Advanced Civil and Environmental Engineering Lecture

Name
: Ni Made Pertiwi Jaya
Student Number : 14-8710-601-2
Study Program : Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Graduate School of
Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University

Nature Protection of Mangrove Forest Area in Coastal Areas of Bali, Indonesia

Current Condition of Mangrove Forest Areas

Mangroves are a taxonomically diverse group of salt-tolerant, mainly arboreal, flowering
plants that grow primarily in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Climatic factors such as
temperature and moisture affect mangrove distribution. In some areas, coastal processes such
as tidal mixing and coastal currents may also influence mangrove distribution through
affecting propagule dispersal. Mangrove species vary greatly regionally and with response to
environmental factors.
Mangroves have tremendous social and ecological value. The
annual economic value of mangroves, estimated by the cost of
the products and services they provide, has been estimated to be
$200,000 - $900,000 per hectare (Wells et al., 2006). The
mangrove ecosystem provides income from the collection of the
mollusks, crustaceans, and fish that live there. Mangroves are harvested for fuelwood,
charcoal, timber, and wood chips. Services include the role of mangroves as nurseries for
economically important fisheries, especially for shrimp. Mangroves also provide habitats for
a large number of molluscs, crustaceans, birds, insects, monkeys, and reptiles. Other
mangrove services include the filtering and trapping of pollutants and the stabilization of
coastal land by trapping sediment and protection against storm damage.
The archipelago of Indonesia contains the largest area of mangroves in the world. The
country can be divided in eight main groups of islands that are Bali, Irian Jaya, Java,
Kalimantan, Maluku, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and Sumatera. Mangroves are located along
the coast of all islands in total of 3,493,110 hectares. The most recent estimates suggest that
mangroves presently occupy about 14,653,000 hectares of tropical and subtropical coastline
(Wilkie and Fortuna 2003). This data showed that Indonesia contributed about 24% of total
mangroves areas in the world.

Figure 1. Global distribution of mangroves

(Source: McLeod and Rodney, 2006)

Especially in Bali, mangrove forest spread across multiple locations in an area of 3067.71
hectares consists of 2177.5 hectares located inside the forest area and 890.21 hectares located
outside the forest area. Three largest locations of the mangrove forests in Bali are Ngurah Rai
Grand Forest Park (Tahura Ngurah Rai) with the area of 1373.5 hectares, Nusa Lembongan
with area of 202 hectares, and the West Bali National Park with area of 602 hectares (Faiq,
2007).

Problems of the Mangrove Forest Area

Although mangrove ecosystems have tremendous value for coastal communities and
associated species, they are being destroyed at alarming rates. Over the last 50 years, about
one-third of the worlds mangrove forests have been lost. Human threats to mangroves
include the overexploitation of forest resources by local com-munities, conversion into large
scale development such as agriculture, forestry, salt extraction, urban development and
infrastructure, and diversion of freshwater for irrigation (McLeod and Rodney, 2006). The
greatest human threat to mangroves is the establishment of shrimp aquaculture ponds.
Because mangroves are often viewed as wastelands, many developing countries are replacing
these forests with agricultural land or shrimp aquaculture production. Shrimp aquaculture
accounts for the loss of 20 to 50 percent of mangroves worldwide. In addition to these
anthropogenic threats, mangroves are also threatened by the impact of global climate change.

Projections suggest that mangroves in developing countries are likely to decline another 25
percent by 2025. In Indonesia, as a key country of mangroves which has the worlds largest
intact mangroves, the projected rate of loss is even higher with 90 percent loss in some
provinces (Setyawan, et al., 2003). Bali is one the provinces that has been experienced the
high loss of mangrove areas. It was mainly caused by human threats. Land conversion, trash
and water pollution were the main problem that causes suppression of the growth and
development of mangrove forests in Bali. Mangrove forest damage due to conversion of
forest into farms and excessive logging keeps going and getting worse from year to year
(Putri, 2014). In addition, the area was widely used as a pond for fish or shrimp aquaculture
by the surrounding communities.

Figure 2. The condition of mangrove forest in Bali in 1993

(Source: Central Management of Mangrove Forest Region I, 2013)

Furthermore, as one of the famous tourism destination, tourism business is growing rapidly in
Bali in order to accommodate the high number of domestic and foreign tourists arrival. The
development occurs in all parts of Bali, leaving the vulnerability on the preservation of nature.
Mangrove forest as one important support for the coastal areas in Bali was eroded as the
result of exploitation, land conversion, and the development of mass tourism that does not
consider environmental aspects (Azizah et al., 2012. Whereas, mangrove forests provide
shoreline protection from erosion and further damage caused by waves or wind. Mangrove in
ecological system acts as a supplier of organic materials to maintain a stable production of
fish, shrimp, crab, and others. In addition, mangrove forests can be a source of wood and
non-wood products that can be an alternative source of livelihood for local communities.

Restoration of the Mangrove Forest Area

Regarding in many benefits of mangroves, Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia in cooperation
with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) initiated projects for mangrove
restoration in 1993. The pilot project of mangrove forest development was located in south
part of Bali. The aim is to carry out investment to support reforestation and sustainable
management of mangrove forests. The result is a mangrove rehabilitation area of 253 hectares.
The projects were considered successful enough to develop and preserve various types of
mangroves plants (Faiq, 2007). The area of the mangrove forest was arranged in such a way,
connected with the path and furnished with a tower which can use both to monitor and see the
view of the mangrove forest area. Then the area became a place of recreation for city
dwellers and tourists. Local communities are also used to make the mangrove forest area as a
place of recreation such as fishing.
This project was followed by further projects as a means of distributing the results of
previous projects to the public by strengthening the education system and the sustainable
management of mangrove forests. The project was to develop Mangrove Information Center
(MIC) in the area of the mangrove forest (Faiq, 2007).

Figure 3. The current condition of Mangrove Forest Park in Bali

(Source: Central Management of Mangrove Forest Region I, 2013)

After conducted the restoration projects, the mangrove forest areas were protected as nature
protection area and maintained as Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park (Tahura Ngurah Rai). It is
intensively handled by 42 workers, half of them are technical workers from Mangrove Forest
Management Center, and the others are two experts from Japan (Ben, 2006).

A group of experts have carried out a close look to observe the mangroves development at
Mangrove Forest Park, among others from Japan, Germany, Philippines, Italy and the United
States. From some observations and monitoring programs, the Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park
awarded as the best of mangrove forests in Indonesia, even in Asia (Bali Excellence, 2014).
In the future, the mangrove areas will extend its location on the south coast beaches of Bali,
around the Benoa Harbor area until near the Ngurah Rai airport. Planting activity is still done
on an ongoing basis (Putri, 2014). The mangrove forest expected to serve as lungs of the city.

Obedience of the Mangroves Restoration Projects with the Comprehensive Procedure for
Nature Restoration
There are some important points that should be included in a nature restoration program or
project based on the Comprehensive Procedure for Nature Restoration. The points are the
understanding of current situation, purpose setting, planning or designing, construction or
execution, management or maintenance, and monitoring. The monitoring conducts
continuously along with the management and maintenance. All of those steps should be done
based on scientific knowledge. It also needs participation of various groups, such as decision
makers, stake holders, interested parties, and specialists. Each group might have different
function related with their position or experiences. But they should be work together as a
team and complete each other works.
Regarding to the Comprehensive Procedure for Nature
Restoration, the mangrove restoration projects which is
initiated in Bali have already obeyed it. Firstly, the mangroves
restoration projects were done by various groups that are the
government both national and local, some experts, technical
workers from JICA, and involvement of the surroundings communities. The government has
a function as decision makers while some experts are stake holders, technical workers work
as specialist and the communities are interested parties.
In this project, the government as decision maker conducted observations to understand the
current situation of the mangrove forests in Bali. From the observation they realized that
mangroves have many benefits and it has been damaged by human threats, such as land
conversion, trash and water pollution, and a high use of it as a fish or shrimp pond. After
understanding the condition, the experts as stake holders set the purpose of the project. The
purposes were set by involving the government too that are generally to recover and conserve
the natural function of the mangrove forest.

The planning and designing is a procedure to decide the best way to restore the mangrove. It
was carried out by technical workers from JICA who have experienced in mangroves
restoration. As long as the project is to replant mangroves, they specify some types of
mangroves which can grow well in the area. Besides, considering that Bali is a tourism area,
the planning was made the damaged area to be both ecological and entertaining by building
interconnected path and observation tower inside the mangroves plantation areas.
Mangroves cultivation and some facilities construction are part of construction or execution
procedure. This step followed by some management and maintenance so that the mangroves
plants can grow well as expected and all of the facilities can be used continuously.
Monitoring activity also conducted a long with the maintenance of the mangroves areas to
ensure that all of the programs especially the management and maintenance works properly.
These activities were conducted by the interested parties like surrounding communities. Some
private companies, governments institutions or agencies and social agencies also involve in
the planting activities. In the other words, all of the groups were involved in those activities.
The involvement can be through active participation by taking a part in the cultivation or
maintenance activities, or passive participation by making a donation.
In order to ensure the sustainability of the mangroves in accordance with the purpose to
conserve it, the mangrove forest has been assigned as nature protection area so that any
activities could not be done in this area. The area declared as Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park
(Tahura Ngurah Rai) and managed by government agency that is Central Management of
Mangrove Forest Region I. This agency is cooperated with technical workers from JICA
which is mainly functioning in management, maintenance and monitoring the mangrove
forest area.

References:
Azizah, Siti K., Yogi S.,Andari H., Witri A., and Lukman, 2012. Ecological Restoration of
Mangrove Forest. Program Study of Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology,
National University of Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta.
Balai Mangrove Bali, 2013. Tahura Ngurah Rai, Past and Present.
http://www.balaimangrovebali.org (Accessed on December 26, 2014).
Bali Excellence, 2014. Bali has the Best Mangrove in Asia.
http://baliexcellence.com (Accessed on December 26, 2014)
Ben Brown, 2006. Successful ecological Restoration of Mangrove. Yogyakarta: Mangrove
Action Project/ Yayasan Rumput Laut.
Faiq, 2007. Mangroves Forest as Tourism Destination.
https://f4iqun.wordpress.com (Accessed on December 26, 2014)
McLeod, Elizabeth and Rodney V. Salm, 2006. Managing Mangrove for Resilience to
Climate Change. Switzerland: The World Conservation Union (IUCN). IUCN
Resilience Science Group Working Paper Series, No. 2. Page 8-11.
Putri, Ciptanti. 2014. WWF will Immediately Rehabilitate Mangrove Forest in Bali Coastal.
http://www.wwf.or.id (Accessed on December 26, 2014)
Setyawan, Ahmad D., Kusumo W., Purin C. P., 2003. Restoration of Mangrove Ecosystem in
Java. Jurnal Biodiversitas, Vol. 5, No. 2. Page 105-118.
Wells ,S., C. Ravilous, E. Corcoran. 2006. In the Front Line: Shoreline Protection and Other
Ecosystem Services from Mangroves and Coral Reefs. United Nations Environment
Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Wilkie, M.L. and S. Fortuna. 2003. Status and Trends in Mangrove Area Extent Worldwide.
Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forest Resources
Division. Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper No. 63.