Most coastal areas in Indonesia are highly vulnerable to extreme events, such as floods, tsunami, abrasion, saltwater intrusion, sea breezes, and water pollution. Efforts in tackling from those extreme events, through building awareness and conducting actions in protecting natural environment are crucially needed. The local community can do an action and protect its own natural ecosystem with monitoring and evaluating of its environments periodically.
Margasari Village is one of the coastal villages in Labuhan Maringgai district, East Lampung Regency in Indonesia, with having 700 hectares of Mangrove forest. The University of Lampung established Lampung Mangrove Centre (LMC) in this area, considering the importance of ecosystem in coastal areas and the SDGs attainment.
See this link: https://www.unila.ac.id/pkm-diseminasi-hasil-riset-pendampingan-unila/
Researchers at the University of Lampung (UNILA) conducted Mangrove forest observation in 2019 from the aspect of health condition of the forest, findings that there was only 50% of Mangrove trees in good category. However, in 2020, the researchers confirmed that there is only 25% Mangrove areas are in good category, meaning that there is an increase of the damage of Mangrove forest in Margasari Village.
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In 2021 UNILA has conducted Community Service Activities (CSA) to assist local communities in Forest Health Monitoring activities in Margasari Village using Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). UNILA leads forest health monitoring community in Margasari Village through a system called Sistem Informasi Penilaian Kesehatan Hutan/SIPUT (Information System on Forest Health Monitoring) which is a tool for local community to monitor Mangrove trees as a reference for decision making in implementing management forest system with the principles of forest sustainability.
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Figure 1. Cluster-Plot Forest Health Management (FHM) (Mangold 1997; USDA-FS 1999)
Figure 2. SIPUT Login Website
Through CSA project, there is opportunities for people in the community participating in data monitoring system of Mangrove forest. The healthy Mangrove forest can benefit to increase variety of wildlife in the Mangrove ecosystem, including numerous Fishes, Crabs and Shrimp species, Mollusca, and Mammals like Sea Turtles to live in the Mangrove areas.