May 20, 2025 | UCLG ASPAC Kalibaru Hub project, a collaborative initiative between UCLG ASPAC, Bappeda of DKI Jakarta Province, and the Resilient Cities Network (RCN), officially concluded in a warm and inspiring closing session, taking place at Jakarta’s city hall on May 20, 2025. This programme marked a significant step in empowering local communities to address environmental challenges, particularly in managing green mussel shell waste along the Kalibaru coastline in North Jakarta. The closing session started with a site visit to the Cangkring community production site at Kalibaru subdistrict, North Jakarta. The site visit involved participation from the Ministry of Industry and the Coordinating Ministry for Community Empowerment. The visitors observed the farming of green mussels and took a chance to check the dumping of mussel waste in coastal areas at Kalibaru. Following the visit was the insightful panel discussion. The panel discussion was attended by representatives from central government agencies, local partners, academe and Kalibaru’s Community.
Focus: Empowering the Cangkring Group
A key achievement of the project was the empowerment of the Cangkring Group, a community-based organisation initiated by residents to manage green mussel shell waste—a by-product of mussel farming, which is the community’s primary livelihood.
Through the programme, the Cangkring Group received technical training in shell waste processing, including how to turn waste into environmentally friendly building materials such as bricks and paving blocks. They also received support in organisational management, product marketing, and community-based environmental awareness.
Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration
The project stands as a prime example of cross-sectoral collaboration between local government, international organisations, and grassroots communities. UCLG ASPAC, as a regional network of cities in Asia-Pacific, played a key role in connecting best practices and providing technical support, while RCN brought in a resilience-based approach to help cities cope with the impacts of climate change.
Planning Agency (Bappeda) of DKI Jakarta served as the policy coordinator and facilitator for the City Government’s cross-agency synergy, ensuring that the project outcomes could be integrated into the city’s long-term development plans.
Positive Impacts
During the project’s implementation, several notable achievements were recorded:
- The establishment of a social enterprise focused on shell waste processing.
- Developed and improved production, branding, and marketing capacities among Cangkring Group members.
- Early-stage partnerships were formed with the private sector to support the product uptake.
- Increased community awareness of circular economy practices and coastal ecosystem protection.
- Total sales of Cangkring Products during the project period in 2024 – 2025
- Paving blocks: 22,000 units
- Crushed green mussel shell aggregate: 118,432 kg
- Bird feed shell flakes: 46,065 kg
Commitment to Sustainability
In the closing session, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC and Bappeda DKI Jakarta expressed their commitment to expanding similar initiatives to other areas with comparable social and environmental contexts. The Cangkring Group highlighted their determination to continue expanding the social impact of this initiative and serve as a model for other coastal communities.
“Kalibaru Hub is not just about waste management; it’s about how communities can rise and lead change in their own neighbourhoods,” said Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC. While the RCN representative said in her remarks that RCN is pleased to see the initiatives taking place at Kalibaru and hoped that the initiative continued with a more robust and sustained collaboration with all stakeholders.
