Indonesia Struggles to Save Mangroves

A few weeks ago I posted an article on the Mangrove swamps at Sanur in Bali and mentioned that the pollution there was getting out of control. But there are other factors affecting the mangroves and not only in Sanur but also in the rest of the archipelago.

Indonesia's mangrove trees are fast disappearing with 6.6 million hectares destroyed over the past seven years . At present only about 2 million hectares of mangrove forests are in good condition compared to about 9 million back in 1999.

About 1.8 million hectares of the damaged mangroves were found inside forest areas and 4.8 million outside. There are 4.5 million hectares which are moderately harmed and 2.1 million severely harmed.

Ministry data indicates that in 1999 the country's mangrove forests stood at 9.36 million hectares.

Aris Poniman, an official with the National Survey and Charting Coordination Agency said data from the Food and Agricultural Organization showed the rate of mangrove destruction in Indonesia reached 60,000 hectares a year during the 1990s.

"During that period degradation also occurred in mangrove forests in several other Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam and the Philippines" Aris said.

Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban said the massive destruction of Indonesian mangrove forests was mostly caused by a lack of awareness about the importance of mangroves and the benefits they provide.

The impact of the December 2004 tsunami on Aceh for example might have been reduced by the presence of forests, especially mangrove, along the coasts.

Another cause for the large-scale degradation was the lack of funds and human resources to run a sustainable mangrove rehabilitation program said Kaban in his opening speech at a two day National Workshop on Mangrove Ecosystem Management in Jakarta. He said rehabilitation efforts were unable to keep up with the speed of destruction.

To prevent further damage the Forestry Ministry has formulated a national strategy on the management of mangrove ecosystems which is now awaiting presidential approval.