ISSN 2086-5953 hectares in 1982 to 2, 5 million hectares in 1993 and
now it has reached 1,5 million hectares in 2009 Rochana, 2010. These data show a huge rate of
deforestation that reached 200.000 hectaresyear. The deforestation is caused by human activities that
utilize the Mangrove area to be fish spawning ground and some others are converted into
settlement Rochana, 2010. In addition, Babo 1998 mentioned the main problem for mangrove
forests in Indonesia is their degradation due to conversion to fish or shrimp farms, locally known
as tambak. Mangrove forests are also over-exploited for firewood, house construction, and making
fishery tools. As an indication of the severity of the problem, the mangrove forests in South Sulawesi
have been reduced by 65, from 113,000 ha to 39,000 ha. The mangrove forest is a unique
ecosystem that is very sensitive to disturbance. Actually, the Mangrove ecosystem is also suffering
from the bad effect of global warming, and this condition
is aggravated
by those
massive conversions Santoso, 2000. Based on those
reasons, it is important to find the solution on how to impede the further deforestation and save the
Mangrove forest as one of our important asset in fight against global warming, so that the coastal
area will contribute a lot bigger role in the mitigation efforts.
Thereby, this paper proposes strategic actions to utilize a less concerned potential which is
coastal area as a solution to overcome the negative impact of current global warming phenomena by
enforcing the preservation of Mangrove as an indigenous vegetation of coastal area. The
comprehensive study is conducted to find an integrated method to support the Mangrove
preservation. Inter-stakeholders collaboration to be the most important part of this integrated method.
Further, expected to contribute significantly in preserving Mangrove and attract more parties to
show their concern in this action. Thereby the Mangrove ecosystem can run its function properly
as mitigation solution against global warming.
2 THEORY, ANALYSIS, AND
HYPOTHESIS
Coastal area is still perceived as less beneficial area to contribute in global warming
mitigation. people tend to highlight more into the role of tropical forest as the global warming
controller. For a country like Indonesia, which has a long and productive coastal line, the importance of
coastal area would be very significant. Beside, mangrove forest the coastal area also has another
potential which is coral reefs. Coral reefs is also well known as sea forest because of its ability in
absorbing CO
2
and performing the same anti-global warming activity as tropical forest. The current
effort done by government is mostly on coral protection, while mangrove is still being untouched.
The data from Indonesian Coral Association Yayasan Terumbu Karang Indonesia 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. Besides, Indonesias coastal line is very productive because
87 of the coastal line can be utilized as fish spawning media and also mangrove cultivation
area. Therefore, coastal area is very significant for a country like Indonesia. In the future, the mangrove
preservation in Indonesia can be promoted as one of the mitigation effort against global warming.
2.1 The Theory
2.1.1 Mangrove and Its Role in
Minimizing Global Warmings Impact
According to FAO 2007 the term ‗mangrove‘ has been discussed by experts and
scientists for years Tomlinson, 1986. It is commonly used to identify trees and shrubs that
have developed morphological adaptations to this tidal environment e.g. aerial roots, salt excretion
glands and vivipary of seeds, as well as the ecosystem
itself. Mangrove
performs huge
capability in preventing the worse effect of global warming. According to Mangrove Information
Center during their annual seminar in 2003, it was revealed that Mangrove has double function in
terms of economic and ecology, it is simply because Mangrove is classified as renewable natural
resources. In terms of ecology, Mangrove protects the coastal area from sea abrasion or storm; it is
also functioned as a habitat for some living biota such as fish, shrimp, and crabs. These ecological
functions would lead into economic function, because the existence of Mangrove in the coastal
area will increase the marine productivity that can help out people live in terms of economy. The land
construction for Mangrove through sedimentation process also keeps the water quality reducing water
pollution, absorbs CO
2
, and releases O2 in the bigger amount compared to other forest types.
On the other hand, Mangrove area also has a high primary net production value that consists of
biomass 62,9-398,8 tonshectare, guguran serasah 5,8-25,8 tonshectareyear, and riap volume
20
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.
2.1.2 Inter-stakeholders Collaboration
