The FMIPA UI community service team (Pengmas), consisting of lecturers and staff from the FMIPA UI Marine Studies Center, visited the Tengkolak mangrove forest area on the coast of Karawang, West Java on July 12-13, 2019, to promote the area as a center for ecotourism and conservation-based education.

The program, chaired by Dra. Tuty Handayani, M.S., involving 3 (three) students, carries the title ‘Development of a Conservation-Based Mangrove Forest and Pond Ecotourism Model in Sukakerta Village, Cilamaya Wetan District, Karawang Regency’.

Tuty Handayani said that the coastal area was previously filled with rubbish, even though it had great potential to be made into a conservation area if managed in an integrated manner.

Therefore, Tuty Handayani and her team also involved Dra. Titi Soediarti, S.U., a Biology Lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, as the conceptor of the ecotourism model and the founder of the mangrove forest education gallery in Sukakerta Village.

On the other hand, Dr. Noverita D. Takarina, a marine toxicology expert from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, also said that the pollution of coastal waters caused by waste can cause many losses to local communities.

This, Noverita continued, also impacts the condition of the pond waters, which should be fertile due to their proximity to mangrove forests, but are disrupted by waste carried in during high tides. Therefore, the community service team will implement an environmentally friendly silvofishery model to develop the pond’s potential.

Fika Afriyani, a staff member of the UI FMIPA Marine Studies Center, added that the visit was also to monitor the construction of a walking track of approximately 400 meters for visitors that had been completed, as well as to commemorate World Mangrove Day which falls on July 26.