The effect of abrasion on resilience of fishermen/ Fish farmer livelihoods on the North coast of central Java

Fishermen on the North Coast (Pantura) of Central Java are affected by abrasion and have decreased economically and environmentally. In this context, tidal flooding damaging ponds, mangroves, public facilities, roads, and settlements allow people in coastal area to immediately adapt to livelihoods. Therefore, this research aimed to identify resilience of fishermen/ fish farmer on Pantura coast affected by abrasion. Qualitative data analysis was carried out with a constructivist-interpretivist method to produce social realities from social construction. This research was conducted in 3 regencies between April - June 2024 in Central Java with the largest abrasion areas, namely Brebes Regency, Semarang City, and Demak Regency. The selected regencies and the 3 villages had the largest abrasion area. Snowball sampling was used to obtain 20 fishermen from each village; hence, the total number of respondents was 180. The results showed that there were 10 coping strategies applied by fishermen/ fish farmer in livelihoods to analyze with the effect of abrasion. Most fishermen/ fish farmer only apply coping strategies in relation to limited resources, skills, education and ability to take advantage of opportunities. A total of 39% respondents applied the strategy of adding other jobs outside fisheries sector. Respondents obtained additional income with a relatively low business risk compared to fisheries or marine sector. There were only 5 coping strategies used to increase livelihoods by adding other jobs outside and in fisheries sector, raising houses, installing nets and making embankments.