Community demography and perception towards mangrove exploitation in Jaring Halus village, North Sumatera

Abstract

Biodiversity in specific to marine resources has been valuable sources for traditional and indigenous people living within coastal area. Integration of ecosystem-based development or management into rural development is needed to overcome daily economic and prolonged environmental issues. This baseline study is aimed to obtain socio-economic perceptionoftraditional community or fishermen in Jaring halus, a coastal village located in Secanggang district, Langkat regency, North Sumatera,regarding theirhigh dependences on mangrove resources. The study used questionnaires in which productive respondents were sampled purpossively according to their exploitation activities in mangrove area. Results of this study were analyzed descriptively to present the general view of their perceptions and activities. Males were documented with higher mangrove exploitation and utilization than females in Jaring halus. Mangrove resources were harvested in raw material or timber as building material compared to other form of utilizations. According to their knowledges, natural resources must be utilized along with conservation-based management. However, deeper investigation is needed to obtain empirical evidence upon habitat degradation of mangrove areas in Secanggang district in order to evaluate the impacts of mangrove harvesting by the community.