7.6 million replanted mangrove trees in Surabaya die

Amir Tejo, Jakarta Globe 13 Nov 09;

The protected forest on the eastern coast of Surabaya has lost about 7.6 million mangrove trees that were planted as part of reforestation efforts.

Officials blamed the loss on the local residents’ lack of concern about the preservation of the mangrove ecosystem.

Putu Artha Giri, an environmental official from the Surabaya government, explained that mangroves would help protect the city from all sorts of problems caused by tidal waves.

He said the local government had done its best to protect the forest, but people living along the city’s eastern coastline still needed to be educated about the importance of saving the mangroves.

In 2004, 1.8 million trees were planted along Surabaya’s coastline.

This year, the regional government has planted 50,000 mangrove trees, while the private sector contributed another 1,000 trees, Putu said. That was a good start but more support was needed, he said.

Putu said each 50 square meters of 10-meter high mangrove forest could help reduce tidal waves by one meter.

About 1,200 hectares of mangrove forest — roughly 40 percent of the total in Surabaya — have been destroyed since 2004.

Putu said Indonesians should be proud that the country’s mangrove forests amounted to 25 percent of the 18 million hectares of mangrove forests worldwide. The country’s largest mangrove area — 1.3 million hectares — is in West Papua. The rest are in South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Sumatra, and East Java.

The natural causes of mangrove deforestation included sea erosion, tidal waves, tsunamis and storms, Putu said.

Man-made causes of destruction included illegal logging and the reclamation of coastline for housing, industry, fisheries and salt farming.

Putu said he hoped people would be more concerned about the survival of mangrove forests in the future, because they played significant roles in reducing erosion along coastlines and relieving the impact of global warming.