Tanakeke is a small island in South Sulawesi where villagers who cruise around in boats rather than cars or motorbikes are rehabilitating their mangroves. There is no soil across most of Tanakeke, so the houses are built and boats are tethered to conglomerations of dead coral glued together with cement. It's not easy place to eke out a living.
Mangroves here were destroyed in the '80s and '90s to make room for shrimp farms, most of which boosted incomes for a few years then failed due to virus infestation. The areas where land meets sea are now being rehabilitated with mangroves. The mangroves provide various benefits including storm buffer, seafood nursery and timber source.
Hundreds of villagers are involved in mangrove rehabilitation. Over 400 hectares of mangroves, a third of what was once destroyed, have been rehabilitated over the past five years by teams of villagers with support from Mangrove Action Project (MAP)-Indonesia.
Meanwhile, seaweed cultivation is providing more sustainable livelihoods in Tanakeke. Seaweed requires less labor as well as less capital. It also grows spontaneously in this seascape environment.
People in Tanakeke report that sea levels are rising. During the rainy season, their homes, schools and mosques flood with high tide. It's unclear how they'll face the future if the ocean continues to encroach upon their villages. One solution most here seem to agree on is that a step backward, to a time when mangroves were valued rather than destroyed, may be two steps forward in the end.
