The emergence of female forest guardians in Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

Aceh Province is one of the most significant contributors to forest land in Indonesia at the same time as the area with the highest percentage of deforestation. Forest areas in Aceh experienced illegal logging, thereby threatening the ecological function of the forest. One of the impacts of forest destruction is the high potential for natural disasters, such as flooding, due to the loss of water catchment areas. The flood disaster that hit one of the villages in Aceh, namely Damaran Baru, in 2015 was finally able to encourage public awareness to care for nature. The public has the initiative to protect the forest by forming a community whose members are dominated by village women in Damaran Baru. The community is named Mpu Uteun. Their activity is to patrol the forest to stop illegal logging. With the historical method, this study is structured to know about forest deforestation in Aceh, the role of the Mpu Uteun community, and the government's response to the emergence of environmental communities.