Seminar for Eternal Mangrove

As a cause of population growth, especially around beaches, an overload usage of natural resource and field utility switching is happening. Its clearly visible on mangrove forests that are rapidly diminishing, moreover becoming destroyed. The mangrove forest is often switched for its usage function for fishpond, infrastructure (harbor expansion), industry, moreover for housing and farmland. These are the reducing causes of mangrove resource.

The entire dilemma was revealed clearly at the seminar of eternal mangrove management that took place at the Mangrove Information Center Project, By Pass Ngurah Rai Street, Suwung kauh Denpasar, last Monday (8/9). The seminar was executed by the Forestry Department of Bali in corporation with the Mangrove Information Center.
According to Ir. Made Sulendra, Head of Forestry Department of Bali, the mangrove arrangement destruction is caused also by pollution increasing as a result of industrial and domestic, (household) pollution The illicit mangrove timber for fishponds is a big problem that faces the Forestry Department in saving the forests. “Through this seminar, we still seek to save the mangrove forests in Bali,” he said while introducing the speakers from other provinces dealing with the same problem, Lampung (Ir. Nasser Achmad. SH), DKI Jakarta (Ir. Peni Susanti, Dipl. Est), and Nusa Tenggara Barat (Baderun Zainal, MM).
All the speakers were sorry for a wrong perception by the public, and government employees. They consider that mangrove is a useless natural resource, which is suitable only as a garbage disposal site, so they decided to exterminate mangroves for other purposes.
The seminar was attended by 40 people from Bappeda Bali, Bapedalda Bali and Regency and City Forestry Department of Bali, in general to discuss the role and benefits of mangrove forests. In fact, mangrove plays a great importance for the environment and provides protection for nature.
Mangrove distributes a lot of beneficial effects to human existence. For example, mangrove is important for border resource arrangement, and also functions as a land and sea connector. Within this, mangrove acts as a filter to reduce damage effect to the environment switching food resources for sea (beach) biota and shore biota. If mangrove does not exist, sea and beach production will reduce.
The efforts of the Forestry Department of Bali to control the mangrove forest destruction has been active since 1992 until 2001, and pioneered the Arrangement Sustainable Project of Eternal Mangrove Forest with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This arrangement was carried out in the Benoa Gulf area around Suwung village, Denpasar and Jimbaran in the Badung regency. It’s aimed to develop the technology and condition arrangement method of mangrove forests within the former fishpond area.
Since 2001, this corporation will develop into the Mangrove Information Center (MIC) until 2004. The MIC project develops two main sub-programs and three supported sub-programs, some of them are involved in training, illumination, eco-tourism, information, and environment education. (BTN/015)