A mangrove forest probably does not have much in common with Korean pop music.
Yet, over the past two decades, mangrove scientist Tengku Zia Ulqodry has been flashing a picture of K-pop star Lee Min-ho to students in his mangrove conservation class at the Sriwijaya University in Palembang.
His message to them: Only when people love these ecosystems as much as many do the pop star, can these critical ecosystems thrive in the face of a multitude of threats.
“When I first stepped into a mangrove (forest) two decades ago, the trees were very big and green, and I heard there were even crocodiles. Now, it’s very different and if we are not careful, it can be lost,” said Dr Zia, 47.
These ecosystems are crucial in humanity’s bid to tackle climate change.
Mangroves are coastal defenders.
Their sturdy roots can withstand the impact of strong waves and prevent soil erosion. Their tangled webs of roots trap sediment from the tides, enabling the mangroves to keep pace with sea-level rise, protecting inland communities.
Mangroves are also powerful carbon stores – they can absorb three times more carbon than tropical rainforests.
GREEN BELT
Indonesia is home to more than a fifth of the world’s mangroves.
Over the years, the mangroves have thinned due to their making way for fishing, agriculture, settlements, and illegal and legal logging.
But all is not lost. Dr Zia is sowing hope – not least among his students – at a restoration site in South Sumatra’s Banyuasin district.
“It’s like my baby is born into the world,” he said, describing the growth of a mangrove seedling.
Banyuasin lost around 10,000ha of mangroves from 2014 to 2019. The district covers an area of approximately 1.2 million ha, with around 130,000ha of mangroves inside and outside Sembilang National Park.
At the Banyuasin villages, the communities have noticed that the felling of mangrove trees had increased the susceptibility of the area to flooding when the tides are high.
The Sungsang Mangrove Restoration and Ecotourism project aims to restore the mangroves, so as to improve their potential to absorb more planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.
The project is a collaboration between Sriwijaya University, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the South Sumatra Watershed Forum, and the Banyuasin District Government.
GOAL ACHIEVED
Since the project started in 2021, it has already achieved its goal of restoring 15ha of damaged mangroves – equivalent in size to 21 football fields – with more than 40,000 seedlings planted over that area.
Restoring a mangrove is hard work and can even be discouraging when seedlings are damaged.
The labour is carried out in hot and humid conditions and, when the tides are high, involves being knee-deep in the mud, as this photojournalist experienced.
“What you see now wasn’t like this three years ago,” Dr Zia said, pointing to a restored mangrove plot that was once failed agricultural land.
“It is not alakazam and it suddenly happens – it’s a process.”
A 7.7ha site is the biggest of four restoration zones. It is home to more than 31,000 mangrove seedlings.
Seeds are first planted at a nursery. After three to four months, seedlings are collected and transported to the site, where about 30 people do the planting.
There are many considerations involved in a mangrove restoration project, including deciding on the types of species to grow, and how effectively the seedlings are monitored.
The restoration team began working with around 10 species and eventually decided on four that are most suitable for the environment: Bruguiera gymnorrihiza, Kandelia candel, Rhizophora mucronata and Rhizophora apiculata.
One of Dr Zia’s students, Mr Muhtadi S. Kel, 25, said: “I learnt how patience is important because it was very easy to get pessimistic during the first period of planting because many seedlings died. But we persevered.”
Seedlings are at risk of attack by natural predators like crabs and getting washed away by strong currents. To protect the seedlings from these threats, project workers use a bamboo sheath to surround the plant.
“If you plant but you don’t monitor, I can guarantee you that the seedlings will not grow. Planting is easy but making sure the mangroves grow well is very difficult,” said senior scientist Herry Purnomo, country director for CIFOR-ICRAF in Indonesia.
At this site, only about 50 per cent of planted seedlings survive, he said.
Monitoring is critical to ensure that damaged seedlings are identified and replanted. It is done through an app-based system.
The 7.7ha site has been divided into 177 monitoring grids, which are tagged with QR codes.
The app captures information such as how many mangrove plants stay alive, which ones die and where, and pest infestations that cause the death of the seedlings.
The researchers also pointed to the importance of getting the support of the local community for the restoration efforts, without which the replanted mangrove trees could be cut down again.
Many coastal communities throughout South-east Asia, including the villages in Banyuasin, rely on nature for their livelihoods.
Mangroves in the area had been cleared to make room for agriculture use such as coconut plantations.
Understandably, the villagers were not supportive of the initial mangrove restoration efforts, as they were afraid their livelihoods would be compromised, said Dr Zia.
“When I first asked for directions, they pointed me the wrong way,” he added.
But a key aim of this project is to ensure that the community can secure alternative livelihoods. Currently, three alternative income-generating activities are being explored at the site – the sale of mangrove seedlings to companies, ecotourism, and crab-rearing.
Dr Zia likened the process of getting local support to how one would eat a bowl of hot porridge. “You don’t put your spoon in from the centre – you eat it slowly from the sides.”
Former fisherman Ratam, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, now earns an income from the sale of mangrove seedlings to state-owned companies.
So far, some 30,000 seedlings have been sold, amid a global resurgence of interest in nature-based solutions such as mangrove restoration as a way of tackling climate change.
Mr Romi Adi Candra, head of Sungsang IV Village, said: “We tried to promote the community-based business models for restoration. We highlighted to villagers that this will not only benefit the environment, but also support their livelihoods. We first set up the nursery and grew seedlings for mangrove planting. This direct financial benefit motivated them to participate more in the mangrove restoration activities.
“We hope Sungsang can be an integrated coastal tourism activities hub... We also hope Sungsang can be an edu-ecotourism programme for students and the general public to learn about mangrove ecosystem, restoration and conservation.”
Mr Purnomo said: “Seedlings sold by the community are usually to support the restoration efforts of other stakeholders. The majority for now are sold to state-owned companies. Besides selling, the project also supports the mangrove planting activities of other parties such the army and police, government agencies and local universities, by giving them seedlings.”
“This is my main source of income now and I feel very happy because it is no longer tough for my two children to ask me to give them their pocket money now,” said Mr Ratam, 37.
On the ecotourism front, the village hopes the restored mangrove site can be an eco-education tourism hub, attracting students, researchers and visitors.
At Pasir Hitam, a sandbank island where about 350 mangroves seedlings have been planted, a wooden tree house was constructed in April 2023 to provide visitors with a bird’s-eye view of the area.
Some 1,300 visitors have visited the mangrove ecotourism area so far, with their visits boosting the local economy with food sales, homestays and transportation.
In August 2023, group from the nearby Marga Sungsang village approached CIFOR-ICRAF to restore mangroves there to support the creation of a crab farm.
They told Dr Zia: “We know that without mangroves, there is no mangrove crabs.”
Said Dr Zia: “Usually, projects start from the top down but this project started from the bottom up. So I was very surprised.” Silvofishery is a farming method where mangrove conservation is integrated with food production.
The first harvest, in August 2024, produced around 240kg of crabs.
“We are now targeting harvest for the new year and Chinese New Year, and we hope we can produce 1 tonne of crabs to sell,” said Mr Tahang, 50, head of the crab silvofishery group.
Ms Heng Li Lang, head of climate and liveability at Temasek Foundation, said: “We hope that this pilot programme can scale further to drive greater impact for the people and the planet today and for generations to come.”
When the project ends in 2025, it will be reviewed to determine if the mangrove restoration efforts can be scaled up and become a model for similar initiatives across Indonesia.
SHOOTS OF HOPE
Dr Zia is on a mission to save mangroves so that his three children, aged nine, 14 and 16, can get a chance to see them in future.
He also hopes that at least one student from each semester, like Mr Muhtadi, will become involved with restoring mangroves.
“I hope 20 years later, I will come here again and say to my students, we did this project, now you can enjoy it,” he said.