ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Next, we go to Indonesia, currently home to the world's largest area of mangrove tree forests. And I say currently because over the past few decades, 40% of Indonesia's mangroves have been cut down, mostly to create fish and shrimp farms. But as Katerina Barton reports, some locals are working to reverse that trend. She begins her story in a small fishing village on Sulawesi Island.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT ENGINE RUNNING)
KATERINA BARTON: In the early morning, a motorized wooden boat takes us down a narrow waterway. There's thickets of mangroves with tangled roots on either side. Indigenous fisherman Umar Pasandre (ph) signals to the driver to shut the engine off.
UMAR PASANDRE: (Speaking Indonesian).
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER GURGLING)
BARTON: He names some of the birds that live here in Indonesia. He says that for 20 years, he's been planting and conserving mangroves in the area.
PASANDRE: (Through interpreter) That's our pride - mangroves, seagrass beds and even the coral reefs protected by the community. The potential or source of income will never decline. It remains stable. For decades, they have benefited from this area.
BARTON: But it wasn't always like this. Since the 1980s, aquafarms have taken over the coastline of the Tomini Bay and cut down mangroves to build their fish ponds. And the natural fishing habitats in the surrounding areas dwindled. Then in 2001, the local government and nonprofits invited Umar to a workshop. Soon after...
ADI RENALDI: Then they started to recognize, oh, this is very important...
BARTON: Local producer Adi Renaldi translates.
RENALDI: ...For the entire ecosystem in the village, so they start to do more to protect it.
BARTON: And Umar says that's when he learned that they could bring back fishing habitats and protect the coastline. So he started planting mangroves, lots of them. Slowly, the fish came back. Now Umar's village, Torosiaje, is a thriving fishing village. Umar is Bajau, an Indigenous people in Indonesia. Historically, they are known as nomadic sea fishermen. Now they live in stilted houses over the sea, and they depend on the local ecosystem for their livelihood.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Chanting in Indonesian).
BARTON: At noon, the call to prayer echoes in the distance. Umar takes us to his shaded outdoor nursery on the beach near the village. He keeps rows and rows of mangrove seedlings growing here until they're ready to be planted.
(SOUNDBITE OF FRUIT AND SEEDS POURING)
BARTON: He pours out a bag of fruit and seeds.
PASANDRE: (Speaking Indonesian).
BARTON: Umar points to different seeds, telling us how for generations, his tribe, the Bajau, have used mangroves in different traditional ways, like to make soap, medicines, flour for cakes...
RENALDI: For skincare, for...
PASANDRE: Skincare, yeah.
BARTON: ...And skincare. These products these days bring extra income for people in the village. And he's also sharing this knowledge with future generations to protect mangroves through workshops like this one.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTON: We walk into a muddy wetland near Umar's village, where he's teaching middle school students and others about the importance of mangroves. The highlight of the workshop is planting seedlings, short stems with four or five leaves.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELS RUSTLING)
PASANDRE: (Speaking Indonesian).
BARTON: They crouch down, dig a hole, plop the seedlings in, water them and cover them with wet sand. This location used to be a fish pond. They're replanting, one seedling at a time.
PASANDRE: (Speaking Indonesian).
BARTON: When I first met Umar, he told me that Torosiaje, the village, was founded in 1901. The origin of the Bajau is not exactly known. One legend says that a Sultan's princess was kidnapped, and he sent his strongest men to search for her.
PASANDRE: (Singing in Indonesian).
BARTON: They didn't dare return without the princess, putri in Indonesian, so they wandered the seas as nomads, and now they have a new home among the mangroves. For NPR News, I'm Katerina Barton in Torosiaje, Indonesia.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTIN TEBBUTT SONG, "(IN.) FADING LIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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