Over the last year FORCLIME has been supporting the provincial government of North Kalimantan to work towards a solution for maintaining both the economic and ecological benefits of mangrove forests in the Kayan Delta, an area in which shrimp farms can be found in officially designated forest areas. FORCLIME has been training fisherman/farmers on how to map their shrimp farms using the GPS function in their smart-phones. Once data regarding shrimp farm ownership became available, FORCLIME and the local forestry services proposed to turn the shrimp farms located in the forest area into a social forestry scheme based on silvo-aquaculture. In silvo-aquaculture, shrimp farms and mangroves are not mutually exclusive but can co-exist within the same area. This approach has been picked up positively and the provincial and national government are now in the stage of developing more concrete plans to establish the social forestry scheme.

The next step is to develop the local capacity of forestry services and local fishermen on how to apply silvo-aquaculture in the Kayan Delta. With GIZ’s experience in silvo-aquaculture in other regions such as the Mekong Delta in Vietnam this will hopefully turn into a successful endeavor resulting in the reforestation of large areas of mangroves.

For more details, please contact:
Dr. Robbie Weterings, Development Advisor for GIS