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"Mangroves are very important for local residents, because they act as forts or wave barriers and prevent abrasion," said Wawan Widya from Keluarga Pemuda Pemudi Baros (KP2B) / Baros Youth Family.

 

Wawan is a member of the Baros Youth Family (Keluarga Pemuda Pemudi Baros / KP2B). A group of young people from Baros that is trying to protect the coast by planting mangroves as a natural protection fortress for the residents of the southern coast of Yogyakarta. Established in 1978 and having its address at the mouth of the Opak River in Baros Hamlet, Tirtohargo Village, Kapanewon Kretek, Bantul Regency, D.I. Yogyakarta Province, KP2B currently consists of 40 young people from Baros and is the spearhead of coastal area conservation through mangrove conservation.

 

Together with the local community living around the Opak River estuary, KP2B initiated in 2003 to care for the environment through the development of community-based mangrove forests that have great potential as environmental tourism areas.

 

 

Efforts to develop the mangrove forest area emerged from the idea of finding solutions to various problems faced by local communities living around the mouth of the Opak River, among others related to the threat of land abrasion, sea water intrusion into agricultural wells, wind with high levels of salt which reduces agricultural productivity, and the threat of a Tsunami hazard and shipping waste from other areas along the Opak River.

 

“One of the efforts to foster land conservation around the mouth of the Opak river is by planting mangrove trees. Mangrove planting was carried out in several plantings and it was found that the most suitable species in this area was Api-api (Avicennia sp.).” as quoted from Mangrove Jogjakarta.

 

Mangrove conservation is useful not only to answer the problems of local communities, but can also be a habitat and food source for various animals. Therefore, the efforts made by KP2B are not limited to planting and maintaining mangroves and coastal vegetation, but also observing and inventorying fauna (birds), restocking mangrove crabs and fish, and developing ecotourism potential.

Wawan Widya also explained that the action of planting mangroves should always be carried out because the biggest obstacles faced were garbage and abrasion, which resulted in a very low level of mangrove life in the Baros area.

 

"Since 2003 until now KP2B has planted mangroves covering an area of 10 ha on the Baros coast with varying heights between 5-7 meters," said Nurcholis, coordinator of KP2B.

 

KP2B aspires to develop a community nursery to provide mangrove seedlings in order to expand the Baros mangrove forest. In 2021, through the Inclusive Innovation Action Idea (IDEAKSI) activity, although it has not yet succeeded in qualifying as 10 innovations that receive funding, KP2B has qualified to become one of 15 local innovator teams participating in a series of capacity building activities.

Nurcholis said that by participating in IDEAKSI's activities, even though he had not yet succeeded in accessing funding, "We learned a lot, learning about disaster mitigation and sorting out priorities when evacuating or saving during a disaster. We also learned to think about innovation."

 

Sources:

http://www.mangrovejogjakarta.com/

KP2B, “Penanaman Mangrove Sebagai Benteng Perlindungan Alami WargaPesisir Selatan Yogyakarta”. 2021.

The Green Volunteers, “Konservasi Hutan Mangrove Baros oleh Keluarga Pemuda pemudi Baros”. 2019.

KP2B, “Mangrove”, video untuk Demo Day CLIP IDEAKSI.