The National Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) is implementing four strategies to accelerate mangrove rehabilitation, including rehabilitation activities for benefiting local residents, the agency’s head, Hartono, has said.
Since the beginning, BRGM has aimed to expedite mangrove rehabilitation over 600 thousand hectares of land, he remarked at the Mangrove Rehabilitation Acceleration National Workshop here on Thursday.
In the future, this will be a part of the government’s plan to make residents around the land prosper, he added.
The mangrove land could be utilized either directly for fruit processing or eco-tourism activities, he said.
The second strategy is collaborating with stakeholders around the mangrove ecosystem to achieve sustainability in management, Hartono informed.
Under the third strategy, mangrove management could also be undertaken as part of climate change mitigation, he said. This is since the ecosystem could store up to three to five times more carbon than minerals underground, he explained.
This is also related to the 2030 carbon net-sink target for the forestry and other land use (FoLU) sector, he added.
“The government is determined to realize the 2030 FoLU Net Sink and mangroves, I believe, could play an important role in the effort to achieve that goal,” Hartono affirmed.
“Of course, this can be done by reducing mangrove deforestation and expediting mangrove rehabilitation in degraded regions,” he said.
The fourth strategy concerns utilizing financing schemes, he disclosed.
In addition to the state budget and regional budget, donations or loans, investments, or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives could be explored for boosting mangrove restoration efforts, he said.
BRGM is aiming to rehabilitate mangroves in an area of 600 thousand hectares by 2024. In 2021, the agency planted mangroves on 34.911 hectares, crossing the target of 33 thousand hectares for the year.
Source: Antara News