarta, Eco-Pesantren’s product being sold in a
healthy store.
Dakwah Program and Informal Education for Local Community
In Indonesia, 60% of poorest people live in rural area and majority of them
are farmers. Nowadays, they are not only facing poverty problems, but
also lack of education that lead to inferiority, less discipline as well as
consumptive attitude because of TV’s advertisement. Above all that, the
nature of togetherness (gotong royong) and social cohesiveness - which
traditionally very strong among rural communities – have been gradually
changed into individualistic character.
In response to this issue, since November 2008 Eco-Pesantren DT
established a regular dakwah (islamic teaching) program and informal
education through PAUD (Early Childhood Education), Playgroup,
kindergarten, and regular classes for youngster with a very affordable cost
(even free of charge for some classes). This non-formal education aims to
increase their islamic knowledge as well as to form a good character
towards family, community and environment.
Pic 5: Early Childhood Education
In addition to that, for adults, we also conduct a monthly program under
Public Preaching. In this program, Preacher (ustadz) usually discusses
Islamic principles on how to strengthen family connection, community
relationship and environmental responsibility. With this program we hope
in the future we will have more harmonious families that lead to strong
communities that can revive the traditional value of togetherness as well as
a strong responsibility to care and to keep after our environment.
Pic 6: Public Preaching in Eco
Pesantren’s Mosque
Healthy Living Campaign
As we know, nowadays we are facing so many new diseases that cannot be
totally cured by the so called modern medical treatment, namely: HIV,
Avian Flu and the newest pandemic virus of H1N1. Many research proved
that this is happened – one of them – because of the way we consume
chemical medicines and drugs in our daily life that not only has a negative
effect but also essentially poisoned our body.
It is important to note, based on Tuan Haji research in Malaysia (1995), he
found that Allah the Almighty sends diseases together along with its natural
medicines. His research further found, these medicines are made of plants
that grow naturally in our local environment, or even in our own
backyard/front yard. He concluded, we need to drastically shift from
chemical medicine towards natural medicine as Prophet Muhammad –
peace be upon him- give an example during his noble life.
In response to this issue, together with TNC (Tibbun Nabawi College),
Eco-Pesantren DT regularly conducts a free of charge social event that
offer a new way of consuming alternative medicine from herbal that
naturally grows around us, as well as strengthening our antibody by
consuming honey in a regular basis as our prophet Muhammad – peace be
upon him, teaches us.
i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population from US Census Bureau World POP Clock Projection ii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population from World Population Clock - Worldometers & International Data Base (IDB) - World Population iii “How Climate Change Effects World Health” http://www.sustdev.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2495 iv Steele, James. 1997. Sustainable Architecture Principles, Paradigms, and Case Studies. New York: McGraw and Hill. v http://www.oecd.org/topic/ vihttp://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573214_3/Republic_of_Indonesia.html#s61 viihttp://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573214_3/Republic_of_Indonesia.html#s61 viii http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/indonesia/pro-history.htm ix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waqf