REPOSITORY ON COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS:
BRIDGING ARTISTIC, SCIENTIFIC AND COMMUNITY-LED PRACTICES I N THE RIAU ARCHIPELAGO

For the Orang Laut community in Kawal Village, Bintan, planting mangroves is a long-standing practice since the time of their great-grandparents.  

Johannes Jamil, a third-generation descendent and leader of this community, shares with us how he was taught to pick and plant propagules: “We pick fruits that are about three or four days away from falling, as they are fully ripe. We do not pick young ones, as they won't survive.” To plant them well, he was taught not to plant more than three propagules in the same hole, and to leave one or two steps between each planted cluster. This gives more space for the trees to grow well, and not have to compete for nutrients with each other.  

 Most of the community members live in wooden stilt houses that lie in a zone between two edges: one facing the open sea where they would go out to fish, the other a thick mangrove forest where they would set bulbuls for crabs. To get to the village, one would have to take a boat in during high tide. When it is low tide, as we experienced on the day of our visit, one could walk along the sandy flats to their houses. Just before we descended the steps of the dock onto the flats, we were asked to take off our shoes in respect and make the rest of the walk barefoot. 

Similar to Pengudang Village, most of the propagules planted along the coastline where the village is located are the Rhizophora; previous attempts to plant other species, such as the perepat (Sonneratia alba), were not successful. We observe that some of the Rhizophora trees along the coastline were of larger size than others; Johanes believe that the more mature patches were probably planted from his great-grandparents' generation. 

Since young, he was told that the propagules were not toys to be played with; they are life that must be treated with care. “They are not to be played with. Plant them, [let them] enter the ground,” Johanes shared.  

Mangrove forests are providers of sustenance: where they can catch food such as small fish, crabs; providers of medicine; where they gather wood for building, hey believe their ancestors explains why the cemetery for their ancestors are usually less than a kilometer away from the mangroves. Some of the trees, such as the Nipah (Nypa fruticens) palm, are also important plants used in rituals and rites. 

There are many threats that these sacred spaces face in Kawal. Johanes is particularly concerned about the impact that sand mining activities have on the migration patterns of fish. According to him, traditional fishers are finding it more difficult to predict their behaviours due to changes in water temperatures and sea currents. There are also observations of changes in the shells of the crabs. 

In the video below, Johanes shares more about how planting mangroves is an act of care for an ecosystem that provides and connects them with their ancestors, as well as the changes the community is experiencing in their daily lives.