Disaster, environment and local indigenous knowledge in Indonesia

¹ Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, 40154 Bandung City, Indonesia
² Universitas Padjadjaran, 40132 Bandung City, Indonesia
³ Cakrabuana Institute for Geoinformation, Environment and Social Studies, 45188 Cirebon, Indonesia
⁴ University of Birmingham, B15-2TT Birmingham, United Kingdom
⁵ Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, 10340 Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia
⁶ Insitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 98195 Seattle, United States of America
⁷ Universitas Gadjah Mada, 55281 Sleman, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is a disaster-prone area due to its complexity in geographical and geological location. For thousands of years, Indonesian society has interacted with various natural disasters. This research aims to summarize and synthesize community adaptation to various disasters by referring to their local indigenous knowledge. Data came from previous studies recorded in two most reputable scientific databases, namely Web of Science and Scopus, 1980 to 2023 . Our review used a qualitative approach with content analysis, resulting in 16 articles that were suitable for metaanalysis. This research shows that local indigenous knowledge in Indonesian society has included environmental adaptations to several disasters, such as floods, landslides, tsunamis, earthquakes, plagues, volcanic eruptions, and other hydrometeorological extreme events. Local indigenous knowledge is mostly spoken orally through various traditions, traditional houses, living equipment, poetry, regional zoning, and traditional institutions that imply disaster events, but there are no written remains. Their experience has not shown any adaptation to disaster-induced environmental changes due to climate change and global warming. Our research can provide input for disaster mitigation that is more appropriate to the local context.