Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

8,157 fauna species of mammal, bird, reptile and fish, and 1,900 butterfly species accounting for 10 per cent of the species on Earth have been documented in Indonesia [ ] 124 Green belt mangrove on the northern Coast of Java Local communities in Dukuh Pan- dan Sari, Central Java, are now re- lieved of the risk from tidal flood and abrasion due to a mangrove ecosys- tem restoration programme initiated by the community group, Mangrove Sari, who live in the northern part of Brebes Coast. In total, 3 million mangrove trees have been planted since 2008. Mangrove Sari, supervised by the Farmer Association for Integrated Pest Control (IPPHTI), also request- ed funding from the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Kehati Foundation) in order to gain support for creating managing approximately 129ha of degraded land. The Kehati Foundation has given aid for a community-based adapta- tion and mitigation programme for coastal communities. The pro- gramme not only includes rehabilita- tion of the degraded coastal area by planting mangrove trees but also a pi- lot programme to plant saltwater-tol- erant paddy rice. In addition, there is now regulation governing mangrove protection at the village level. Kehati Foundation also supports local communities to seek finan- cial and technical assistance from other resources,such as NGOs and universities. In addition, 10 compa- nies participate in the programme through Corporate Social Responsi- bility to expand restoration areas and community development. Local and national schools also contribute to the programme. Recently, neighbouring villages have developed similar local com- munity groups, and networking among coastal communities has been established in Brebes — Sawojajar, Grinting, Randusanga Kulon and Bangsri — and Central Java — Tegal, Demak dan Semarang. The com- munity group now has an ecological pilot fishpond, goat cattle, managed by the group. Women’s groups also contribute in initiating food prod- ucts from fisheries and mangroves. The groups also grow local natural colouring plants to produce coloured powder and paste. The local community group’s success has been in developing value added from local natural resourc- es and increasing their income by producing local products made from mangrove fruits, seaweed culture, blood cockles farming, crab farming, saltwater-tolerant paddy rice, goat cattle, and natural colouring plants. Paddy seed produced by Tani Lestari is also distributed to other regions in West Java Province and Central Java Province. The local communities are now aware of the significant value of coastal ecosystems as well as the need to protect the mangrove ecosystem. I ndonesia is a tropical archipelago with 13,466 verified islands and with a land area of 2.01 million km 2 . It is flanked by the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean which makes Indonesia rich in biodiversity. This includes the diversity of living things with their variety of resources in terrestrial, marine and aquatic ecosystems as well as their ecological complexity. Species and genetic diversity are also believed to be very high if based on the ecosystem diversity ranging from Indonesia’s area from east to west, at sea and on land as well as on each island. Indonesia is also an archipelagic country with a complex topography that is believed to have the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Mount Bromo, Indonesia Pukpik on Unsplash Indonesia