Protecting the earth, reading the nature: The disaster mitigation tradition of the Nagari Pauh Kamang Mudik community in the crevice of the limestone hills

¹ Literature and Culture Department, Universitas Andalas, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia
² Veterinary Medicine Department, Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia
³ Environmental Engineering Department, Universitas Andalas, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: khairilanwar@hum.unand.ac.id

Abstract

The people of Nagari Pauh Kamang Mudik, who live in a limestone hilly region, live in a space fraught with risks and potential. The karst landscape provides livelihoods through wetland and dryland agriculture and limestone mining. However, this area is also prone to ecological disasters such as landslides, drought, and environmental degradation. This research highlights the traditions of disaster mitigation based on local wisdom that have been developed through generations, such as the ability to read natural signs and organize living spaces according to safe contours. This study is urgent given the increasing ecological vulnerability due to uncontrolled limestone exploitation and the impact of climate change on the local hydrological system. The primary focus is how the community balances economic activities with environmental sustainability while maintaining traditional knowledge amidst modernization. Using qualitative methods and a participatory ethnographic approach, this research combines field observations, interviews with traditional elders, farmers, and miners, and a review of local cultural documents. Using an ecocritical framework, specifically the Ecological Knowledge System and Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR), this study demonstrates that the community has a contextual and collective mitigation system. These findings recommend integrating local knowledge into mitigation policies, especially in areas with unique landscapes like limestone hills.