Inter-stakeholders Collaboration The Theory
ISSN 2086-5953 tonshectareyear and 9 tonshectareyear for 20
years old Mangrove. This big number of primary net production value will significantly generate the
food chain in the coastal area especially for the biota and support the live of coastal people. In the
larger scale, this Mangrove ecosystem occupies a small proportion compared to the other type of
forest, nevertheless it plays a vital role in supporting the coastal people live in terms of ecology and
economic. Mangrove ecosystem is relatively fragile to disturbance and once the ecosystem destroyed, it
is hard to be rehabbed. Mangrove ecosystem altogether with other coastal ecosystems such as
coral reef and seagrass ecosystem contributes greatly in stabilizing the coastal area as natural
biodiversity.
The data from Indonesian Coral Association show that Indonesia has one of the longest coastal
line which is 81.000 km, this number is equal to 14 of world coastal line length. This coastal line
is exactly the habitat for Mangrove, so that the preservation of Mangrove in Indonesia is very
promising. In the future, the Mangrove preservation in Indonesia can be promoted as one of the
mitigation
effort against
global warming.
Nonetheless, Mangrove
performs a
great adaptability; this vegetation could adjust itself to
comply with the environment condition so that it becomes adaptive. According to Bengen 2001 in
Rochana 2010, Mangrove has several types of adaptation to respond the environmental changes:
1.
Adaptation to respond the low availability of oxygen has made Mangrove to possess a
unique root system: 1. Chicken crawl root type with pneumatophore such as Avicenna
sp, Xylocarpus, and Sonneratia sp to obtain sufficient oxygen from the air 2. Buffer root
type with lenticels such as Rhyzophora sp to expand the oxygen absorption area.
2. Adaptation to respond the high level of
salinity by possessing special cells inside the leaf that are responsible to store the excess of
salt. The leaf structure is also designed thicker and firm containing a lot of waters to balance
the proportion of salt and water. The leaf structure also has special stomata to reduce
the water evaporation.
3. Adaptation to respond unstable soil structure
caused by sea activity neap and tide by developing an extensive root system and
forming a wide horizontal tissue. Besides supporting the tree structure, this extensive
root system is also functioned to gain more nutrients from the soil and erosion.
These types of adaptation made Mangrove as an adaptable commodity that can be cultivated
easily. These types of adaptation also allowed mangrove to be a good agent in alleviating the
negative impact of Global warming because of its extensive ability in absorbing Carbon and maintain
the micro climate. Photosynthesis activity converts inorganic carbon CO
2
into organic carbon that will be stored as vegetation materials. For some plants,
these vegetation materials as the result of photosynthesis will be spoiled, and its spoilage
process will release CO
2
to the atmosphere. However, the organic materials in Mangrove
mostly more resistant to spoilage, so that Mangrove forest will be better functioned as carbon absorbing
agent since it wont release as much CO
2
as other plants. The evapotranspiration rate of Mangrove
also can control the humidity and rainfall rate in the coastal area, so that the micro climate can be kept
stable Davis 1995 in Anonym 2009.
The stipulation of Mangrove preservation as a strategic mitigation action towards global
warming is very logical. The natural resource laid on the coastal area is huge and most of these
resources are less concerned by government and society. Meanwhile, it is not that difficult to
perpetuate the coastal Mangrove preservation in order to slow down the global warming rate and
cool down the earth temperature.