A historical analysis of the drivers of loss and degradation of Indonesia’s mangroves

Background

Indonesia is an important global hotspot for mangroves, with Indonesia containing over 20% of the world’smangroves. Low-lying mangrove areas are important for shrimp farming in Indonesia, both for local and international markets, which has led to mangrove deforestation and complex mangrove land-use governance. To develop more sustainable mangrove management strategies, it is important to assess Indonesia’s history of mangrove management to understand the main drivers of deforestation. 

Goals and Methods

This article describes the timeline of Indonesia’s mangrove management over the past six centuries, with a focus on the period from 1800 to 2003, compiling information from available literature on historical mangrove land-use in Indonesia and predictions for future land-use scenarios. 

Conclusions and Takeaways

Expanding tambaks to support community livelihoods in the 1800s first led to deforestation from 1800 to 1900, and then deforestation increased due to commercial mangrove timber exploitation from international trade between Indonesia, Europe, and the US from 1900 to 1949. There was a pause in logging activities during the early years of Indonesian independence from 1949 to 1966, and the development of a new system of mangrove forest exploitation license permitting led to further timber exploitation from 1970 to 1990. This increase in timber regulations did not extend to the aquaculture industry, and dwindling open-water shrimp stocks led to further mangrove deforestation for aquaculture from 1980 to 2003. While mangrove deforestation due to the timber industry now seems to be sufficiently curbed and regulated, there are concerns about the aquaculture industry’s future effects on mangroves. Future priorities include increasing shrimp production in existing ponds, reactivating abandoned ponds rather than deforesting intact patches of mangroves, and allowing natural mangrove recovery in abandoned ponds.