Protecting and Renewing Mangroves in Bintan
Pengudang Mangrove Bintan is a tiny grassroots NGO located in Pengudang, Bintan. Its main leader, Iwan Winarto, has used educational ecotourism projects for years to fund mangrove restoration and education. He’s very successful, replanting large swaths of mangrove forests. The NGO is supported by a range of technical experts. However, the NGO faced many challenges. Post-pandemic demand for ecotourism has gone down greatly. His relationships with nearby resorts (the source of ecotourists) are labor-intensive, as is putting on the tours, arranging homestays, and other activities (such as cooking and cultural classes). Moreover, his education center collapsed during the pandemic.
Our challenge statement was “How might we support Pengudang Mangrove Bintan in promoting its ecotourism and mangrove education efforts?”
The class occurred in four stages:
First, the initial few weeks focused on discovery, where the students learned as much as they could about mangroves and related issues. We learned about the relationship between poverty, development, and sustainability. We learned about the contributions of mangrove forests to global climate change and local environmental issues, and the challenges of preserving these forests. The first stage was highlighted by a visit to Pengudang where we learned as much as we could about the operations, and met firsthand with leaders and participants to get their perspective. The groups then divided into groups to focus on specific issues.
Second, we entered a design thinking phase. Led by Adam Gerard, a design thinking professional/adjunct lecturer at SMU, the students experienced two full-class three-hour hands-on workshops in design thinking. These practical experiences focused on the specific problem statements of each group. The third stage was the prototyping and testing phase, where the students talked with experts and end-users about their issues, and sought feedback. These served as inputs for a second workshop where the ideas were finalized. The fourth phase was a poster session. In addition to the students, the poster session was visited by more than 50 guests. The results were knowledge-based, fully tested ideas for Pengudang Bintan to further refine and implement.
The students came up with seven substantial suggestions.
- Two focused on the NGO’s relationship with the resorts.
- One group put together a professional package to approach resorts and make a pitch for a long-term relationship.
- A second group, knowing that the current system of communication was labor intensive, developed an early updated calendar so the NGO could clearly communicate when classes and tours are being offered, and update them easily.
- Two focused on the NGO’s online presence
- One group, knowing that NGO leaders were pressed for time and had limited scope for learning new social media, developed a system where the NGO could continue to update Facebook, and the updates would automatically populate Instagram and their website.
- The second group researched popular tourism sites and developed materials to augment the online presence of the NGO’s homestays.
- Three focused on augmenting and capturing value-added
- One group improved the delivery of the NGO’s cooking classes to reduce manpower demand, streamline translations, augment cultural understanding and make it more tourist-friendly
- A second group looked at the rebuilt education centre and made very practical suggestions for displays and educational activities good for various ages of visitors. In addition, visitors would be asked to pledge behavioral changes that would help support mangroves.
- The final group looked at village economic activity during the monsoon season and researched ways for this group to turn the activities into more lucrative ones (in other words, instead of selling coconuts and clams wholesale, households could shift them into specific branded value-added products
Each of these projects took into account local factors, strengths, and limitations to augment local incomes and promote the protection of mangroves. In addition, some of these changes would help reduce local’s reliance on rapacious moneylenders.
