Network Governance and Gender Inclusion in Coastal Resilience to Climate Change: Lessons from the Women’s Forest in Papua

Network Governance, Gender Inclusion, and Coastal Resilience

The concept of network governance emphasizes collaboration among various actors, both formal and informal, in managing public resources (Rhodes, 1997; Sørensen & Torfing, 2006). In the environmental context, governance is carried out not only by the government but also by local communities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. In studies on natural resource governance, network governance is understood as a form of governance involving multiple actors across levels and sectors, including government, local communities, civil society organizations, the private sector, and international networks. This approach arises from the recognition that environmental issues are complex and cannot be resolved by a single authority alone.

Ostrom (2010) proposed the concept of polycentric governance, a system with multiple interconnected decision-making centers that maintain autonomy in establishing rules and norms within their respective domains. This approach emphasizes that multi-actor collaboration is a key element in building adaptive and equitable environmental governance. Consequently, network governance not only highlights horizontal and vertical coordination among actors but also creates space for inclusive participation, including indigenous communities and women, who often play strategic roles in coastal resource management.

Women’s participation in resource governance is particularly important in the context of climate change adaptation. Studies on climate adaptation emphasize the role of women with local knowledge in managing natural resources. As noted by Leisher et al. (2016), patterns of resource use by women often differ from those of men, yet their involvement in shaping local resource management remains very limited. The hypothesis emerging from these findings suggests that increasing women’s participation in decision making has the potential to produce more effective resource management and conservation outcomes.

In line with the IUCN (2021) perspective, women, as users and managers of resources, play a crucial role in ensuring the availability of food, water, and energy for households and communities. They also contribute through innovation and collaborative practices, including the application of local knowledge in both formal and informal resource management mechanisms. However, in practice, despite their significant capacities, needs, and contributions, women are still often marginalized in decision-making processes related to the use, management, and distribution of resources. Therefore, gender inclusion in resource governance should be understood as an effort to ensure equitable access, participation, representation, and benefit-sharing between women and men.

Moreover, coastal resilience is also a critical aspect of environmental governance, particularly for communities that depend on coastal ecosystems. Coastal resilience is understood as the socioecological capacity of a community to anticipate, adapt to, and recover from climate change impacts. Mangroves play a central role in coastal ecological resilience. As noted by Van Hespen et al. (2023), nature-based coastal protection approaches are increasingly recognized as sustainable and efficient alternatives for reducing flood risk, leveraging coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests as natural buffers that enhance coastal resilience.

In this context, mangroves are employed as a nature-based solution that is effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient for reducing coastal flood risks. In addition to buffering waves and floods, these ecosystems also exhibit a higher recovery capacity compared to artificial coastal defense structures (Gijsman et al., 2021).

A tangible implementation of the principles of network governance, gender inclusion, and coastal resilience is the Women’s Forest in Youtefa Bay. The Women’s Forest is an exclusive space for indigenous women in Kampung Enggros, along the coast of Youtefa Bay, Jayapura City, Papua Province, Indonesia. This mangrove-covered area is locally known as Tonotwiyat, where the Tonotwiyat tradition prohibits men from entering the forest while women carry out their activities, with customary sanctions imposed on violators. The area serves both ecological functions (providing food, protecting the coast) and social functions (a space for women’s solidarity). According to Tijjani et al. (2023), the Women’s Forest is not only a source of livelihood but also a social space for Enggros women to share stories, as they have a limited voice in customary forums.

Women in Kampung Enggros, Abepura District, Jayapura, Papua, have long played a crucial role in preserving the mangrove ecosystem. The area serves not only as a primary livelihood source through the harvesting of clams, shrimp, and fish but also as a social space for gathering and sharing experiences (Indari, 2020). Thus, the Women’s Forest exemplifies how network governance, gender inclusion, and coastal resilience are interlinked in sustainable local practices.

Network Governance in the Management of Youtefa Bay Mangroves

Mangrove forests have significant ecological, economic, social, and cultural value, but their management often causes conflicts between residents and between agencies due to the complexity of cross-sectoral authority. The polycentric governance model is offered as one approach to overcoming this complexity, in which management is carried out through interaction and collaboration between many actors with different authorities (Peten et al., 2024).

In the context of Youtefa Bay, the practice of Women’s Forest (Tonotwiyat) owned by the Enggros indigenous community shows how the community, especially indigenous women, plays an important role in mangrove conservation while supporting socioecological resilience. This tradition customarily prohibits men from entering the area when women are active, so that the forest is culturally protected. However, these customary practices have not been fully integrated into formal conservation programs due to weak coordination between formal actors. This underscores the importance of network governance that facilitates collaboration across government actors, indigenous communities, NGOs, academics, and the private sector as the key to mangrove sustainability in Youtefa Bay.

The management of Youtefa Bay does involve various actors, but coordination between actors is often weak. Rumahorbo (2022) noted that mangrove management in this area still faces weak coordination between stakeholders, while Sari et al. (2023) emphasized the lack of community involvement in ecosystem management. This condition reflects a gap in network governance, in line with the view of Klijn et al. (2025) that public resource governance can only be effective if interactions between actors are facilitated, fragmentation is overcome, and conditions for sustainable collaboration are created.

Interactions between actors in mangrove management also tend to be sectoral in nature. Nunan (2018) emphasized that vertical interactions occur between actors at different levels, while horizontal interactions in Indonesia are only visible at the national level through coordination between ministries. At the provincial and district levels, formal coordination between sectors is still weak, even though horizontal interactions at the local level are very important for strengthening cooperation (Firdasari, 2022). In addition, Muqorrobin et al. (2013) mentioned that various parties with interests in mangrove ecosystems have different objectives, so that supervision and control of mangrove land use are often less than optimal. These differences in interests weaken coordination between stakeholders.

At the regulatory level, Walhi (2024) highlighted that although the government has been discussing a Draft Government Regulation (RPP) on the Protection and Management of Mangrove Ecosystems since 2022, this draft does not fully accommodate community involvement in ecosystem governance. In other words, recognition of local governance, including indigenous community initiatives, is still lacking. This is in line with Banjade et al. (2017), who state that the legal and institutional framework for mangrove governance in Indonesia is still characterized by fragmented authority and overlapping jurisdictions, as well as the absence of an effective coordination framework (Siregar, 2013).

In the context of local initiatives, the role of Enggros indigenous women can be categorized as participatory because they make a real contribution through their consistent efforts to preserve the Women’s Forest (Clarita et al., 2023). Tebay’s (2023) research emphasizes that the rehabilitation of mangrove forest functions is not solely the responsibility of the government but must be carried out collaboratively with local communities, NGOs, and the private sector. In line with this, integrated mangrove tourism management in the Youtefa Bay area also involves indigenous community institutions (Lembaga Masyarakat Adat), government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, and universities, with local communities playing an important role in the development of the area (Sari et al., 2023). In fact, Lewaherilla’s (2007) report shows that coastal area management is carried out in a participatory manner by involving indigenous peoples, religious leaders, the government, NGOs, and academics.

However, to date, there has been no government regulation that specifically recognizes and protects the role of indigenous women as guardians of mangrove forests. In fact, the existence of regional regulations that emphasize the protection of Women’s Forests is very important to prevent deforestation in the future (Tarigan and Lisnawati, 2024).

Gender Inclusion Through Women’s Forests

The mangrove forests in Enggros, Youtefa Bay, reflect indigenous gender inclusion practices, where women are not only resource users but also the main managers of the mangrove ecosystem. This tradition provides space for women to participate in and control environmental management while demonstrating how local knowledge supports ecological and social resilience.

The Tonotwiyat tradition designates mangrove forests as Women’s Forests or special customary spaces for women to gather shellfish, gather, and share stories. Indigenous communities in Youtefa Bay, including Enggros women, have applied traditional ecological knowledge as a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation and water resource management, supporting ecological and social resilience (Wambrauw et al., 2024). This confirms that women have direct participation and control over these ecosystems.

Nurinaya and Siswatiningrum (2025) revealed that indigenous women play an important role in indigenous forest conservation, ecosystem management, and preserving cosmological values, thereby affirming their position as primary managers. Furthermore, women’s local knowledge has been proven to strengthen the ecological and social resilience of communities. In line with this, Flassy et al. (2024) explained that knowledge about mangrove forests is embodied in customary rules that designate these forests specifically for women. These rules include provisions that must be obeyed before entering mangrove areas, including a ban on men entering. Mangrove forests provide tangible benefits to the surrounding community as a source of livelihood and as customary forests reserved exclusively for the women of Kampung Enggros.

Threats to Coastal Resilience

The area of primary mangrove forest in Youtefa Bay has declined dramatically from 364.95 ha in 1967 to 112.81 ha in 2004, with rates of degradation of 6.81 ha/year and 5.47 ha/year, respectively, although in 2008 it decreased to 1.33 ha/year (Handono et al., 2018). Although the ecosystem is still considered healthy, the area of mangroves has shrunk significantly (Hamuna et al., 2018).

This damage has the potential to cause coastal erosion, seawater intrusion, flooding, damage to settlements due to storms, and the loss of natural fishery resources (Kalor and Hamuna, 2018). In fact, the existence of three coastal ecosystems in the Youtefa Bay area is very important because they provide life resources, environmental services, and comfort that interact as a whole (Lewaherilla, 2007). However, the use of mangrove forests tends to be destructive, including through logging for firewood and building materials and conversion to settlements and agriculture (Paulangan, 2014). Furthermore, degradation continues due to land conversion for the construction of ring roads, terminals, markets, shop houses, settlements, hotels, and entertainment facilities (Randongkir et al., 2019).

This condition is exacerbated by pollution. According to Alfons (2018), the pollution that has begun to occur in the waters of Youtefa Bay is also influenced by the entry of pieces of wood, plastic, and various other types of waste carried through waterways. As a result, women who usually search for local food now more often find garbage than shellfish as their main food source, which ultimately threatens the economic security of coastal households.

Women’s Adaptation Initiative

The destruction of mangrove ecosystems and the increase in waste carried by currents into Youtefa Bay have caused concern among indigenous women. In response, they have encouraged the community to clean up the area and utilize the waste by processing it into marketable handicrafts. In 2021, through the Ibayauw Forest Farmers Group, Petronela (Mama Nela) led a movement of indigenous women to clean up waste and plant around 20,000 mangrove seedlings in the Women’s Forest area (Armandhanu, 2024). Furthermore, Armandhanu (2024) noted that women hope that one day the Women’s Forest, which has been restored to its green and beautiful state, can develop into a tourist destination specifically for women from various regions in Indonesia, as well as be passed on to the younger generation of Papua so that they continue to preserve nature. Therefore, indigenous women always involve young people in every environmental activity.

The special role of women in mangrove forests makes this area culturally protected in the traditions of the Enggros tribe. Symbolically, the forest is dedicated to women who act as keepers to ensure that mangrove forests are not destroyed or converted for other purposes (Flassy et al., 2024). The Tonotwiyat or Women’s Forest tradition is a customary conservation system that has been passed down from generation to generation, as well as a mechanism for dividing the space for foraging activities between men and women (Elisabeth, 2019). This tradition is not only a cultural heritage but also closely related to efforts to preserve mangrove forests, maintain ecosystem balance, and ensure the sustainability of coastal resources (Salsabila & Soertikanti, 2024).

Thus, the existence of the Tonotwiyat tradition shows how important the role of local communities, especially indigenous women, is in preserving the mangroves in Youtefa Bay. This proves that women are important actors in climate change adaptation. Their role is not only evident in maintaining environmental sustainability through local practices and traditional wisdom but also in mobilizing the community to participate actively. The involvement of women brings a more holistic and sustainable approach given their closeness to natural resources and their responsibility for the welfare of their families and communities.

Concluding Comments

Mangrove management in Youtefa Bay represents complex interactions between actors, including the government, NGOs, academics, indigenous communities, and the private sector. However, coordination between actors is often weak, and customary practices such as Women’s Forests are still rarely integrated into formal policy frameworks. This condition confirms the existence of a gap in network governance, where formal governance structures have not been fully able to accommodate customary practices that have been proven to support ecosystem sustainability.

The Tonotwiyat tradition led by Enggros indigenous women demonstrates the inclusive and participatory dimensions of conservation, while also proving that local wisdom has a strategic contribution to coastal resilience. Thus, this synthesis confirms that successful mangrove governance in Youtefa Bay requires integration between formal network governance and customary mechanisms. Institutionally recognized multi-stakeholder collaboration, supported by recognition of the role of indigenous women, is a key requirement for achieving adaptive, equitable, and sustainable coastal governance.

Authors’ Contributions

I.I.: Conceptualization of the main ideas, literature review, development of the argument framework, drafting of the initial article, structuring the analytical flow, and coordination of the writing process. M.Y.: Refinement of analysis and arguments, validation of substantive content, writing—review and editing, academic supervision, and strengthening theoretical consistency. G.S.: Collection and curation of literature sources, strengthening the analytical context, and contribution to article review and editing. J.S.N.: Development of the conceptual perspective, analysis of the local Papuan context, formulation of the discussion and policy implications, and final editing.