Report on mangrove forest in Cilacap, Indonesia
1990
Masuda, M. (Tsukuba Univ., Ibaraki (Japan). Inst. of Agriculture and Forestry)
In Central Java Province the only remaining natural mangrove forest is the national forest around Segare Anakan lagoon near Cilacap. Unlike its present state, Cilacap was through the 19th century a small town with poor paddy fields. It often suffered from epidemics. There were several fishermen's settlements marked off from the rural communities, and these are called kampung laut. Two major tractors have caused changes in the conditions affecting the mangrove forest. One is the advance of sedimentation caused by heavy erosion in the upper watersheds, which was accelerated after 1980. This reduced the surface area of the water. The Bruguiera and Rhizophora zones, which have the highest economic value, have withered because of the reduction in available water, while the valueless Avicennia spp. have formed pioneer communities on the newly appeared mud flats. The other factor is the increase in population. Although the fishery income from the lagoon has been declining, the population of the kampung laut grows continuously. The population of the rural villages consists mostly of newcomers who engage in various occupations. The farm land is insufficient even for self-sustaining rice production. The mangrove forest has been damaged by the sedimentation, illegal clearing by squatters-from the direction of the land by farmers, from the direction of the sea by fishermen who have taken up farming-and by illegal cutting for construction and fuel wood. For example, in the nearest kampung laut to Cilacap, around 50 households specialize in illegal fuel wood production many farmers in a rural village north of Cilacap engage in mangrove charcoal production to supplement their income during the dry seasons
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