Casuarina trees create hope for coastal villagers

Casuarina trees create hope for coastal villagers

Sri Wahyuni and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Until some five years ago, the coastal areas along the southern
beaches of Bantul Regency looked so dry and infertile.

No plants seemed to be able to survive the strong and dry
wind. Even agriculture was hard to develop in the area for the
same reason.

Thanks to a reforestation program initiated by Yogyakarta-
based Gadjah Mada University, such concerning scene is no longer
there along the nine kilometer-long coast from Samas Beach in the
east to Pandansimo Beach and further to the west up to the ends
of Oya and Opak Rivers.

Thousands of what are locally known as cemara udang (Casuarina
sp) are covering almost the whole coastal areas up to two
kilometers inward presently. The agricultural fields just behind
it, too, are much greener nowadays making them look so lush and
fertile.

"Before the cemara udang trees are there, we never had good
harvest of our agricultural plants. Now the wind is held by the
trees that our plants can grow well," Ponijo, 37, a villager of
Kewaru Beach in Poncosari village, Srandakan, Bantul told The
Jakarta Post.

Cemara udang trees have a lot of branches that grow to all the
sides that the fields around them are shadowy. The branches, too,
are able to hold the strong wind from the sea, that it no longer
so strong when hitting both the agricultural plants and houses
along the beaches.

The trees, too, are relatively strong that they do not easily
collapse to the ground because of the strong wind from the sea.

It was a team of experts from Gadjah Mada University (UGM)
under the coordination of Sutikno, a professor at the
university's School of Geography, which initiated the planting of
cemara udang along Bantul coastal areas.

It was parts of the efforts to stop the movement of the
beaches due to the strong wind. The wind had made the beaches
kept moving inward to the mainland. So strong was the wind that
it could move up to five kilometers away from its initial coastal
line.

"Experiments had been done by planting various vegetations
such as gliricidia s., nyamplung, ketapang and other species of
casuarinas other than cemara udang, but all ended up in
failures," member of the team Suhardi, a professor at UGM's
School of Forestry, told the Post.

On the brink of desperation, the team finally found that
cemara udang, a specific species of casuarina from Madura Island,
was a good wind barrier for the coastal areas. More seedlings
were then brought in and planted along the barren beach in Samas,
turning it into not just a green and fertile but also comfortable
beach to live in and visit.

Following the success of the team, mass plantation of cemara
udang was done in 2000 by involving the participation of the
locals.

Association of Samas Fishermen chairman Rudjito, recalled that
at first they planted some 700 seedlings of cemara udang in his
area that year. The following year they planted 1,500 seedlings.

More and more cemara udang were planted ever since that the
trees seem to have been inseparable parts of the villagers' life.
Almost all families there have their own cemara udang trees. They
plant them in their yards, fields, and along the village's
street.

"We now have thousands of cemara udang trees here. In Samas
alone, I suppose, the plantation have covered an area of some
five hectares of land," Rudjito said, adding that the beginning
of the rainy season was the best time for planting cemara uang.

The success in Samas has also invited other regions to plant
the same trees for the same reason. In Kewaru Beach, for example,
mass plantation of the trees has been started since 2003 by
planting 25 seedlings of cemara udang in the fields of the
people's houses near to the beach.

All grow well that the following year another 1,000 seedlings
of cemara udang were planted to the wider area in the region the
following year, and another 700 seedlings were planted this year.

The green view of cemara udang plantation now is quite visible
along the coastal areas from Samas Beach to Pandansimo Beach and
further to the west that covers a distance of some nine
kilometers, with a width varies between one and two kilometers
each.

"As a wind barrier, cemara udang has turned previously useless
fields into productive ones," said Suhardi, adding that the trees
were also good to protect the tsunami-prone areas.

Thanks to the trees, he said, the villages behind the cemara
udang plantation had now turned into relatively comfortable
areas.

Although the beaches were so close to them and the thundering
sounds of the waves from the sea were still clearly heard, the
strong and devastating wind that contained high concentration of
salt was no longer felt there.

He, therefore, strongly suggested that the government and
other stakeholders in the community would do the same to other
beaches in Indonesia for the benefit of the people.

"We have some 81,000 kilometers long of beaches of the same
characters throughout Indonesia. I do believe building cemara
udang barrier along them will not just protect the area from
possible devastating natural disaster like tsunami but can also
create jobs for the jobless," Suhardi said.

The coastal areas of that wide, according to Suhardi, once was
properly handled would result in over 20 millions hectares of
fields all across the country to be further developed into either
agricultural areas, coastal prawn ponds, coastal fish ponds, or
tourist attractions.

"Once the cemara udang grow well in an area, other vegetations
that previously could not grow well in the area will surely can
grow well in it," he said.

Suhardi also assured that the model that has been developed in
Samas Beach could be applied in all the coastal areas in the
country.

"In other words, we don't need to open the forest, many of
which are already badly damaged, but create a new ecosystem to
expand agricultural fields and improve its products," he said.