How Mangroves are Helping Indonesia Become More Self-Reliant
On the International Day for the Conservation of Mangroves, we introduce you to this remarkable tree and show you how it has helped one Indonesian community stand up to Mother Nature.
Mangroves are survivors. They live in the boundary between land and sea, thriving in hot, muddy, salty conditions that would normally kill most other plants.
They do this by filtering salt and other impurities from the seawater surrounding them and storing the freshwater in its thick leaves, whose waxy coating seals in water and minimizes evaporation. Their dense tangle of high-arching roots — resembling stilts — stabilizes the soil and prevents erosion.
These vegetal survivors also foster survival in the communities around them, by providing a a protective natural barrier against storm surges and tsunamis, as well as supporting a rich biodiversity that feeds families and helps them make a living. It’s fitting that Indonesia — a country that experiences an average of 2,000 disasters a year — would be home to one of the world’s largest populations of mangroves.
Drive several hours northeast of Semarang, the capital city of Central Java, and you’ll come across communities nestled into the coastline whose existence is tied to the ocean. Families own fish farms or harvest salt from the sea. If they want to expand, they cut down the trees around them. However, as one community learned, if you get rid of the mangroves, your chances of survival can diminish.
Shiwa Mukhalim, 48, is a fish farmer and salt harvester who did not care about mangroves until he and his neighbors experienced an economic downturn. They were losing money because there were fewer fish to farm, and the salt they harvested was filled with more impurities.
Around this time, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance was partnering with the Indonesian Red Cross and the American Red Cross to train communities how to prepare for disasters. Shiwa’s community was chosen. In addition to learning about disaster drills, evacuation routes, and early warning messages, Shiwa also discovered the benefits of mangroves and soon began planting them. That’s when everything changed.
“Before we had the mangroves, we didn’t have marine life along the coasts because it was infertile,” Shiwa said. “But after we planted mangroves, the change was extraordinary. We find crabs, shrimps, seashells, oysters, and many kinds of fish.” Shiwa is also now harvesting an additional 50 bags of salt a week — a 33 percent increase — because the mangroves are filtering more impurities out of the salt.
So far, Shiwa’s community has planted 80,000 trees. In addition, with support from USAID, Shiwa and his community opened a mangrove education center, where Shiwa is passing on his love of mangroves to future generations.
“By God, I can tell you that mangroves are more beautiful than my wife,” laughed Shiwa. “I’m not insulting my wife’s beauty, but it’s a fact that I love the purposes of mangroves. I love mangroves because they are life givers, for me personally and for my local community.”
