Mangrove forests protect coastlines by breaking the sea waves during storm surges and help shield seagrass beds and coral reefs from the effects of siltation. In addition, the mangrove ecosystem is a source of food and a nursery ground for a number of fish species that are important to local fisheries. Mangrove forests are major blue carbon systems, storing considerable amounts of carbon in marine sediments, thus becoming important regulators of climate change. However, increasingly, mangrove forests are being threatened by human activities.

According to Silverius Oscar Unggul, a prominent Indonesian environmental activist, said the involvement of multi-stakeholders, including the business sector, is important to the conservation of mangrove forests. The involvement of the business community can strengthen efforts to protect and preserve the mangrove ecosystem, for example, by reducing pressure on mangroves through minimizing pollution.
“The government is in the best position to lead in the conservation effort and at the same time, it is important to give incentives to the private sector to encourage companies to join in the conservation effort. The government can also promote mangrove ecotourism,” said Silverius.

Indika Energy, a coal company, is involved in efforts to restore mangroves since 2010. Its president director, Leonardus Herwindo, said Cirebon Power, a subsidiary, in 2010 planted 80,000 mangrove seedlings and in 2021, an additional 21,000 seedlings were planted in East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, West Papua and West Java.
“This is a company initiative to restore and rehabilitate mangroves in the areas we operate,” said Leonardus. In addition to planting seedlings, efforts to protect mangroves were carried out in the form of developing ecotourism destinations, which was undertaken by Cirebon Power and involved the local community. He added that the long-term goal is to ensure sustainability, with the involvement of the government, local community and private sector.
Cirebon Power is also committed to reducing carbon emission and has started to diversifying from coal to clean energy since 2018. Leonardus said by 2025, the company hopes to get 50 percent income from non-coal sectors, including renewable energy like solar and electricity. The company, which succeeded in reducing scope 1 emission by 11.53 percent, aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or earlier.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Murdiyarso, Bogor Agricultural University, said restoration must be followed by the obligation to carry out conservation. Both must go hand in hand, and should not be separated from each other. For example, the planting of mangrove seedlings takes a long time, up to five years, to bear fruits, therefore it must be accompanied by a policy to protect, restore and conserve grown mangroves.
“It is important to conserve existing mangrove forests, which store three to five times more carbon emissions than terrestrial forests, while restoring damaged forests. Restoration is important, but conservation is much more important, with a lower cost,” said Daniel. The amount of stored carbon emissions by mangrove forests is estimated to be between 1,600 to 2,000 tons per hectare, while terrestrial forest stored only 300 to 350 tons per hectare.
According to Daniel, currently Indonesia’s mangroves stored around three billion tons of carbon emissions, of which 80 percent was stored in the ground underwater. There is an estimated six percent damage rate to the mangrove forests, which released the carbon emission into the air.
“If we can avoid damaging the mangroves and releasing 200 million tons of carbon emissions, that will be the equivalent to 40 million cars’ carbon emissions per year,” Daniel said.

Agus Justianto, director general of sustainable forest management, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said the government prioritized mangrove restoration as one of the solutions for the climate crisis. In 2020, the restoration of mangrove ecosystems was a strategic activity during the pandemic, including the planting of mangrove seedlings in 34 provinces.
“Currently, mangroves have not been included in the target calculation under the NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution). Taking into account the vast areas of mangrove forests, their management can be a potential in supporting climate change mitigation actions in Indonesia,” said Agus. Indonesia has 3.3 million hectares of mangrove forests, which covers 20 percent of the world’s total mangrove area. From this area, mangrove forests contain five times more carbon emissions than those in terrestrial forests. He added that blue carbon is stored for a longer period of time than green carbon from forests.
Top photo credit: Iqbal Ramdhani. Mangrove ecotourism.