Indonesia's extensive coastline is home to a quarter of the world's mangroves or 4.5 million hectares of remarkable wetland forests. Mangrove is a catchall name used for a wide variety of trees that grow in tidal seawater areas with some 89 different species found in Indonesia. These coastal forests are among the most productive and biodiverse wetlands on earth with an ecosystem combining both a community of living things and the non-living environment. Mangrove mud is rich in nutrients with debris washed up from the river and fallen leaves, bacteria, fungi, algae thrive on this silt. These in turn feed creatures higher up in the food chain. The roots are smothered by a vast range of sponges, anemones, marine algae and seaweed, oysters and barnacles, which form the rich mangrove community.
Mangrove trees provide above-water shelter away from hungry fish that swim in with the tide. The canopy of leaves in a mangrove forest captures most of the light, so most green food is found in the canopy with a multitude of leaf-eaters are thus found in this layer.
Sadly, mangroves have been disappearing from southeast Asian coastlines for decades, ravaged by people looking for supplies of firewood, or replaced by shrimp farms, resorts and other developments. Indonesia has a responsibility to protect and nurture its wealth of mangrove forests for the benefit of the people of these islands and of the world.
