BLUE CARBON

Yagasu has conducted community mangrove restoration and conservation since 2005. We transformed our mangrove restoration into carbon credits since 2009. The blue carbon projects are currently implemented in 11 provinces of Indonesia: Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, South Sumatra, Jambi, West Java/Banten, Central Java, East Java and Central Sulawesi, supported by 14 donors and carbon investors. Yagasu starts to implement conservation program on coral-reefs in East Java.

Problem analysis. Combined climate change factors, sea-level rise vulnerability and non-climate factors (land-use change and deforestation) created impacts on the fragility of coastal ecosystem, flora/fauna, and human life. This condition affected serious problems on: (1) frequent floods and coastal erosion; (2) loss of natural resources supporting subsistence of local economy; (3) marginalization and displacement of coastal population, food insecurity and loss of job opportunities; (4) stress over water resources (saline water intrusion into freshwater aquifers causing the loss of clean water; (5) unequal redistribution of income transforming public goods into single-use private resources (intensive aquaculture); and (6) totally village lost and community settlement sink.

Planting mangroves. Yagasu team mobilizes local community groups to plant various species of mangrove seedlings (Rhizophora spp, Avicennia spp, Bruguiera spp, etc.) that are suitable on each planting plot. The percentage of species composition will depend on each planting site characteristic, risks of mortality and preference of community groups.

There are 3 (three) steps of planting mangroves in 4 years:

Step 1 planting mangroves based on the agreed density (2.500 seedlings – 5.000 propagules per ha). The purpose of this first step is to stabilize seedlings into the sediment. The potential mortality is 10 – 60% after 6 – 12 months depending on seasons and site characteristics.
Step 2 replanting the dead trees to maintain survival rate in the stable condition of sediment. The purpose of this second step is to stabilize the density in survival rate 80 – 90% during 12 – 24 months.

Step 3 density maintenance during 2 – 4 years by replanting the dead trees. The purpose of the third step is to stabilize the density in survival rate 70 – 80%. Species enrichment with species who have high wood density will be conducted in this step for species diversification that perform heterogenous mangrove forest. After 4 years, the planted mangroves usually will be much better survived and in more stable growth. However, it is necessary to maintain the density not to close each other for maximum photosynthetic process that is important for stem diameter growth.