Planting is carried out in intertidal areas that face directly to sea waters.
This mangrove planting activity is a series of direct practices related to understanding tropical marine coastal ecosystems, especially mangrove and intertidal ecosystems. This action is also part of KUA’s long-term plan to expand mangrove forest areas.

KUA is a learning center about conservation and empowerment of mangrove ecosystems. This location is also a demonstration center for how conservation efforts can improve the welfare of the surrounding community. KUA was initiated in 2015 and is part of Tangerang Regency’s flagship program, namely the Gate Mapan program or the Madani Coast Community Development Movement.

Within the KUA area, conservation efforts are being carried out in the form of an arboretum park for various mangrove species, silvofishery shrimp cultivation and fishery product processing which accommodates fishermen’s catches and pond cultivation. At the same time, the KUA area was opened as an eco-tourism area, which provides various scientific and practical information about mangrove conservation and economic efforts based on sustainable mangrove ecosystems.

The hosts for the field trip activity were Dr Sm Agustin M A Hari Mahardika from the Tangerang Regency Environmental Service and Angga STrPi from the Tangerang Regency Fisheries Service. Dr Hari is one of the pioneering figures and founder of KUA. He is also an alumni of the Postgraduate Study Program for Coastal and Marine Resources Management (SPL), MSP Department, FPIK IPB University.

In this field trip, a total of 87 MSP IPB University students practiced research techniques for measuring mangrove ecosystem analysis, which includes identifying types, tree-sapling-seedling density, tree diameter and biota associations that inhabit mangrove habitats. The lecturer who accompanied the field trip students this time was Prof. Ario Damar who was assisted by several upperclassmen assistants.

The mangrove ecosystem, apart from providing provisioning services in the form of providing food from various types of fish, shrimp and shellfish, also provides the function of regulating and retaining abrasion, trapping sediment, absorbing pollutants and most recently, as a carbon store.

The KUA area also provides other ecosystem services, namely in the form of providing cultural services in the form of eco-tourism activities. This area is busy with tourists, especially on weekends, because the mangrove area is facilitated by jogging tracks and pedestrian paths through the dense mangrove forest.

“Providing MSP IPB University students with the importance of managing coastal ecosystems is the main part of the learning outcomes of various courses in this study program, including the Small Island and Tropical Marine Coastal Ecosystems course,” said Prof. Hefni Effendi, Chair of the MSP IPB University Department.