Establishment of Shoreline Buffer Zone through Rehabilitation of Degraded Coastal Mangroves

Abstract

After the 2004 tragic tsunami that struck the western coastlines of Peninsular Malaysia and several Asian countries, which claimed thousands of lives and inflicted substantial damage to properties and economy of affected areas, the Malaysian government established a task force namely “Special National Task Force on Planting of Mangrove and Other Suitable Species in Coastal Areas”. The main role of the task force was to identify coastal areas for restoration, conservation, protection and promotion of research related to planting of mangrove species. One of the Technical Committee is on Research and Development (RDTC) led by The Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) and was given the task to carry out research and development related to mangrove forest rehabilitation as well as the conservation at the areas that have high risk of coastal erosion. The seaward mangrove plot of 200 m × 40 m, was established at the beach of Sungai Haji Dorani, Selangor, Kuala Bernam Forest Reserved in December 2007. The objective of the study was to demonstrate that the new established seaward mangrove supports the effort in preserving the shoreline and act as natural protection zones in reducing the effects of natural disaster and soil erosion. The finding of the study has shown that after five years, the seaward mangroves successfully executed as a natural buffer and subsequently improved biodiversity of Kuala Bernam mangrove Forest Reserved at Sungai Haji Dorani.