Wetlands for resilience: Securing Eroding Delta Coastlines of the Northern Coastal Java
The Building with Nature (BwN) Indonesia initiative was developed and implemented by Wetlands International and Ecoshape. Implemented from 2015 to 2021, the initiative combined mangrove rehabilitation with civil engineering and ecological method, while simultaneously introducing sustainable land use practices. This resulted in avoiding further coastal flooding and erosion, and a long-term perspective for sustainable economic development for local communities.
The innovative approach was implemented along 20 km coastline of Demak regency, Central Java, Indonesia. Demak regency is one of the northern coastal Java regions experiencing severe erosion and related flooding hazards for the past decade driven by mangrove conversion for aquaculture, groundwater extraction and infrastructure development.
The BwN initiative used both technical and socio-economic measures in its intervention. Technical measures to protect the coastline in Demak included mangrove restoration following the ecological principles (i.e. ecological mangrove restoration method) and using permeable structures (hybrid engineering) at the eroding near shore bed to capture sediment that in turn enable natural mangrove regeneration. Socio-economic measures to promote sustainable land-use include development and introduction of sustainable improved aquaculture pond management and livelihoods diversification for local communities. The measures were synergised with community development plans at village level and sub-national government master planning for sustainable development. The whole measures were implemented under Bio-Rights scheme, an innovative funding mechanism for environment conservation and delivered simultaneously with extensive policy dialogue and capacity building. The BwN approach has been promoted, replicated and upscaled widely across Indonesia by Wetlands International Indonesia under different projects, Indonesian government, and other conservation consortium in which Wetlands International Indonesia participates in. More importantly, the BwN Indonesia project won the UN Decade for Restoration Flagship Award in 2022, marking its international recognition and potential future upscaling worldwide.
The report predominantly provides information the learning and methodologies used and developed during the Demak landscape restoration process which is expected to be replicable and upscaled in other wetland landscape regeneration programmes globally.
