Indonesia’s forestry ministry has suspended the issuance of logging permits in Indonesia’s vast mangrove forests to protect the ecosystem and tap into carbon trading opportunities, a ministry official said on Wednesday.
Indonesia, an island nation, has 3,440,464 hectares of mangrove forests that provide habitat for diverse flora and fauna, Xinhua reported.
The forestry ministry’s director of mangrove rehabilitation, Ristianto Pribadi, acknowledged that there has been a growing interest in issuing permits in mangrove areas.
He stressed that all permits issued by the ministry are exclusively for activities classified as environmental services.
He explained that these activities include the use of non-timber products, ecotourism and carbon trading.
As part of the mangrove rehabilitation efforts, the director stressed the need for an investment approach so as not to rely entirely on the government budget.
According to the National Mangrove Map for 2025, Indonesia still has 769,824 hectares of potential mangrove habitat.
Mangrove ecosystems, where plant species, crustaceans, fish, birds and other marine creatures live together, are considered an important source of biodiversity.
Mangrove forests also provide some protection against coastal erosion. Mangrove forests are known to reduce the greenhouse effect by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and therefore play an important role in combating climate change.
