Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Forestry has planted around 21 million mangrove saplings across four priority provinces between 2024 and 2025 under the Mangroves for Coastal Resilience (M4CR) project.Giri Suryanta, head of the ministry's mangrove forest rehabilitation subdirectorate, said the reforestation effort has covered 15,574 hectares in North Kalimantan, North Sumatra, Riau, and East Kalimantan.
"The mangrove planting is part of the government's nature-based climate action to strengthen coastal resilience. Beyond ecosystem restoration, the program also aims to empower coastal communities," he said in a statement on Monday.
Suryanta said the ministry planted 14.6 million mangrove saplings across 13,307 hectares in 2024 under the M4CR program. Of that total, 1.2 million saplings have entered the maintenance stage, mainly in North Sumatra and Riau, he added.
He said the 2024 implementation also included planting activities, the Mangrove Rehabilitation Field School program, and a matching grants financing scheme, involving 15,407 participants.
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In 2025, Suryanta said the planting area expanded by 2,267 hectares in North Sumatra, Riau, and East Kalimantan. A total of 6.2 million mangrove saplings have been planted in the three provinces so far this year, he added.
"We will continue updating data on the number of saplings under maintenance and program participants, as implementation is still ongoing," Suryanta said.
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He noted that the scale of the M4CR program reflects the government's commitment to rehabilitating mangrove ecosystems in a gradual, accurate, and sustainable manner.
Suryanta said the community-based initiative not only restores mangroves as natural coastal barriers but also encourages broader public participation in environmentally responsible resource management.
