Mangrove Management Challenges on Tanakeke

The Island of Tanakeke is a coral atoll, an hour’s boat ride off the southwest coast of mainland South Sulawesi in the District of Takalar. Historically, the island maintained nearly 1776 hectares of mangrove forest, which was reduced to 500 hectares over the past 3 decades at the hands of aquaculture pond development. The level of pond abandonment over the past 15 years has been high, due to a variety of factors including low productivity, competitive disadvantage with mainland fish farmers, and the intermediate success of carageenan seaweed farming as a major livelihood.