Empowering local communities for climate resilience: The role of participatory communication and collective action in West Java's proklim program

Climate change in Indonesia has intensified extreme weather events, disrupted agricultural systems and water availability, increased health risks, and degraded environmental quality. In response, community-based climate adaptation initiatives have emerged alongside government programs, including the Climate Village Program (Program Kampung Iklim, Proklim). This study examines how participatory communication, community leadership, and collective environmental practices operate at the local level within Proklim communities in West Java. Adopting a descriptive–interpretive qualitative design, this study draws on in-depth interviews with 14 key informants and field observations conducted in Bandung City, Cimahi City, Bogor Regency, and Subang Regency. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke) to identify patterned meanings across cases. The findings suggest that community-based waste management, the use of household land for urban farming, and the local processing of environmental resources may contribute to forms of grassroots climate resilience. These practices appear to be supported by participatory communication processes characterized by interpersonal engagement, trust, kinship-based relations, and collective learning through face-to-face interaction and group-based forums. Local leadership was interpreted by participants as playing an important role in translating policy frameworks into everyday environmental practices and sustaining community participation. The findings further suggest that perceived community empowerment was reflected in opportunities for community voice, participation in local decision-making, practical capacity development, access to institutional networks, and collective ownership of environmental initiatives. These dimensions are interpreted as contextually situated perceptions rather than as objectively measured outcomes. This study contributes to environmental communication scholarship by showing how participatory communication, trust-based leadership, and collective action may be understood as interconnected social processes associated with perceived community empowerment and grassroots climate resilience in the Indonesian context.