Sustainable Change

Disaster Response & Risk Reduction

When a natural disaster strikes, the first impulse is usually to
get people to safety, but what about the animals?

The 2017 Mt Agung eruptions served as a shocking example of what happens to animals when a community is unprepared to face a natural disaster. Entire villages fled for the lowlands, and thousands upon thousands of pets, stray animals, and livestock were left behind.

Although the welfare of animals may be important to villagers, it can prove difficult to evacuate the animals and provide them with adequate shelter, food, and veterinary services unless a working plan has already been established.

In the banjars of Bunga and Bonyoh at the base of the Mt Agung and Mt Abang volcanoes where incidence of natural disaster is high, we run a pilot Disaster Response and Risk Reduction (DRRR) program supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

This program mobilises communities to formulate functional disaster response plans that take into consideration logistics, planning, basic disaster management, as well as animal care, handling, and emergency provisions.