The Damaged Mangroves in Bangka

For many years the island Province of Bangka & Belitung has been producing Tin Ores. According to Kompas, the Tin mining activities has damaged 70% of the 122,000 Hectares of Mangroves in the province.


Floating unconventional tin miners (TI) in Lumut Village region, Belinyu District, Bangka Regency, On Oct.8, 2009, operate the tin sand sucking machines. The local fishermen are against the operation of TI considered as the main contributor to the regional mangrove forests destruction. Source : Antara

Seventy Percent of Mangrove Forests Damaged

PANGKAL PINANG, KOMPAS.com - Around 70 percent of a total of 122,000 hectares of mangrove forests in Bangka Belitung (Babel) province were damaged by tin mining operations, a forest affairs official said. "The damage on the mangrove forests is among others caused by mining activities in the coastal regions," head of the Babel Forestry Agency Sukandar said here Sunday.

According to him, the mangrove forest destruction can kill rabs and shrimps. "Floods and abrasion could occur at any time due to damage to the mangrove forests, and the economy of the local fishermen will also be affected," he said.

The mangrove forest damage occurred in every district of the province that needs serious handling to restore and preserve the mangrove forests, he stated. "We’ve planted 2,000 mangrove seedlings to restore the damaged mangrove forests, as the realization of the 100 working-day program in the fore stry sector," he said, adding that his office will set up a team to minimize the mangrove forests damage caused by tin mining operations.

Replanting Mangrove in Central Java

Semarang, the capital of Central Java Province, has often been flooded due to heavy rain fall and also by the rise of sea water.

The main reason why the sea water rise is because there is no more Mangrove Forest to protects the coastalines of Semarang and most of Central Java.

The Jakarta Post quoted the Central Java's Head of Forestry Agency as saying that 96.95% of Mangrove forests are destructed by illegal loging and baseless industrial development. Tourism and residential development conducted without proper environmentally-based conservation measures had caused the mangroves to be depleted quickly.

In order to stop the destruction of Mangrove, around 350 participants of the International Mangrove Jamboree in Semarang have planted 60,000 Mangrove seeds along side a aquaculture pond in Semarang on Sunday.

I hope that the above effort would start the replanting of Mangroves in Central Javae in particular and other parts of Indonesia in general.

Photo: Courtesy of The Jakarta Post