In the aftermath of the devastating 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, experts reminded everyone about the vital role of mangroves. If mangroves were left intact, they could have formed a buffer to protect the inland population. But mangroves have been treated as ecosystems of low economic value.

(Published in the The Jakarta Post Monday, March 27, 1989)

Hira P. Jhamtani

Tarakan, East Kalimantan (JP): With thousands of islands and countless miles of coastline it is no surprise that Indonesia has the largest tract of mangrove forests in the world. In fact, their sweep is so vast that while aerial surveys provide an estimate of approximately 4.24 million hectares the figure is debatable, since only about 1.06 million hectares has actually been surveyed in the field.

Yet these huge areas, like much of Indonesia’s forests, are rapidly disappearing and the complex ecosystems of mangrove forests are heavily threatened by the economic pressures of the development era. The total effect of ongoing environmental destruction, and the resillience of mangrove forests to resist these effects, remain question marks.

Mangrove forests are unique intertidal ecosystems found along sheltered coasts of seas and rivers. Mangroves comprise a group of 60 species of tree that thrive on saline sediments and whose growth is dependant on tides.

Often considered to be useless, unproductive areas by modern development planners, with no economic value unless developed into fishery or industrial projects, mangrove areas have in the last two or three decades been heavily utulized for logging, agricultural extensification and other similar purposes.

Yet contrary to this perception of their value, in 1978 the mangrove-linked fishin in Indonesia yielded 550,000 tons. In the same year export and domestic value of mangrove forest products reached US$26 million.

Logging

Besides their economic value, mangrove forests also serve as natural flood and erosion barriers. Mangrove areas are the breeding ground of important fish and shrimp and also serve to control the intrusion of salt water past the shoreline. Because of this economic and environmental value, a great deal of attention is currently being focused on mangrove forests.

Large scale logging of mangrove areas was first started in 1972 when the Chip Development and Producer Company (Chipdeco) obtained a concession of about 85,000 hectares on several islands near East Kalimantan (see also https://bebaspikir.com/en/2016/07/tale-tarakan-forest-exploitation/). By 1982 there were 14 companies logging in Aceh, Riau, South Sumatra, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya (now called Papua). Conflicting estimates of forest concession area vary from the Asian Wetlands Bureau of 455,000 hectares to the Directorate of Fishery Biological Resources figure of 877,000.

Mangrove trees are logged mostly for conversion into chips and charcoal for export, mostly to Japan and Singapore. Logging is supposed to be conducted according to the Ministry of Forestry regulations which stipulate such measures as the Seed Trees method in which a certain number of seed trees are supposed to be left on each logged hectare. However, the detailed specifications for the number of trees left depends on the annual allowable cut. In this lies the weakness as no accurate system has been developed yet for logging in mangrove forests, and thus the existing regulations are difficult to enforce.

Another weakness of the system is that the short duration of concessions granted to logging companies, only 10 or 20 years. As complete regeneration of a mangrove forest takes 30 years, and logging companies are not sure they will be able to harvest a second time, they usually do not bother with the regeneration process.

For instance, Japanese company Marubeni’s 125,000 hectare concession are in Bintuni Bay, Irian Jaya was only granted for 10 years while Chipdeco in Tarakan has a 20 year concession. Even so, both are already logging for the second round while in mangrove forests, it is the second round of logging which is the most destructive.

Agriculture

Though mangrove areas are generally not suitable for agricultural purposes, one potential threat to mangroves comes from the reclamation of tidal swamp and fresh water swamp lands for paddy fields. When transmigrants are settled in tidal and freshwater swamplands plentiful harvests only last 3 to 5 years after which the yields will steadily decline. This forces transmigrants to look for new land, and since the nearest available land is usually a mangrove forest the obvious solution is to open up mangrove forests during the rainy season for paddy cultivation or for brackish water aquaculture as a source of additional income.

Several such examples can be cited. The world Bank sponsored transmigration program in Tuban Luan, West Kalimantan in now 8 years old. The paddy yields have declined from 3 to 1.9 tons per hectare. Likewise transmigrants in Delta Upang, South Sumatra get only 2 tons per hectare as compared to 4 – 6 ton yields in upland paddy fields. In Sintang, West Kalimantan, 19,000 families in tidal swamp lands cannot cultivate rice because the land is unsuitable. In Telang transmigrants had to wait for 18 months and in Air Saleh for 7 months until the swamp fields could be drained to make them ready for cultivation. In such cases mangrove forests present a solution for survival. Not only in the form of land, but as a source of fish, food and trees for firewood.

In spite of their proven unsuitability as farmland, plans are afoot to convert 3.3 million hectares of swamps into rice fields by the year 2003. The cultural perception that rice, the staple in Java, is a food superior to sago or maize, staples in areas like Kalimantan or Irian Jaya has also led to reclamation of swamplands (including sago palm areas) for use as paddy fields. Thus, in the near future more World Bank sponsored transmigration associated with swamp reclamation will mean more mangrove destruction.

Fishery extensification is also having a detrimental effect on mangrove forests. High prices and a large export demand for shrimp also has had a tremendous impact. Plans currently underway will mean the conversion of 100,000 hectares of mangrove area into brackish water aquaculture projects by the end of 1989 alone. One current trend is the development of tambak, special bamboo or wooden cages built in tidal areas, for raising shrimp on a large scale basis. The clearance of mangrove areas required for this can prove very damaging as is currently the case in mangrove areas of South Sulawesi, for example.

The brackish water system used traditionally by Javanese fishermen for rearing milkfish does not usually damage the environment. Yet through extensive commercial milkfish aquaculture, the north coast of Java has been almost completely depleted of its mangroves.

Besides fishery and agriculture, industries are another threat. The demand for land for factories in cities like Jakarta and Semarang is eating up mangrove areas. Marunda, an area on the north coast of Jakarta has been stripped off its mangroves to provide sites for factories and development projects. Water pollution from the SDC Company in Dukuh Tapak, Semarang, Central Jawa has to a large extent destroyed mangrove lands in the surrounding area.

Conservation

While supposedly some 738,000 hectares of mangrove forests has now been set aside as conservation areas, which would be a substantial rise since 1982, in actual practice only 550,000 hectares has been legally registered. Compared to the drastic expansion in the land set aside for production forests, i.e. 1,139,000 hectares in the same period, the increase in conservation area seems rather small.

In spite of regulations to protect some mangrove areas, conservation sites are generally little valued compared to commercial projects. As a result, such projects are given higher priority in spite of their exploitative nature and conservation areas are therefore encroached upon. One example of this has occurred at Bintuni Bay in Irian Jaya where environmentalists believe that the logging concession given to Marubeni company has overlapped into a nature reserve.

Besides the designation of reserves, conservation of mangroves has included reforestation efforts. These have been conducted primarily in Java because the north coast of the island has been virtually stripped off its mangroves for development and agricultural purposes. Reforestation of mangroves, however, has not been terribly successful. For instance, in Cilacap, Central Java, a scheme for the reforestation of 10,000 hectares of mangroves was only 10 percent successful. The total area reforested mangrove lands in Indonesia is not yet known.

Another obstacle to the “sustainable development” (a concept whereby natural resources are replenished and not used up) of mangroves is the lack of proper management. Forest Land Use Concenssus, a tool used in forest land use management, has not be employed for mangrove management. This is one reason there is an overlapping of mangrove land use. There are, however, several good regulations on mangrove management. For instance, the Forestry Ministry decreed that mangroves in West Java, Jakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Lampung, North Sumatera, North Sulawesi and South Sulawesi are not longer to be opened up for tambak.

Another beneficial regulation stipulates that mangrove forests on islands less than 10 square kilometers in size may not be opened up for tambak or fishery activity. In general, however, existing regulations are neither clear nor properly understood. Forestry and fishery workers as well as scientists and environmentalists continue to argue over interpretation and while they do, no enforcement is carried out.

Other Uses

Mangroves not only produce chips, charcoal, shrimp, fish and firewood but also tannin, an important product of Indonesia used in various sorts of industries from leather to dying of cotton and medical treatment.

The nypa palm, found in mangrove forests, is valuable to local communities as a main source of roofing material. Sometimes cigarette papers made from nypa leaves mean additional income and nypa is also used for construction of fish traps, buildings and as a source of sugar, vinegar and alcohol. Local communities also use mangroves for grazing livestock. During the dry season mangroves can be the only source of fodder for a community’s animals.

All the 92 species of plants found in Indonesian mangrove forests have traditional uses as sources of everything from medicine, cosmetics and fertilizer to honey, betel substitute, toys, wood carvings and mosquito repelant from various plants and plant parts in the mangrove ecosystem.

In this era of chips, charcoal, shrimp and transmigration, these local people are finding it more and more difficult to obtain many of these products vital for their existence. Environmentalists feel strongly that efforts must be made now to protect, and  to conduct sustainable development of mangrove forests for local communities instead of merely fulfilling the insatiable demand for paper and shrimp from the first world.