Ulil
Amri
Research Center for Regional Resources, Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
Abstract
The
issue of climate change does not only catch the attention of states, but also
civil society organizations around the world. So far, many organizations have
seriously combated the issue. This article depicts how religious civil society
organizations in Indonesia has played pivotal role to the country’s effort in
combating climate change. There are at least two organizations investigated: Muhammadiyah
and Nahdlatul Ulama. Both are acknowledged as the two biggest and oldest
religious organizations in the country. So far, they have done much to
combat climate change by setting theology of environment and its praxis. Muhammadiyah and
Nahdlatul Ulama for
instance mobilize
all of its socio-cultural resources
including schools,
universities, pesantrens, mosques and
as well as pengajians.
Introduction
Climate change becomes the most important issue in the world
nowadays which
is believed to
have
greatly affected many aspects of life including social, politics, economics, and culture. It is acknowledged to bring natural
disaster more frequent than before which, in turn, changes demographic
composition of the affected region. Many places impacted by the disaster faces
significant economic loss while culturally people affected by the change are
further challenged by the need to rapidly make adjustment. The scarcity of
natural resources then leads to conflicts and turmoil. As a global issue, many
countries then make collaboration to design strategy as well as to form global institution to tackle the unintended
problems which
may occur.
There are several
global institutions established like United Nation Environment Programme
(UNEP), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations
Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN REDD).
Meanwhile, at the national level, there are also some institutions established
by each country. For instance, in Indonesia, the government establishes Dewan Nasional Perubahan Iklim (National
Council on Climate Change/DNPI). Although each has different name, but all have
the same concern which
is to tackle climate change. Surprisingly,
this issue does not only gain
formal institution attention such
as government,
but also wide civil society. In Indonesia for example, two oldest religious
civil society organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama,
get involve. Therefore, this article has a main goal: to investigate the role of both organizations in combating climate
change in Indonesia.
To achieve the goal, the article starts with presenting a brief history of
climate change and the
engagement of civil society organizations into it. Then,
it
describes Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama’s short profile and deeply discusses their basis of theology, which mainly taken from the Quran and the
Hadith[1],
and praxis, which taking adaptation and mitigation steps[2]. Specific to the praxis side, this article
investigates the socio-cultural role of both organizations which mobilize
schools, universities, mosques, pengajians,
and pesantrens to combat climate
change.
The terminologies of theology and praxis are referred from the works of Gutierrez
(1974) and Ogden (2005). In his famous book, A Theology of Liberation,
Gutierrez defined that theology is a critical reflexion which requires someone
to get involve in socio-historical process of his or her social environment. In
explaining praxis, Gutierrez did not simply defined it as the application of
theology, but active socio-historical participation to build new society which
is free from any injustice. Similarly, Ogden called for liberation work through
redemption and emancipation. In the context of religious organizations’ role in
combating climate change, this article employs both scholars’ notions on
theology and praxis above.
Following qualitative method, data collection techniques used in this
article are semi-structured interview and literature study. For the first
techique, several key Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama officials and their
followers are interviewed which mainly asking about their thought and action to
combat the issue of climate change. For the second technique, some books,
journals, newspapers, magazines, reports of and related to both organizations,
and relevant information from internet are used to enrich the primary data. However, the limitation
of this article would be lacking of mitigation action data of both organizations due to the fact that both tend
to put concern on adaptation only.
Climate Change and the Role of (religious)
Civil Society in Combating the Issue
There are at least
three important phases
of climate change issue: academic,
policy, and implementation. Academic phase is also known as the
initial phase of climate change indicated by the rise of scientific debates on the rise of earth’s temperature. It was Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier who firstly discovered
greenhouse gases effect on the earth’s temperature (Pierrehumbert 2004). His
found then successfully quantified by Svante Aarhenius who
studied the effect of carbon dioxide to the earth temperature nearly three quarters of a century later.
Aarhenius finding revealed that
earth temperature was seemingly increased by 9 degrees Fahrenheit due to the
double increase in
carbon dioxide in the air
since industrial revolution (Ingram et al1990). This finding then gained
support from other scientists’
findings such as Lotka, Revelle and Suess. Lotka for
instance found that the increasing number of fossil fuel use from all over the world caused the increasing number of carbon
dioxide in the air,
while Revelle and Suess found that carbon dioxide could not be absorbed by sea water which
then increased the temperature
on earth.
In turn,
these debates gained wide attention of
politicians and or policy
makers around the world.
The next is policy. During this phase, many scientists worked closely with
politicians.
They urged the politicians to adopt scientific
recommendations on climate change into
their political agenda. As a result, two major industrial countries, United
States and Canada, began to adopt such recommendations (Bodansky 2001). Some other countries followed similar step and together they conducted the first international
conference on climate issue, called
Noordwijk Meeting,
in 1989. The second
meeting was conducted in
1990. At this time, country leaders had agreed to operationalize climate perspective into their own national development agenda.
The third phase is implementation. Since many countries had agreed
climate change as a serious issue which has to be tackled together, these countries arranged a meeting in Kyoto in 1997 to work through the issue.
This meeting then created a momentous
agreement which is known as Kyoto Protocol. Thirty seven countries were bound up to reduce greenhouse gases (UNFCCC 2010). Since that time, the countries
conduct follow up meeting in
almost every
year to discuss
practical and technical scheme to implement the agreement. What is important in this phase is that non
government or civil society organization (CSOs) have involved as well. According to Hoffmann (2008), the formal engagement of
these organizations had been actually started in 1992, during the United
Nations Conference on the Environment and Development.
The involvement of CSOs
can be seen from two sides: policy making and action (implementation). On the first side,
CSOs are considered to play significant role in designing and making policy on
environmental change issue. A study of Correll and Betsill (2001) showed the
three arenas where CSOs played their role: activity, access, and resources. Firstly, CSOs have become active
participant in designing policy on several international environment forums. For example, during
Kyoto and United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) meeting,
CSOs formed
side event to raise important
issues to be brought into the final day’s meeting[3].
They have also persuaded country leaders to adopt such issues.
Secondly, CSOs have substantial access on the international environment forums such as getting involved in the
negotiation process either
directly or indirectly. Thirdly, CSOs have valuable technical
skills to work with wider
public or community, so that their presence in the forums was
highly demanded.
On the action side,
CSOs have carried out some practical actions on facing climate change. Based on
Blanco’s study (2006) in several countries, she found that CSOs have worked on
adaptation strategies in order to minimize the impact of climate change which the countries might face.
They, for example, have designed projects
which are
aimed to improve local community’s livelihood with respect to sustainable
environmental resource practices.
Specific to religious CSOs’involvement, some literatures have mentioned
them[4].
Apart from their involvement in international forums, they have set certain eco-theological
basis and arranged actions or movements to response the issue of climate change.
Globally, there are International Environment Forum (Baha’i), Evangelical
Environmental Network (Christian), Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
(Jewish), Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (Islam),
and Green Sangha (Buddhism) (Posas 2007). In addition, there are also national
religious based CSOs. In the the United States and Canada for example, there is
National Religious Partnership for the Environment and Kairos respectively
which have not only made pronouncement, but also done actions such as set up
sustainable and green infrastructures (Haluza-Delay 2008). Similar action also
exists in Australia, which is pioneered by Common Belief (Millais 2006) and in Indonesia
initiated by Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama. It is the purpose of this
article to elaborate these Indonesia’s CSOs.
Indonesia’s
Religious Civil Society Organizations
Indonesia is known as the biggest Muslim
populated country in the world. The number of Muslim is approximately 202
million (86 percent) of
the total 235 million of the
country’s population.
Muhammadiyah
and Nahdlatul Ulama are the
two biggest Islamic civil society organizations which have
large number of followers and spread
all over the country.
Muhammadiyah
Muhammadiyah is a
modern-reformist
Islamic CSO which
was established by Ahmad Dahlan in 1912 in Yogyakarta. At the early time, Muhammadiyah
focused on to
purify Islamic teaching in the region from
local mystics,
superstition and traditions on the
one hand,
and on the other hand to
protect Islamic way of life from the influence of the Dutch colonial[5].
To do so,
Muhammadiyah built modern Islamic
school which combines Islamic reformist values with
Western system (Fuad 2002). This
organization was fully supported by the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Soon, Muhammadiyah widened the mission
to not only provide education, but also economic empowerment, health services,
and lately to protect
environment. Today, Muhammadiyah has already have at least 25 million members
with 5000 schools, from playgroup to senior high school, 40 universities, and
457 hospitals which spread all over the country. With these resources, Muhammadiyah
continues
its mission.
Muhammadiyah has adopted modern management system in running
its organizations. This
organization managed
its schools, universities, and hospitals professionally. The revenue of these institutions goes
to finance Muhammadiyah existing
programs and or new programs. In some cases, Muhammadiyah
encourages its members to self fund their programs. Nevertheless, Muhammadiyah
often receives fund from many sources
including government and private institutions from both domestic and foreign
countries. In case of combating climate change for example, Muhammadiyah is largely supported by the
government and international donors.
Nahdlatul
Ulama
Nahdlatul Ulama is
known as a traditional-plural Islamic CSO (Bruinessen 1994) which was established
in 1926 and first led by Hasyim Asy’ari. Initially, this organization was
established to counter Muhammadiyah’s action in purifying Islamic teaching in
the Dutch-Indies (pre-Indonesia). Nahdlatul Ulama believed that Islamic way of
life is not single, but plural. Then, it committed to guard Islamic plural and
traditional way of life. Nahdlatul Ulama’s main base was in the village where
many traditional Islamic boarding schools (pesantren)
existed[6].
Each pesantren is headed by a cleric
(ulama) with hundreds students (santri). Loyalty to the cleric
is the main strength of this organization. Basically, in Nahdlatul Ulama each asset is owned by a cleric. Pesantren
for instance, is owned by the cleric,
not organization. Nevertheless, many clerics
affiliate with
Nahdlatul Ulama who
become officials.
Nahdlatul Ulama is a
nonprofit organization. Its source of income mainly comes from its members or
followers, about 40 million of people, who donate some amount of money
(sumbangan)
to the organization. This is interesting of course because the vast majority of
these members are economically categorized as lower middle class. Nonetheless,
Nahdlatul Ulama also gives benefit to its members by providing job like working
as teacher, administrator, and
chef
in pesantrens. Besides, Nahdlatul
Ulama also receives donation from national and international donors. In the
field of environmental conservation and climate change for example, this
organization has signed many
memorandum
of understanding with several parties such as government, foreign governments and aid
institutions.
Theology
of Environment: Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama’s Perspective
Nowadays, it is suprised to know that many religions become ‘green’
due
to global concern on climate and environmental change. Some monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christian,
and Islam have formulated eco-theology to safeguard environment. Similar effort
has also been performed by polytheistic religions including Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Jainism which set some projects to restore ecology (Tucker and Grimm 2007). In Islam
for example, two religious organizations named Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama
have set theology of
environment.
In Muhammadiyah, a need to protect environment had been discussed since the 45th Muktamar
(a five year national congress) in
2005.
A year later, this organization investigated what are God’s saying about environment in the Quran and crystallized the sayings. In 2007, the theology of environment was officially formalized which mainly
refers to the Quran. There are many verses in the Quran mention the importance
of protecting environment such as Thaha 53-54 which depicts the position of the
Almighty God both as the creator and the protector of the universe, and Al-An’am
141-142 which forbids mankind to over-exploit natural resources (Lembaga Lingkungan Hidup Muhammadiyah 2008).
Muhammadiyah’s theology is centered to the relationship
among God, mankind, and environment. God here is put on the top position whereas mankind and environment both have
equal position under Him. In explaining this, Muhammadiyah refers to Al-An’am
165 which says
that mankind is not only God’s creature, but also His representative (khalifah) in the world. As creature, mankind is obliged to
worship their creator, obey His
commandment, and avoid His
prohibition. In further,
as representative, mankind is responsible to manage, to protect, as well as to always keep the world in a
balance. According to the Islamic viewpoint as understood by Muhammadiyah,
mankind must take these two roles as obligation. If he or she fails, he or she
will be judged by God in
the day after (Lembaga Lingkungan Hidup Muhammadiyah 2008).
Specific to the relationship between mankind and environment, Muhammadiyah emphasizes the position of these two
entities is equal. It means that mankind has to take care of environment
properly and vice versa. Unfortunately, such equality has been destroyed by
mankind’s arbitrary behavior which
greedily exploiting the environment.
Besides, mankind has also arbitrarily used their authority as God’s representative.
Instead of acting as
protector,
they become traitor. As a result,
the environment
counters such mankind’s action
with great catastrophes, as
Muhammadiyah believes. Therefore, Muhammadiyah calls wide
attention to rethink this problem. Thus, the theology of environment is aimed
to revitalize mankind-environment
relation according to what has been mandated by God.
With this theology, Muhammadiyah also challenges existing interpretation on
mankind-environment relation saying that mankind is more superior than other
creatures. This organization for instance starts with revisiting the concept of
khalifah[7].
In further, it comes up with new interpretation which emphasizes mankind’s
sociological role as God’s representative who is always responsible to take
care of others’ life. Muhammadiyah believes that any environmental destruction
in this world is rooted on this kind of mis-interpretation. Therefore, changing
interpretation of mankind-environment relation is a very urgent task to do now.
In Nahdlatul Ulama, environmental
issue has already become
daily discussion topic for
its members regarding the majority of them live in remote areas like mountain,
forest, and coast. Most
of them utilized environment surrounding as a source of livelihood such as forest, garden, fish pond, farm,
and coast. Therefore,
theology of environment has been
implicitly embedded with Nahdlatul Ulama since its birth.
Hasyim Asy’ari, for example, the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama, often delivered environmental issue on his teaching[8].
However, environmental issue had never formally and collectively discussed
until 30 clerics
from all over the country conducted Muktamar in 2004. The meeting
then came up with several points such as Nahdlatul Ulama has to seriously
protect environment, to conserve potential natural resources, to push
sustainable development, and to position ulama
as a role model of environmental conservation[9].
There are two sources
used to construct the theology: the
Quran
and the Hadith. According to Yafie (2006), there are 95
verses of the Quran
and 12 Hadiths which contain environmental issues. The most referred verses are Al-Baqarah
11-12 about prohibition of devastating environment, verse 27 about the disadvantage of mankind who
does such devastation, verse 60 about
how very rich earth contains a lot of natural resources, verses 220 and 250
about the role of God in protecting earth from damage. Besides Al Baqarah, there are
Al-Maidah 64 explains God’s angry to people who do destructive action on earth while, Al-A’raf
56 mentions, He
is always taking care of it.
Meanwhile, the most referred Hadiths are from Imam
Muslim[10]. According to him, once upon a time Muhammad prophet
mentioned
that conservation
land,
which has been determined by him (today is government), is prohibited to use. Besides, the Prophet also commanded his followers to avoid
utilizing natural resources if they do not know whether it is rightful (halal)
or forbidden (haram).
In another occasion, the Prophet urged his followers to work mainly in plantation, garden, and farm
areas. These fields
are regarded as the noblest activities on earth. In relation to deforestation,
the Prophet made prohibition to cut trees except they bring damage to the life of mankind (INFORM 2004). In Nahdlatul
Ulama’s theology, Qur’an and Hadiths both
provide guideline for conserving environment and remind punishment for those who
damage environment. Nonetheless, Nahdlatul Ulama does not want to make any punishment. Rather, it
hands
the decision over the government.
This Nahdlatul Ulama’s theology of environment has explicitly shown that
there is an effort from within organization to recontextualize the message of
God, to always protect and conserve environment, to current situation. What is
unique from this theology is that it combines the Quran which contains general
principles of living on earth with the Hadith which provides many examples of
how mankind treats surrounding environment. Thus, the Hadith here is positioned
as Quran’s supplementary information in order to make God’s message clearer. Unlike
Muhammadiyah which aims to reinterpret Quranic verse, here Nahdatul Ulama just intends
to bring God to light current situation where environmental degradation becomes
very serious.
The
Praxis of Combating Climate Change: Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama’s Socio-cultural
Role
As mentioned above, the
globalization of climate change issue does not only stimulate government to
take action, but also civil society
organizations. In Indonesia case, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul
Ulama show how they do not want to be left behind in combating the issue. They both take action by mobilizing all of
their resources to focus on adaptation fields including to sound climate change
impact, to combat deforestation and to sound afforestation, as well as to create
alternative livelihood, energy and resource management. The terminology of resource
mobilization itself is adopted from McCarthy and Zald (1977), and Tsing (1999).
Despite their difference in using terminology[11],
they have similarity in terms of actors and processes of mobilization. McCarthy
and Zald for example mentioned that mobilization emphasizes the role of certain
authorities which control movement and their adherents. In term of process, they
pointed out that mobilization requires the presence of organization. Similarly,
Tsing mentioned that mobilization works through organization. This organization
sets knowledges, values, or way of life in order to face certain challenges.
Uniquely, Tsing did not mention explicitly who are the authorities which means
that all people have rights to make any decision and to conduct mobilization. She
took conservation case as an example which has learning practice on environment
and followed by certain action to protect the environment.
To Sound Environmental Degradation and Climate Change
The first action conducted by Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama is to sound
climate change to the whole country[12].
The goal is to make many people being aware of climate change so that people
are able to set action to combat these problems. The fact that Indonesia is the
largest archipelagic country in the world, which has approximately 17,500
islands, makes it difficult to reach all territories. Therefore, both
Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama mobilize their resources such as mosques and Islamic
teaching forums (pengajian). Both
organizations believe that mosque has been a very powerful channel for socio-cultural
communication among Muslim everywhere as it is often used to spread and to
transform any idea into a change.
For a long time, mosque has been known as a venue for propagating Islamic
way of life or certain religious messages (Munson 2001). It is regularly used
to spread such messages through teaching (khutbah)
every week called Friday praying. In this case, the clerics use the mosque to
teach their followers (jamaah) about
the importance of protecting environment. They usually begin with mentioning
Quran verses followed by some explanation and relevant examples taken from the followers’
daily life. At the end, the clerics close their teaching with conclusion or
recommendation about what action should be taken to protect the environment.
Despite its classical form of teaching which does not provide the followers
time to make question, Friday praying has successfully transmitted the very
basic information of climate change. For those followers who would like to find
more information about the topic may join another teaching named pengajian.
In pengajian, people have
opportunity to ask question about the topic in detail to the cleric. However,
the cleric may able to answer question related to theological matters, but not
technical matters of climate change, except the pengajian attended by expert[13].
Pengajian is often called as follow-up
session which is conducted to make the followers more understand about climate
change. Pengajian is not only
attended by men, as Friday praying, but also women consist of younger and elder.
They can also get involve and rise question in this forum. The further effect
of this forum is that people who have joined pengajian will transfer their knowledge to other people in their
neighborhood or at home so it can be a massive socio-cultural movement later on.
So far, both Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama mosques and pengajians have actively sounded the
fact of environmental degradation and climate change. Besides sounding the
theology, the mosques and pengajians
also recommending action for combating climate change ranging from changing
consumption behavior, supporting government commitment to reduce greenhouse
gases to supporting global effort to combat climate change. Nevertheless, there
are some barriers stand in the way these organizations sound climate change
such as the limitation of the clerics’ basic knowledge on climate change and
the unavailability of expert of both organizations in rural areas which cause
the campaign go slow in such areas[14].
Besides mosques and pengajians,
both institutions mobilize schools and pesantrens.
Muhammadiyah as well as Nahdlatul Ulama realize that educational institutions have
pivotal role for creating better the future as they educate and build the
character of students. Based on assumption that contemporary education system
are strongly associated with modern secular values, in which certain degree is
believed to ignore moral and spiritual aspect of life which in turn cause many
problems, both institutions try to put religious ethics into their education
system as they believe that religious ethics can mitigate the problems.
Therefore, both Muhammadiyah schools and Nahdlatul Ulama pesantrens’ curriculum adopt Islamic values and ethics on environment
into their education system. Following the adoption of climate change issue
into Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama into the theology of environment lately, schools
and pesantrens are also make adoption
on such issue.
It is expected that emphasizing Islamic ethics on environment at schools
and pesantrens can accelerate climate
change socialization throughout the country. Unlike mosques and pengajians, sounding environmental
degradation and climate change through schools and pesantrens are more structured in terms of who give information,
whom was given information, what kind of information is given, when is the time
to give information, and how long the information is given. The strenghts of
this structured socialization is that the teachers who give information are
more likely to master both theology and environmental issue. Besides, socialization
time period are longer than in mosque and pengajians
so that the effect would be tremendous.
To Combat Deforestation and To Set Afforestation Project
Indonesia is one of the most rapid country which lost its forest. Since
1950, this country has lost approximately 40 percent of its existing forest.
According to Global Forest Watch (2011), Indonesia’s forest cover fell from 162
million to 98 million hectare. Since 1990s, Indonesia’s deforestation has been
rated of two million hectare per year. This country’s deforestation is believed
to fasten greenhouse gases concentration in atmosphere which in turn changes
climate. As a response, besides the government, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul
Ulama do certain actions to combat deforestation and to set afforestation.
These actions mobilize GNKL, LLH, schools, universities, and pesantrens as well. Both organizations
believe that these two adaptation actions can effectively combat climate
change.
After sounding climate change and environmental degradation throughout the
country, combating deforestation is the next action taken by mainly Nahdlatul
Ulama[15].
One of the main concern of this organization is illegal logging. Although this
activity may bring benefit to their followers in form of short run cash,
Nahdlatul Ulama believes that such activity will cause more damages (mudharat) than benefits (maslahat) in the long run. Therefore, it
mobilizes GNKL and pesantrens to protect
forest from exploitation. Basically, both GNKL and pesantrens urge their followers or santri to not cut trees and keep an eye on those who would like to
do illegal logging. They do not make any punishment to the illegal logger, but
hand them over the authorized body such as police officers.
In order to make the action of combating deforestation effective, Nahdlatul
Ulama appoints pesantrens as main
base. Pesantrens then collaborate
with villagers to guard and to protect forest. Pesantrens also urge the villagers to think and to compare whether
illegal logging brings benefit to them and generation after them or not. This
kind of collaboration seems not difficult to establish since people in forest
areas have mutual relationship with pesantrens.
Pesantrens, on the one hand, need assistance from the villagers to combat
illegal logging while on the other, the villagers need spiritual enlightenment
from pesantrens.
Nahdlatul Ulama also actively combats deforestation caused by mining
activities. This organization argues that any mining activity will damage
environment surrounding, not only land, forest, water, and air, but also human.
Through GNKL, Nahdlatul Ulama challenges the local government to abrogate
mining permit which has been given mining to some individuals and companies[16].
This kind of action might be peculiar because everywhere people tend to support
the opening site of mining. However, Nahdlatul Ulama has different viewpoint on
this issue. Despite its short run profit, but the long run mining activity is
believed to devastate the environment. If this really happens, none can bring
the previous environment back.
Besides combating deforestation, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama conduct
afforestation. Muhammadiyah for instance mobilizes its schools and
universities. The school and university students are invited to plant trees in
both their schools and surrounding areas. The aim of this program is to build
students’ awareness on protecting environment. This program was initiated by
the cental board of Muhammadiyah which symbolically planted trees in its office
and then followed by the provincial and regional boards afterwards (Kementerian
Lingkungan Hidup 2011). Muhammadiyah’s afforestation concern is mainly in urban
areas regarding the majority of its followers live in these areas.
Many urban areas in Indonesia are suffering from a lack of trees. Economic
growth and rapid industrialization are admitted as one of the causal factors.
Therefore, Muhammadiyah collaborates with central, provincial, and regional
government as well as people in those areas. This organization even provides
tree seeds for the people so that they can plant the seeds near their home. By
doing so, Muhammadiyah aims to show that its organization does not only invite
all people to learn about environment and climate change through pengajians but also to participate directly
in planting trees.
While Muhammadiyah conducts afforestation in urban areas, Nahdlatul Ulama
does similar thing in the rurals. This organization admits that combating
climate change must not end up in mosques and pengajians, but realized in real actions[17].
With thousands of pesantrens spread
in many rural areas, Nahdlatul Ulama plants hundred thousands of trees in those
areas. This organization focuses its afforestation project in barren lands due
to prior exploitation. In this project, it plants the species of trees that can
absorb carbon dioxide in the air. Before doing plantation, the clerics usually start
with praying to God and make a wish so that its action will be blessed by Him.
Nahdlatul Ulama also collaborate with government. Even, the presiden of
Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono supported this organization to conduct
afforestation. This organization supports government which has program to plant
one billion trees each year. Besides working with government, Nahdlatul Ulama
also work with foreign countries such as The United States of America[18]
and Australia[19]. This
kind of collaboration indicates that Nahdlatul Ulama as well as Muhammadiyah
are opened religious organizations. They both welcome other parties to get
involve in combating climate change in the country. In late 2007 for example,
both organizations worked with other religious organizations to initiate Religious
Conference on climate Change in Jakarta.
To Set Alternative Livelihood, Energy and Resource
Management
One of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia is illegal logging. Most
of those who conduct illegal logging live in rural areas. Actually, they have
already involved in this activity since years ago because it has become a main
source of livelihood and given much benefit to the loggers. Therefore, in order
to stop this illegal logging, there should be alternative livelihood for these
people. Nahdlatul Ulama through pesantrens
have tried to create such alternative by opening critical lands and planting
them with new types of plantation such as fruits and vegetables or using them
as stock farming. It is expected that these new types will subtitute logging
activity as rural people’s main source of livelihood.
By planting fruits, vegetables, and establishing stock farming, pesantrens aim to empower local people
not to depend on forest resources any longer. These people are then equipped
with technical and pratical tools to do such activities successfully. People
look these activities very promising as fruits, vegetables, as well as stock
farming have considerably high economic value. On the one hand, such activities
can help people to earn money and on the other hand, this people support Nahdlatul
Ulama’s effort to protect environment. This kind of help and counter-help relation
is similar to what Polanyi (2002) defined as reciprocity. For those pesantrens which have already had plantation
and stock farming programs, they continue to widely extend their territory of
plantation or stock farming. It is not difficult for pesantrens to do this as
each has had quite wide open land.
Pesantrens’ involvement in boosting rural economy has started long
time ago. Known to be financially independent institution in providing
education, pesantrens involve in
various local scale businesses to finance their actitivities[20]
and provide job for people surrounding the pesantrens.
It is through ulama’s direction, the pesantren leader, many
sources of livelihood such as agribusiness, agriculture, and fisheries have
been created. Many people believe that the ulama’s
leadership does not only bring physical welfare for many people in the rural
areas such as sufficient income, but also spiritual welfare such as God’s
blessing (berkah) [21].
Meanwhile, Muhammadiyah focuses on striving for energy and resource
management. Muhammadiyah schools and universities for example are mandated to effectively
use energy in their daily activities. They are also mandated to reduce the use
of papers, water, and electricity. At the same time they are urged to invite
wider public participation. It is not difficult for Muhammadiyah to do this regarding
it is a centralized organization in which hundreds of local branch of it must obey
any instruction comes from the central board. However, it seems that the
instruction not work very well in reality because not all Muhammadiyah schools
and universities directly implement such mandate.
Nonetheless, Muhammadiyah shows good achievement in waste management. Both
of its schools and universities collaborate with local people for changing
garbage to become useful resources. This activity had already started before
Muhammadiyah declared its theology of environment. At this time, this
organization has just maximized its waste management project to combat climate change through focusing the
activity in urban areas, the place which always full of waste. To do so,
Muhammadiyah provides skillful technicians to work in these areas. Therefore,
this organization recruits and trains young people in its vocational school. Interestingly,
any benefit gained from this program is dedicated to the people[22].
As one of the biggest civil society organization with thousands schools and
forty universities which spreads in all over the country, Muhammadiyah is
challenged to make significant contribution on providing solution for
subtituting fossil energy which is believed to be end up in the near future. So
far, although Indonesia has abundant biodiversity, it has not utilized such
advantage very well for finding alternative energy. Therefore, Muhammadiyah
takes this opportunity seriously by mobilizing its schools and universities to
create such energy and working with other institutions which already have
supporting technologies. At this time, Muhammadiyah has mobilized two universities,
Muhammadiyah University of Malang and Yogyakarta, in cooperation with Dutch institutions
to develop alternative bioenergy which focuses on developing biofuel, biomass,
and biogass. Besides, one of the universities above is now planning to open new
department named Environmental Theology. This department will be responsible
for teaching and managing environment based on Islamic religious ethics. It is
expected that these two universities will stimulate Muhammadiyah’s
universitites in other regions to do the same way.
Conclusion
As a global issue
climate change has grabbed worldwide
attention. Government as well
as
civil society organizations have taken part to tackle the issue including religious CSOs. As Indonesia case shows, Muhammadiyah
and Nahdlatul Ulama, the two oldest and largest religious CSOs of the country, have started their action by setting theology of environment followed by praxis to
tackle climate change. To do so, they
mobilize their socio-cultural resources such as schools, universities, mosques,
pesantrens, and pengajians.
The theology of environment of both organizations mainly based on Quran and
Hadith which mention the importance of protecting environment. With the
presence of this theology, two main features have been raised: reinterpretation
and recontextualization. Muhammadiyah has progressively challenged existing
interpretation of khalifah which puts
mankind as more superior than other creatures. This organization then makes new
interpretation which places mankind as equal as others. Meanwhile, Nahdlatul
Ulama has tried to recontextualize the message of God to always maintain and
protect environment. This organization believes that current environmental
problems are rooted on mankind’s behavior on earth which disregards God’s
message properly.
In further, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama bring this theology into
praxis. Both organizations focuse on sounding climate change and its impact to
a wider public, combatting deforestation and setting afforestation, and
creating alternative livelihood, energy as well as resource management. To do
so, they mobilize socio-cultural resources above. Besides, both organizations
collaborate with local people for example in planting fruits, vegetables, making
stock farming, and re-cycling waste. This reciprocal relationship does not only
help both organizations to combat climate change, but also help the local
people to find alternative and sustainable livelihood.
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* Earlier
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[1] The Quran
and the Hadith are the first and the second source of Islamic jurisprudence
respectively.
[2] The
definiton of adaptation and mitigation strategy is based on Charles Harper (2001). Adaptation strategy suggests
people to change their thought, perception, and behavior to adjust the rapid
environmental change surrounding. People are believed capable enough to change
their way of life in order to face future uncertainty. Mitigation consists of
strategy to alleviate the impacts of climate change by stopping environmental
degradation and minimizing global emission. Both can be achieved through
retarding rapid deforestation and conducting afforestation, as well as reducing
energy consumption of companies and households.
[3] As indicated
by Posas (2007), religious CSOs especially have sponsored and arranged side
events during international forums.
[4]
Gottlieb (2003) for example mentioned that faith based communities has played
significant role as other institutions to conserve environment. Besides, Hale (2010) argued that faith based
organizations are promising to provide solution to the current environmental
situation because they are deeply rooted and able to influence and engage many
people.
[5] The arrival
of the Dutch colonial was associated with invading Islam and its followers.
[6] There are
about 17,000 pesantrens affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama.
[7]
Existing interpretation tends to put mankind as a political role which has
power to rule, manage, and even exploit others. This role ends up with many
problems including environmental degradation.
[8]
One of Nahdlatul Ulama official mentioned that Hasyim Asyari in his
teaching had regularly suggested his followers to always take of environment by
not throwing waste anywhere, efficiently use natural resources, and planting
more trees.
[9]
The
meeting also published a book titled Fiqih
Lingkungan (The Theology of Environment) (2004). This book and another from
respectable Nahdlatul Ulama cleric, Alie Yafie titled Merintis Fiqh Lingkungan Hidup (Initiating the Theology of
Environment) (2006) are acknowledged as the most representative of Nahdlatul Ulama’s theology of environment.
[10] Imam Muslim
is one of four most respectful ulama in Islam. His most valuable work was to
collect and to verify hadith.
[11]
McCarthy and Zald used term ‘resource mobilization’ whereas Tsing used
‘cultural mobilization’.
[12]
The reason to do this because not many people in Indonesia are aware of
climate change. They do not know what is it, why and how it happens, and what
is the impact to their life.
[13] In
Muhammadiyah the expert who able to talk climate change work in a body named Lembaga Lingkungan Hidup (Institute for
Environment/LLH) whereas in Nahdlatul Ulama he or she work in Gerakan Nasional Kehutanan dan Lingkungan
Hidup (National Movement for Forest and Environment/GNKL) and Lembaga Penanggulangan Bencana dan
Lingkungan Hidup (Institute for Disaster and Climate Change
Mitigation/LPBI).
[14] One
informant (follower) said that the campaign of climate change is still elitist or
still discussed in the top level of organizations and has not been socialized
yet. This view means three things. First, his pesantren has never engaged in
climate change socialization. Second, it has no cleric who can speak about
environmental issue or, third, his pesantren has not seen climate change as a
real problem to be tackled.
[15]
Nahdlatul Ulama is very active in combating deforestation (illegal logging)
due to many of its followers live in rural areas such as forests and mountains.
While many flood disasters occur for example, most of its followers suffered
from this flood disaster directly.
[16]
GNKL for example protested the government which abrogates mining permit in
Jember, West Java Province (NU-Online 2009).
[17] I would like
to argue that the essence of Islamic ethics is theology and praxis because in
Islam, mankind is not only mandated to worship God, but also to do something real
for Him.
[18]
The US had supported Nahdlatul Ulama in afforestation project in Central
Java (Suara Merdeka 2008).
[19] Australia
had collaborated with Nahdlatul Ulama in planting trees in Jember’s barren land
(Tempo Interaktif 2008).
[20]
Besides receiving donations from its followers, pesantrens build relatively
small scale business activities in their areas.
[21]
Many people believe, especially in rural areas, that ulama is very closed to God due to his spiritual knowledge so that God
bless him very much. Therefore, following the ulama means getting close the blessing of God.
[22] The program
is also called Shodaqoh Sampah (the
charity of waste). After being recycled and having economic value, the revenue
goes to the people who have made contribution. Most of these people are
economically poor so Muhammadiyah gives this charity to them regularly.
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