Resilience of Small Fishermen in the Development of Tambak Lorok

Marine Tourism Village in Semarang City

Asma Luthfi

, Fadly Husain

, Kuncoro Bayu Prasetyo

, Muh. Sholehatul Mustofa

, and

Apik Budi Santoso

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia

Department of Geography, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia

Keywords: Marine Tourism Village, Resilience, Small Fishermen.

Abstract: Tambak Lorok is one of the fishing villages in Semarang that has experienced environmental degradation due

to coastal abrasion. This condition causes the Semarang City Government to develop a maritime tourism

village as a solution to minimize the impact of coastal abrasion as well as to organize a slum of fishermen

villages. However, this program raises new problems for the community, especially small fishermen in

Tambak Lorok because many of their housing land and places of business are being displaced and their fishing

grounds are becoming further away. This paper aims to explain the resilience of small fishermen in Tambak

Lorok in dealing with social, cultural and economic problems due to the development of the marine tourism

village program. By using qualitative research methods, this study seeks to explain data analytically. Data

collection is done by the method of observation, interviews, and document studies, while data processing is

done through the process of data inference, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The

results showed that social, cultural, and economic problems experienced by small fishermen due to the

development of their settlements to become maritime tourism villages can be overcome in various ways

namely diversification of livelihoods, utilization of local resources for marine tourism, and participation of

family members in meeting the needs of life. This research also underscores the resilience of small fish

farmers in Tambak Lorok which is a combination of the strengths of Javanese cultural values, Islamic spiritual

values, and the social institutions of small fishermen.

1 INTRODUCTION

Fishermen are one of the professions occupied by

many Indonesian people, especially those who live

along the coast. This is a logical consequence of

Indonesia's territory which is an archipelago with a

long coastline (Bailey, 1988; Duggan and Kochen,

2016). However, there are still many people who

work as fishermen on the poverty line with a low level

of welfare. Likewise, their living space and

residential environment seem dirty, dirty and untidy

which further degrades their quality of life (Béné &

Friend, 2011; Wekke and Cahaya, 2015).

Many efforts have been made by the government

to improve the quality of life of fishermen, both in the

form of empowering the fishing community, as well

as improving their environmental facilities and

infrastructure (Amiruddin, 2014; Darsono, 1999).

Empowering the fishing community in the form of

training in processing fish catches, improving the

quality of fishing products, increasing the business of

fishery products, providing educational assistance for

fishermen's children, and improving the quality of the

fishermen's human resources (Indarti and Wardana,

2013; Ratnawati and Sutopo, 2014; Samuel,

Martono, and Susanti, 2015). Meanwhile,

infrastructure improvements include the provision of

fishing gear assistance, drainage and latrine

improvements, construction of TPI and markets,

improvement of road access, and structuring of

fishing settlements (Habibah and Setyawan, 2017).

With these efforts, many fishing communities have

benefited to improve the quality of their lives, and

there are even some fishing villages that develop their

villages as tourist villages, especially those who live

near urban areas.

One of the fishing villages arranged and

developed as a marine tourism destination is Tambak

Lorok. This area is located at the mouth of the river

126

Luthﬁ, A., Husain, F., Prasetyo, K., Mustofa, M. and Santoso, A.

Resilience of Small Fishermen in the Development of Tambak Lorok Marine Tourism Village in Semarang City.

DOI: 10.5220/0010012701260131

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 3 2019) - Social Engineering Governance for the People, Technology and Infrastructure in

Revolution Industry 4.0, pages 126-131

ISBN: 978-989-758-472-5

Banger, Semarang City, Central Java, which is

directly adjacent to the Java Sea to the north.

Previously, this area was an area of milkfish and

shrimp ponds, but since the 1950s the area was visited

by small fishermen who moored their boats at the

mouth of the Banger River and finally settled there.

This condition causes the Tambak Lorok region to

change its function to become a settlement.

Along with the development of the city of

Semarang, especially the construction of the port of

Tanjung Mas, this region is increasingly visited by

people to live there. Not only those who work as

fishermen, but also the wave of urbanization that

wants to find work in the city of Semarang with

various types of jobs. This resulted in the Tambak

Lorok area becoming increasingly crowded and dirty

(Kurniawati and Windraswara, 2017; Natalia and

Alie, 2014). The decrease in the carrying capacity of

the land and the increase in sea market waves has

caused the region to be affected by coastal abrasion

throughout the year. This condition has worsened the

quality of life of Tambak Lorok people. There are

many houses that are flooded with sea water so that

they can no longer be used (Dimitra and Yuliastuti,

2012; Mussadun and Nurpratiwi, 2016). But since

2016, Tambak Lorok has become one of the fishing

villages that get help from the Central Government

through the Ministry of PUPR. This area has been

reorganized by normalizing the river, constructing a

coastal belt, arranging riverbanks, structuring

residential settlements, and building infrastructure

that can support the activities of residents.

However, the development which is packed with

the concept of a marine tourism village has resulted

in the Tambak Lorok community having to improve

themselves and adapt to existing changes, including

small fishermen. Many of them had their homes and

business places displaced so they had to find a new

location. Meanwhile, those who still survive in

Tambak Lorok must prepare themselves to be the host

to welcome tourists who will visit Tambak Lorok. In

this regard, this paper will describe the resilience of

small fishermen in addressing social and cultural

changes due to the development of Tambak Lorok as

a marine tourism village.

2 METHOD

This paper is the result of research using qualitative

methods that base their explanations with analytic

descriptive (Moleong, 2005). The reason for the

qualitative method used in this study is to uncover in

depth and holistically the socio-cultural reality that

occurs in the fishing village of Tambak Lorok. The

depth of the data is also broken down using

ethnographic methods as a combination of qualitative

research. For this reason, data were collected using

participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and

document studies. After the data is collected, the next

step is data classification, data reduction, data

presentation, and conclusion drawing. The research

location was in the fishing village of Tambak Lorok,

Tanjung Mas Sub-district, North Semarang District,

Semarang City, Central Java Province. The research

subjects were small fishermen, while the supporting

informants were RT heads, RW heads, Village heads,

religious leaders and other general public. Data

validation is done by source triangulation techniques

and methods.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Tambak Lorok: From the

Fishermen's Village to the Marine

Tourism Village

Tambak Lorok is a fishing village located in the

northern part of Semarang City with an area of 45.29

Ha consisting of a pond area of 10.89 Ha and a

residential area of 34.4 Ha. Most of the residents earn

a living as small fishermen and the rest work in the

informal sector at the Port of Tanjung Mas and

companies in the city of Semarang (Fama, 2016).

This region is actually an arising land that used to be

a fish pond and tiger shrimp area. Along with sluggish

shrimp exports, many ponds are no longer in

operation and are eventually sold to migrants from

outside the city of Semarang. These migrants

generally come from Demak and other districts

around the city of Semarang who are looking for a

living in the city of Semarang. The former ponds that

they bought were later turned into residential land.

Until now, this settlement in Tambak Lorok has been

inhabited by a third generation of the early generation

who settled here.

The settlement pattern in Tambak Lorok consists

of several alleys with rows of houses that run from

East to West, and face each other. In each alley, which

consists of houses facing each other and separated by

a small road with a width of approximately 1 meter,

so that it can only be passed by motor vehicles only.

the main street of Kampung Tambak Lorok or in the

courtyard of a mosque, mosque or other public

facilities.

Resilience of Small Fishermen in the Development of Tambak Lorok Marine Tourism Village in Semarang City

127

Actually, The Tambak Lorok area exists in 2

(two) large villages, namely Tambak Rejo in the east

and Tambak Mulyo in the west. In general, these two

large villages have 5 RWs and 35 RTs, namely RW

12 with 4 RT, RW 13 with 10 RT, RW 14 with 6 RT,

RW 15 with 9 RT and RW 16 with 6 RT. Prior to

revitalization of river flows and settlements, the lorok

pond area was the area most frequently affected by

tidal floods. Almost every day people feel the flood

tidal flood, especially during the rainy season when

sea water becomes high tides and inundate people's

homes. For this reason, every five years Tambak

Lorok residents must enhance their homes to avoid

tidal flooding. For residents who do not have enough

money to enhance their homes, then they have to live

in moderation with flooded housing conditions. The

scenery also looks chaotic and dirty because there is

a lot of garbage inundated at several points, poor

drainage, which results in a decrease in the quality of

life of the community.

After revitalization, the river channel is

normalized, the beach belt is made, and the settlement

is reorganized. This condition caused around

hundreds of houses to be relocated to other places to

widen roads and access to Tambak Lorok. This

revitalization has been carried out since 2015 which

is a project and budget from the center managed by

the Ministry of Public Works and Pemali-Comal

River Basin Agency. This project has made Tambak

Lorok transformed into a Maritime Tourism Village

marked by a monument at the entrance of Tambak

Lorok. Several public facilities have been improved

and added, such as roads, markets and fish auctions,

fish landing places, floating houses, worship

facilities, waste management sites, pedestrian areas,

and children's playgrounds.

3.2 Problems Faced by Small

Fishermen Due to the Maritime

Tourism Village Program

The Tambak Lorok transformation from a

fishermanvillage that looked dirty and dirty to a

marine tourism village that was clean, healthy, and

neatly organized also influenced the lifestyle and

livelihood of small fishermen. The condition of the

villages that were clean with adequate facilities made

them begin to be aware of environmental

sustainability. However, this transformation raises

several problems for small fishermen such as

economic problems, social problems, and

environmental problems.

The economic problems faced by small fishermen

in Tambak Lorok are things related to their income.

As a segment of the community that is still highly

dependent on marine resources, these small fishermen

have a volatile, uncertain income and are dependent

on the weather and waves. But several informants

explained that their average income could reach

Rp.200,000 to Rp.500,000 in one day at a time. This

catch is still a gross income because it does not

include operating costs such as gasoline and their

food supplies at sea. Usually the fishermen go to look

for kijing (green kerrang) and shrimp in the morning

at 06:00 WIB until 10:00 WIB, while to find fish, they

leave in the afternoon from 17.00 WIB until 19.30

WIB. If they only rely on fish, their income cannot

cover the operational costs they incur because the

fishing distance is getting further and the number of

fish is getting smaller. Sometimes they only get 2 kg

of grouper and snapper in a day which they sell to

Tengkulak with a price range of IDR 40,000 to IDR

60,000. For this reason, they cultivate green shells by

making bamboo cages that they plug into the sea as

houses for green clam. The cost of making a cage is

around 2,000,000 rupiahs to 4,000,000 rupiahs which

must be repaired every two years. Yields from green

mussels that they harvest every day are the ones who

can add to their income and cover their operational

costs.

In the distribution of catches, small fishermen in

Tambak Lorok are still very tied to middlemen.

Giving capital and loans by middlemen makes them

seem dependent and cannot be separated from

middlemen. This results in small fishermen not being

able to control the price of their catch, because the

price has been decided by the middleman. With this

condition, small fishermen sometimes feel

disadvantaged but they cannot do much because of

economic and social dependence on middlemen. This

problem seems unable to be resolved because there is

no fishing cooperative in Tambak Lorok as an

institution that can guarantee the distribution of

catches of small fishermen more equitably.

The government's attention to the economic problems

faced by small fishermen in Tambak Lorok is quite

high with the help of fishing gear in the form of nets

and machines. With this help, they no longer have to

spend a budget on fishing gear. However, the

distribution of aid to fishing equipment is considered

not evenly distributed and wrong target. Many of the

small fishermen do not get fishing gear, while the

residents whose main job is not as fishermen are those

who get nets and machinery. These conditions make

small fishermen in Tambak Lorok not get a better

livelihood.

In addition to economic problems, fishermen in

Tambak Lorok also face social and environmental

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problems due to the existence of this maritime village

program. Social problems generally occur in

adolescents who are heavily involved in fights and

drinking. This is influenced by the level of adolescent

education in Tambak Lorok generally only up to

senior high school level. After graduating from high

school, many of them did not want to continue their

studies at the tertiary level due to the cost and access

to work. They prefer to find work in the Port of

Tanjung Mas or in companies in the city of Semarang.

This condition makes them very vulnerable to the

influence of social interaction that tends to unsettle

residents such as drinking and fighting.

On the environmental aspect, there are many Tambak

Lorok residents, including small fishermen who have

to experience relocation. The marine tourism village

development program that requires open land for

roads and other infrastructure has an impact on the

use of community-owned land. For people affected

by this route, their houses will be demolished and

moved to another place with replacement money

given by the government. Small fishermen whose

houses were affected by the relocation project had to

find a new residential location even though far from

the beach. This makes them have to adapt to a new

environment and look for other types of work.

Meanwhile, for small fishermen who remain in

Tambak Lorok, they also have to adjust their habits to

the environment that has been arranged and prepare

themselves to host marine tourism destinations in the

city of Semarang. Although many infrastructure

facilities have been built in Tambak Lorok, both as a

barrier to coastal abrasion and as a means of

supporting marine tourism, awareness of

environmental maintenance and sustainable

management has not yet become a collective

awareness of residents, especially small fishermen.

3.3 Resilience of Small Fishermen in

Facing the Maritime Tourism

Village Program

Resilience is the ability of a person or community to

adapt to the vulnerability of life and the

powerlessness that they experience. In resilience,

there is a complex and mutually influential

relationship between individuals and their

environment. to create a new system when the old

system which includes social, cultural, economic and

ecological is considered no longer sufficient to

empower them

In Tambak Lorok, environmental, social, cultural

and economic changes that occur along with the

development of the marine tourism village program

make small fishermen have to be able to adapt to the

new environment. This adaptation process involves

social systems that are owned by small fishermen,

such as cultural values, religious values, social

relations and kinship, social networks, and social

institutions. The social system works actively and

mobilizes small fishermen to be able to survive and

deal with various problems that arise as a result of

transformation in their village. In this case, the social

system that is very dominant in forming resilience of

small fishermen is Javanese cultural values, Islamic

spirituality, and social institutions.

As a community that lives on the north coast of

Java, small fishermen in Tambak Lorok are bound to

Javanese cultural values. Almost all residents in

Tambak Lorok are ethnic Javanese, especially

Javanese coastal. They actualize Javanese cultural

values in their daily lives and specifically deal with

changes in the physical and social environment in

their village. Some Javanese life attitudes that they

hold in dealing with this situation are kamunangsan

(a great sense of humanity), tepa slira (attitude to

understand the situation of others), mawas diri (self-

introspection), and budi luhur (good behavior)

(Marbangun, 1995). Actualization of the four

attitudes of life can be seen in the attitude they

showed when the river normalization and

revitalization of the marine tourism village began to

be announced until now. Kamanungsan's attitude

underlies the process of relocation of citizens where

the community gets good treatment from the

government and surrounding residents. Prioritizing

the sense of humanity shown by residents makes this

relocation process not cause fatal social turmoil.

In addition to the extinction, the attitude of tepa

slira is also shown by the residents, especially small

fishermen in facing any problems that occur due to

changes in their villages. Mutual understanding of the

conditions experienced by their neighbors causes

them to help each other to solve it. This attitude is

supported by mutual cooperation that they do for

community activities and personal activities. If there

are fishermen who are unable to carry out their

obligations because they have to go to sea, then the

residents take other measures so that the fishermen

can be involved without having to neglect their main

obligation in making a living. Their introspective

attitude is actualized by always doing self-

introspection when there are problems they face.

With this introspective attitude, they can find

solutions to these problems without emotion and

anger, so they can be resolved properly. Meanwhile,

their nobility is actualized with good behavior in

interacting with fellow human beings so that every

Resilience of Small Fishermen in the Development of Tambak Lorok Marine Tourism Village in Semarang City

129

program in the development of this maritime tourism

village can be implemented in harmony.

Besides being known by people who are still thick

with Javanese cultural values, small fishermen in

Tambak Lorok are also known as religious

communities. They have a strong Islamic belief

system of the existence of God as an almighty

substance and influence all their activities as

creatures. For small fishermen in Tambak Lorok,

every activity they do is always supervised by God. It

is this belief that underlies them to carry out a series

of religious services and rituals so that they will

receive strength, protection and salvation from the

Lord of the universe. These religious rituals are

personal and communal rituals. Personal rituals they

usually do in their homes such as prayer, dhikr, alms

and reading the Qur'an. They also do personal rituals

in the form of slametan when they acquire new items

such as new boats, new homes, and other objects. For

communal rituals, they usually do it in mosques, in

residents' homes, and in open spaces. This communal

ritual takes the form of recitation, yasinan (reading

the Qur’an Surah Yasin), and sea alms. In connection

with the changes in the physical and social

environment due to the development of this maritime

tourism village, religious rituals give them peace of

mind, certainty of life, and the strength of social

solidarity to deal with every problem that exists.

The next social system that makes small

fishermen in Tambak Lorok able to adapt and deal

with any changes that exist is the strong social

institutions they have. Their village is divided into

several RWs and RTs which in addition to regulating

population problems, also become a mediation for

residents in overcoming every problem they face. For

example, the waste problem that used to be a big

problem that cannot be resolved, can now be resolved

by the existence of a garbage bank that is coordinated

by PKK women in each RT. Likewise with mutual

cooperation and village security activities, it is also

coordinated by the heads of the local RT, so that when

there are teenage fights can be resolved with the

mediation of the RT heads and and the local

community. In addition, the kinship between citizens

also strengthens their social institutions.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Socio-cultural changes due to changes in the physical

environment experienced by small fishermen in

Tambak Lorok require them to be able to adapt to

existing conditions. The many socioeconomic

problems they faced when their fishing village was

changed to become a marine tourism village

demanded that they have to have a variety of ways to

solve it. The complexity of the problem is not only

related to the psychology of citizens personally, but

also the psychology of the community as a

community. The success of small fishermen in

Tambak Lorok in overcoming the problem is caused

by their resilience or survival skills. This resilience

utilizes social systems that exist in society such as the

actualization of local cultural values, the

externalization of religious spirituality, and the

strengthening of the social institutions they have.

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