Mangrove Plantation and Land Property Rights: A Lesson from the Coastal Area of South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

The study aims at clarifying the historical process of mangrove plantation conducted by local people and analyzing the present social conditions concerning the mangrove plantations in order to illuminate the role of local people in environmental conservation and elucidate the appropriate management of artificially established mangrove forests. The study was carried out in a village located on the southeast coast of South Sulawesi, featuring a coastal environment rehabilitated by the local people through mangrove plantation initiatives. They had gradually expanded the mangrove plantation by planting seedlings of Rhizophora mucronata since the 1980s and thus established 32 ha of mangrove forests along their village coastline. Community-based mangrove plantation is the most significant of the efforts to conserve and rehabilitate the coastal environment, while at the same time; it can provide local people with potential land for their economic activities, such as agriculture, coastal aquaculture and settlements. The property rights of the local people over the mangrove plantation should be taken into account by local government in order to compromise both the needs of local people and local government interests in terms of environmental conservation and coastal resources management.