Contribution of mangrove forest to the livelihood of local communities in Sungai Kuantan, Pahang

The conservation of mangrove forests does also means to sustain livelihood of coastal communities that for generations have received direct and indirect benefits from these natural mangroves’ ecosystem. Ecosystem services provided by the mangrove habitats on human society come in many forms, especially as a source of food and raw materials used in daily life. Determining how mangroves contribute to human society are now more crucial than ever, since this ecosystem often to be traded-off and converted into other types of land uses such as development projects and industrial purposes. Besides, mangrove forests also provide amenity services such as ecotourism and recreational fishing. Hence, local community are able to generate income from these amenity services served by the mangrove. A case study was conducted in 2020 to analyse the contribution of mangrove forest towards local community, in Sungai Kuantan, Pahang. A total of 384 sampled households involving nine villages were interviewed. The study employed household’s socioeconomic survey on locals live near Sungai Kuantan mangrove forest, Pahang. The result of the study found that 70% of the coastal communities had visited and knew about the existence of mangrove forest near their villages. The study also found that 36% of them use the mangrove forest area in Sungai Kuantan either for the purpose of income generation, recreation or as part of their daily food source. On average, the monthly household income for the community live near the Sungai Kuantan mangrove forest is RM2,882 per month. Of that amount, 31.9% was contributed from Sungai Kuantan mangrove forest and the coastal areas nearby. The results of this study act as evidence that Sungai Kuantan mangrove forest is able to generate income, hence, contribute to the livelihood of local community especially at Sungai Kuantan, Pahang.