As Good as (G)Old? Comparing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Restored and Natural Mangrove Forests in the Wallacea Region (CoReNat)

Mangrove forests are unique intertidal ecosystems connecting the land- and seascape. They provide habitat to terrestrial and marine species, sustain the livelihoods of millions of mostly poor people globally, and are considered as high priority habitats in climate change mitigation strategies, due to their extraordinary carbon sink capacity. Mangroves forests are degraded globally, with land use change being the single most serious threat at present. Successful restoration/rehabilitation of diverse, functional, resource-rich and resilient mangrove forests is a major development challenge in many countries, including Indonesia. The so called Blue Revolution - the conversion of mangroves to (unsustainable) aquaculture ponds in the 80s and 90s - is one major reason why the country has lost 40% of its mangroves over the last three decades. This has caused manifold problems for people's lives. Halting and reversing Indonesia's loss of mangrove natural assets is key to improve coastal livelihoods and reduce poverty. The Indonesian government currently spends around $13 million a year for planting mangroves on degraded areas. Most planting projects in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world have failed, and it is mostly understood why. There are however numerous critical information gaps in understanding how successful the "successful" projects are in regards to recreating diverse and functional self-organising and self-maintaining systems.

CoReNat will investigate outcomes of established community-based mangrove restoration/ rehabilitation (R/R) projects in the heart of Wallacea - North-Sulawesi - Indonesia, to unravel whether these mangroves are "As good as (G)Old?". The overall project aims are to assess whether mangrove ecosystem biodiversity, functions, resilience and service provision have been restored, and to make evidence-based recommendations for maximizing the success of future R/R efforts in Wallacea (and beyond). Combining UK and Indonesian experience, expertise and scientific excellence, CoReNat will provide evidence-based recommendations to relevant stakeholder to guide future ecological R/R efforts.

CoReNat takes a novel interdisciplinary approach to deliver a comprehensive ecosystem evaluation of established restored/rehabilitated and adjacent natural (reference) mangroves, bringing together paleoecology, geoscience, botany, zoology, environmental microbiology, ecological network analysis combined with next generation sequencing, toxicology and bioexploration.

CoReNat will
- provide new data on the region's (mangrove-associated) biodiversity and species interactions, for conserved as well as for rehabilitated/restored mangrove forests
- apply and generate innovative new tools for the field of mangrove restoration
- provide data that will allow a better understanding of the biodiversity, functioning and services of mono-specific versus multi-specific replanted mangroves
- support the provision of solutions to mangrove conservation, restoration/ rehabilitation and management
- explore current local use of conserved and restored mangroves, as well as potential new avenues for business and innovation, to help balance Indonesia's need for conservation with economic development

1. WHO MAY BENEFIT
Ultimate beneficiaries are coastal people reliant on mangrove ecosystem services. CoReNat will provide the most comprehensive ecosystemic evaluation of restored/rehabilitated (R/R) mangroves in Indonesia (and globally) to date. Combining Indonesian-UK expertise we will deliver evidence-based recommendations for maximizing the success of future R/R efforts. We will generate novel data on heavy metal accumulation in sediment and plant tissues in North-Sulawesi, and inform on their capacity of biofiltering these pollutants in the coastal zone. We also hope to discover novel potentially useful mangrove derived products. Hence, we anticipate that project outcomes will be highly relevant and beneficial for a wide range of stakeholders including:
1.1 Indonesian Government
Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, National Focal Point to the Climate Change Convention, North Sulawesi Government
1.2 Indonesian multi-stakeholder Regional Mangrove Management Working Group (KKMD)
Mandate to develop scientific evidence based best mangrove management practice
1.3 National & international civil society organisations
Blue Forests, Mangrove Action Project, Mangroves for the Future
1.4 International scientific community, incl.
Blue Carbon Initiative, International Partnership for Blue Carbon, Global Mangrove Alliance, IUCN Mangrove Specialist Group
1.5 Industry & private sector
Mining and aquaculture companies; biotechnology industries
1.6 General public

2. HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT
2.1 Support for National Strategy of Mangrove Ecosystem Management
CoReNat data will support Indonesia's commitment to cross-sectoral implementation of the National Strategy. We will deliver a "Stakeholder Recommendation Report" which will be disseminated through the bilateral team's substantial network. This includes contacts on government level (e.g. provided by Indonesian PI who has served two years as the Deputy Minister of the Environment). This is to ensure the coordination across government agencies in implementing the Mangrove Strategic Plan. We also have direct contacts to KKMD and on grassroot level (e.g. we have partnered with the Indonesian NGO Blue Forests actively involved in mangrove restoration). We will also build new links with other mangrove conservation/ restoration organizations' relevant partners throughout the project. The technical recommendations given in the report will be of direct relevance for the design and implementation for future related mangrove R/R projects in Indonesia (and beyond), feeding into the design of a new concept of sustainable mangrove management in Indonesia through KKMD
2.2 Provision of effective Rapid Assessment Best Practice Protocol (RABPP) for evaluating R/R projects
Monitoring and evaluating present and future R/R projects will benefit from the new state of the art tool co-developed by the team with representatives from stakeholders across different levels, including government representatives, NGOs and local communities involved in ecological mangrove restoration. Our inclusive participatory approach will ensure the tool's appropriateness, applicability and wide us
2.3 Provision of reliable data on mangrove carbon storage and emission factors from natural and R/R mangroves
Needed by the government for consideration of inclusion of "blue carbon" in the nationally determined contributions (NDC) as part of its commitment under the Paris Agreement
2.4 Identification of mangrove species particularly tolerant to heavy metal pollution
To guide mangrove rehabilitation targeted to maximize biofiltration, through planting heavy metal (HM) tolerant species in HM polluted areas to reduce HM concentrations in rivers and the sea
2.5 Potentially: Provision of protocols for industrial exploitation of novel mangrove fungi-derived products
We would seek to partner with industry and funders to explore new business models to further economic development