These are some pictures captured during our scoping study in Bonehau sub-district, West Sulawesi (20-24 March 2022). It took around 12+ hours by car to get to Mamuju (Capital city of West Sulawesi) from Makassar (Capital city of South Sulawesi), three hours to reach Buttu Ada (first village found from Mamuju) and another two and half hours to arrive at our homestay, in Bonehau village.
The teams were separated into four groups in the five villages which are Buttu Ada & Banua Ada, Tamalea, Salutiwo, and Mappu. The selection of these villages is based on the dynamic of livelihood systems, demography, conflict and disaster, as well as gender relations issues in each village.
After arriving at the homestay, all the involved team had a short brief about our scoping activities. We went through the entire scoping instruments questions and also identified the area through maps.
Buttu Ada & Banua Ada, as shown in map beside, are the two farthest villages from where we stayed. Spending two hours on the road, we witnessed many things along the way, such as women farmers, women weavers, oil palm plantations, cornfields, land clearing, patchouli distillation, swallow’s nest business, children from school, and even young people enjoying the river. But unfortunately, the assigned team of Buttu Ada and Banua Ada did not have enough time to interview or have a casual talk with them.
Women farmer at the field 
Land clearing
Women weaver 
Cattles around the homestay
Meanwhile, in other villages, the team from Tamalea, Mappu, and Salutiwo had the opportunity to capture the landscape of the site as well as gain more stories about the local’s people work.
Mappu team had a chance to see the patchouli distillation in person and gathered information about its production.
People mentioned that the production of patchouli requires a lot of energy and time to clean weeds that grow together with the plant. In addition, farmers also have to pay for the rental of patchouli distillation equipment at a high price, due to this condition, the majority of people in Mappu are no longer working on it.
While in Tamalea, it is seen several heavy equipment for coal mining projects, such as excavators, have arrived and are temporarily parked on local people’s land because the coal mine has not yet been operating.
These excavators have also been used at the Morowali coal mine. A few days before we came, it was just being used to dredge the hill for the road.
An interesting thing is also seen in Salutiwo, where solar panels as the most sustainable and affordable way to deliver access to electricity were utilized by most households.
The solar panel project existed when electricity was still unavailable, but not long after, the village is electrified, so the solar panel installation building in the village center was no longer maintained, but even so, several pieces of unused solar panels were operated by residents for charge batteries or be used as backup power (some carry them at home or in the yard for lighting), or as a stun trap for pigs.
