Disaster Risk Reduction Through Local Knowledge and Practices—A Case Study of the Indigenous Boti Tribe, Timor Island, Indonesia

Abstract

At this time, there are still some discourses that underestimate the practice of local knowledge in dealing with disasters because they are considered old, primitive, and out of date. This study attempts to examine these assumptions by analyzing the potential contribution of local wisdom or traditional knowledge practices in disaster risk reduction. Boti village located on Timor Island, East Indonesia, was used as a case study with the consideration that this village is one of the areas prone to disasters, especially earthquake, landslides, and drought, and this area is inhabited by the indigenous Boti tribe—the oldest tribe on Timor Island which is known to still adhere to its traditional knowledge, customs, and culture. A combination of literature studies and field observations was used to collect data related to local wisdom practices identified as being able to reduce disaster risk. The results found that there are several practices of the Boti tribal indigenous community that can reduce disaster risk, ranging from a belief system that upholds environmental sustainability, astronomical abilities for early warning systems, terrace system to reduce the risk of landslides, food preservation system to prevent starvation, and traditional house structures that protect against landslides or earthquakes and settlement patterns which able to minimize transmission of disease and livelihood diversification to anticipate crop failures.