Ronaldo Visits Indonesia, Plants Mangroves

Christiano Ronaldo, world famous footballer of Portugal and Real
Madrid, was invited as an ambassador of mangroves June 26th, to
participate in a mangrove planting event alongside Indonesia’s
President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono (SBY), and the Indonesian Minister
of Forests.  
 The Indonesian Mangrove Management Agency (BPHM) was in
charge of the technical aspects of the planting.  The head of BPHM,
Ir. Murdoko, called Ben Brown of Mangrove Action Project – Indonesia
to visit the planting site several days before the event for
technical recommendations.  The planting site at Tanjung Benoa, had
been planted on 4 previous occasions, but had experienced total
mortality in all those occasions.

BPHM’s response this time, was to plant mangroves protected by
cylinders made of woven bamboo mats, ostensibly to keep snails
(considered pests) off the trees and to keep the leaves above the
highest tide, to avoid leaves getting muddy.  MAP-Indonesia
explained that a healthy mangrove plant, of an appropriate species,
planted in the appropriate place, will not succumb to pests (snails,
etc.) or a bit of mud on the leaves.  The key is planting at an
appropriate substrate elevation, somewhere between Mean Sea Level
and High Tide.

BPHM had prepared 4 species of seedlings for planting, Sonneratia
alba, Avicennia marina, Rhizophora apiculata and Brugueria
gymnorhizza.  All four of these species are naturally present
at this location.  This location already has a healthy growth of
mangroves, and was more or less considered for ceremonial planting
due to ease of access.  It was clear, at the site, that planting too
far out to sea would again kill the mangroves.  But nature provided
a cue as to how far out to sea young mangroves would survive.  A
lone Sonneratia alba sapling was growing beyond the edge of
the natural forest, on a substrate which had experienced
sedimentation due to the construction of a sandy beach and hotel
next door. 

This sapling was situated 1.2 m above Lowest Atmospheric
Tide (0 meters), and thus MAP-Indonesia reccommended that no
plantings should take place below 1.2 meters.  BPHM followed this
advice by and large, having students plant the area the day before
the Ronaldo/SBY event, with 3000 mangroves of mixed species, all of
which were planted at 1.2 m or higher.  Perhaps the trees didn’t
need to be planted at 1 meter spacings, and infilling of the
naturally occuring forest wasn’t necessary, but the event raised an
amazing amount of general awareness about mangroves.

President SBY and Ronaldo himself planted their mangroves inside of
screened bamboo cylinders, adjacent to a dock for ease of access,
with artificially heightened sediment inside, because the ceremony
took place at a 2.4 meter tide.  These larger saplings which were
planted ceremonially will be relocated to an appropriate substrate
height.

So – congratulations Indonesia for raising awareness about
mangroves.  And congratulations again, for following up the planting
today with support of a major Ecological Mangrove Restoration effort
in the Province of Gorontalo, which should see at least 2600 of
mangroves restored in aquaculture ponds illegally constructed in the
Tanjung Panjang Nature Reserve two decades ago.