Jakarta Post 12 Dec 07;
“It is a dilemma. The locals need to develop their economy to lead a better life and sometimes development requires the clearing of forests,”
BADUNG, Bali (JP): For years the mangrove forests have protected the people of Tanjung Benoa village from flood and served as the foundation of their fishing economy. Tanjung Benoa is located on the west coast of the Nusa Dua tourist enclave.
The forest reduces tidal inundation and protects the beach from eroding, explained I. Wayan Kembar, one of the village’s elders.
The villagers have long believed the forest was divinely ordained, coming from the grace of the Creator. A wide variety of trees in the mangrove give animals a place to live and local residents, who are mostly fishermen, bountiful harvests .
It never crossed their minds that one day they would have to plant trees as the mangroves declined due to rapid development.
“This beach has never been planted since I first came here years a go. We have now begun planting trees as we have been taught about the many functions of the mangrove forest,” said
Kembar, while looking at a landscape of coastal terrain, where he has sown thousands of mangrove seeds.
An increasing urban population coupled with little public environmental awareness has had a serious impact on the mangrove population and extent. The construction of infrastructure in the mangrove area, particularly the Ngurah Rai bypass, has led to massive losses of mangrove forests with the areas turned over to housing and business centers. Mounting plastic waste is another serious threat to the mangroves.
The Badung forestry agency in 2005 said that out of a total of 627 hectares of mangrove forest, about 270 hectares (43.06 percent) were deteriorating, 180 hectares (28.71 percent) were borderline critical and a further 90 hectares (14.35 percent) were in a critical condition.
While claiming that the forests are generally healthy, the Bali Forestry Agency said that the mangrove forests in the southern part of Bali, spanning from Denpasar to Badung regencies, have declined from about 1,373 to 1,000 hectares for the sake of development.
It is also just a matter of time before state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura clears several hectares of mangroves to allow for the expansion of the runway at the Ngurah Rai airport, scheduled to commence after 2025.
“It is a dilemma. The locals need to develop their economy to lead a better life and sometimes development requires the clearing of forests,” said Tjok Agung Adnjana of the Badung office of the Indonesian Red Cross.
“For that reason, what we need to do is plant new trees in the mangroves to offset the destruction we have done.”
International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement has helped Kembar and his fellow villagers cope with the adverse effects of an environment that is deteriorating due to human activities. The humanitarian organization, in cooperation with the local forestry agency, is helping Tanjung Benoa villagers to anticipate natural disasters by planting 10,000 mangroves in the village.
“As the world’s largest humanitarian organization, we are uniquely suited to mobilize communities on the critical issue of adaptation,” said Madeleen Helmer, who heads the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre.
Calling for governments to prioritize risk reduction, the organization believes that the issue of adaptation is equally important as mitigation.
“Discussions about climate change are too focused on reducing future impacts, through cuts to carbon emission,” said Simon Missiri, the deputy head of the International Federation’s delegation at the United Nations climate conference.
“This is of course vitally important. But people are already suffering because of climate change,” he said
The Red Cross and the Red Crescent have helped the villagers in Tanjung Benoa plant 3,000 trees so far and the remaining 7,000 will be completed within the next six months. Most of the people involved in the reforestation program are children, with the hope they will see the benefit of what they are doing in the future.
“This is for our future,” 14-year-old Ni Luh Budi Riandani said as she planted the mangrove seeds along with dozens of the village’s younger generation. (Ary Hermawan)
