"O bald Serut Hill, be overgrown with a forest of wood!", said Si Pahit Lidah, in an instant the hill turned into a forest of wood.
Folk Tale of the Bitter Tongue
Folklore about the supernatural powers of Serunting Sakti with the title Si Pahit Lidah is known in the southern part of Sumatra, including the provinces of South Sumatra, Jambi, Lampung and Bengkulu. According to the saga, to make his task easier, Si Pahit Lidah married the daughter of King Serawai in Bengkulu. For this reason, even though the origins of the Serawai tribe cannot yet be formulated scientifically, based on historical narratives or stories from old people, the ancestral origins of this tribe are Serunting Sakti or often known as Si Pahit Lidah.
Most of the Serawai tribe people live in the coastal areas of Bengkulu, namely South Bengkulu district and Seluma district. The west coast area of Bengkulu, along the Seluma coastline to Pasar Talo beach is a green belt zone, as well as a disaster-prone area. The local wisdom of the Serawai tribe related to this green belt zone is to plant aling-aling (pengaling) in customary forests.
Since ancient times, the pengaling for the Serawai Tribe has not only been a boundary between plantations and settlements with the coast. But it also functions as a coastal protector from the threat of abrasion from sea waves, wind, or tsunami disasters. This area is also home to a variety of fauna such as monkeys, birds and others, besides that the coastal forest is also an important instrument to reduce the risk of tsunamis and abrasion. The pengaling area also supports the ecosystem of the Serawai Pasar Seluma traditional area as a life support that has been called the "Buluan" area for generations for livelihoods Cloudy (fishing), Berutan (taking stem type food for vegetables), and Beremis (looking for shell-like animals on the beach).
One of the Pengaling stretches can be found in Pasar Seluma which is the territory of the Serawai Tribe. Local knowledge that Pengaling is a coastal protector so that it is not opened by the community and that no community has ever claimed the Pengaling area as their property because this area is a shared property is still closely remembered by the Serawai elders in Pasar Seluma. However, the Pengaling stretch of Pasar Seluma is increasingly eroded day by day, many plants that function as Pengaling die or are destroyed. Not only because of natural factors from wave abrasion and sea winds, the threat of destruction from the plantation industry and iron sand mining which is triggered by the assumption that Pengaling is an unclaimed area is also suspected to be the cause.
If only the Bitter Tongue of the Serawai ancestors was still there, maybe it would only take a moment for the Pengaling area to become lush again. Of course, in facing this challenge, the Serawai Pasar Seluma indigenous community did not sit idly by waiting for a miracle. They worked together to carry out reforestation in December 2022 with direct funding support from the Nusantara Fund. From the location survey and mapping of the Pengaling location carried out by the young men and women of Pasar Seluma together with the elders of Pasar Seluma before the reforestation activity, the area of the identified aling-aling of the Seluma market reached a total of around 22 hectares, and had an impact on the Serawai Tribe community of 250 thousand people and residents in South Bengkulu Regency, 84.785 men and 81.464 women, and Seluma Regency, 110.118 men and 103.637 women.
Planting of Pinang batara and Coconut trees was carried out in the destroyed pengaling area which no longer had any trees and was included in the customary forest area. Another purpose of planting these trees besides restoration is as a marker of the customary area that they protect. The planting is expected to restore the balance of the ecosystem and maximize the function of the pengaling in reducing sea abrasion, wind exposure, and reducing high waves of sea water entering the customary forest area. Then also as a marker so that the iron sand in the customary area is not taken.
This reforestation activity is a cross-generational effort by the Serawai Pasar Seluma Indigenous community to care for and protect customary forest areas as a support for coastal life. Women, men, young people, old people, elders, together as one. At the same time, transferring knowledge and wisdom regarding lancers from elders to young people, so that the young do not forget and in the future the next generation of protectors of the archipelago will grow up. There is still a long way to go to ensure the sustainability of the pengaling by pushing for a policy of state recognition of the Pengaling Serawai Pasar Seluma as the Communal Forest of the Serawai Pasar Seluma Indigenous Community.