This research inventories the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Haloban language community, one of the endangered languages spoken on Tuangku Island, West Banyak Subdistrict, Aceh Singkil Regency, Aceh Province. The local knowledge of this community in utilizing various plants for food, clothing, and health needs can be explored through ethnobotanical documentation. The lack of recorded information on the use of local plants by the Haloban people as speakers of an endangered language encouraged the research team to carry out this ethnobotanical inventory as part of their local wisdom.

There are four main objectives of this study: (a) to document the ethnobotany of natural vegetation used by the Haloban community, (b) to classify and describe plant morphology based on local names, families, genera, species, and their uses, (c) to describe local wisdom based on the meaning and ethnobotanical values within the Haloban community, and (d) to create a digital ethnobotanical lexicon.

This collaborative research involves an interdisciplinary approach between linguistics and computer science, supporting and enhancing linguistic studies related to documentation, anthropolinguistics, and the development of a lexical corpus. Furthermore, collaborators from the Australian National University, who are experts in linguistics with extensive experience in language documentation and ethnobotany, also provided strong support for this project.

Practically, the results of this research benefit the Haloban community as they can be directly applied, such as becoming local wisdom-based teaching materials in schools and serving as resources for regional data collection and botanical extension materials. Theoretically, the study contributes to linguistics, oral traditions, agriculture, computer science, and other fields that require baseline data. Moreover, the results are expected to serve as a means of developing the economic potential of the Haloban community’s local wisdom to be recognized and utilized both in Indonesia and internationally.