Monitoring of Mangrove Ecosystem in Relation with Exploration and Production Activities

Abstract

Abstract From Indonesia's initial 13 million hectares of mangrove forests, presently only 2.6 million hectares remains which must be certainly protected. Mangrove swamps are of considerable ecological importance not only because of their use as spawning and feeding grounds for a many variety of fish and shrimps but also of economical importance and last but not least as coastal protection. In sucha sensitive ecosystem, i.e. in the mangrove swamp area of Mahakam Delta in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, TOTAL Indonesie, an affiliate of the French oil company"TOTAL" and one of the production sharing contractors of PERTAMINA the Indonesian owned state oil company, has undertaken its E&P operations since 1974. Realizing the sensitivity of the mangrove area, TOTAL Indonesie has undertaken continuous monitoring of the environment as part of its Environmental Management System. This monitoring is very important not only to measure the impact to the mangrove ecosystem in particular due to TOTAL Indonesie activities but also as a feed back for the environmental management. Physicochemical and biological aspects of the environment are monitored and various measurements are taken covering:–Hydrology and hydrodynamics of the water streams i.e. the water quality, productivity and flow characteristic of the region–Sedimentation and biodegradation–The influence of accidental and chronic pollution to the mangrove ecosystem–Sensitivity of the mangroves The above monitoring has led to the conclusion that so far after more than 20 years of operation, there has been no significant adverse impact to the mangrove ecosystem caused by the exploration and production activities of TOTAL Indonesie. Introduction Mangrove swamps are productive ecosystems dominated by mangrove trees growing in a brackish to saline water, i.e between the tidal zone, along protected tropical shorelines. They are of considerable ecological importance not only because of their use as spawning and feeding grounds for a many variety of fish and shrimps but also as an economical importance such as a source of fire wood, timber, poles for fish traps, etc. Also mangrove swamps act as coastal protection and shoreline stabilizer. Unfortunately, the total world acreage of mangrove forests has been greatly reduced during the present century. As an example Indonesia, from its initial 13 million hectares of mangrove forests, only approx. 2.6 million hectares now remain. Great effort is being done to protect what remains. In such sensitive ecosystem, i.e. Mahakam Delta located in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, intense exploration and production operations have taken place since 1974. Since then, more than 400 wells have been drilled mostly scattered at the extremity of the delta. Oil and gas produced from the wells are transported to the processing platforms. Other activities in the delta consist of aquaculture, fisheries, agricultures and human settlements. Consequently the exploration and production operations should be incorporated with considerable care to avoid unnecessary disturbance to the ecosystem and surrounding activities. To deal with this, the implementation of an environmental management system(EMS) is of prime importance, where monitoring aspect is one of the core elements of this system. P. 193