A farmer in Sumatra spent 15 years replanting the mangroves his coastline lost

Harisyah, a 53-year-old oil palm and pineapple farmer, has spent 15 years trying to bring mangroves back to the coast of Tanjung Kuras in Riau province. The sea there takes more than 6 metres of land a year. This year, with 10,000 seedlings and the village schoolchildren, he began replanting a stretch of shore called Beting Selayang.

Tanjung Kuras lies near the mouth of the Siak River on Sumatra's northern coast, across the water from the island district of Bengkalis. The village is built on peat, and peat is a poor foundation. For generations, people drove mangrove timber into the ground to hold up their houses. The trees that held up the houses were the same trees that held back the sea.

Once the mangroves were gone, the sea moved inland. The coast wears away by more than six metres a year, and the peat beneath it is sinking. High tides flood the village. The mud crabs and shellfish that local households depended on for food and income have become harder to find.

Harisyah first learned what mangroves do during an aquaculture training course on the Meranti Islands in 2011, where he was taught how their roots filter brackish water. He then spent years travelling to mangrove groups across Siak district to learn how to restore a coastline and how to get a community to do it with him. In 2018 he was elected village head and put local funds into planting. When he lost the next election, most of that support went with him, and he struggled to keep the work going.

There were other losses along the way. Once, an oil spill destroyed 5,000 seedlings in the village nursery.

In 2024, Harisyah got back in touch with conservation groups. This year the seedlings came from BPDAS Indragiri Rokan, the regional river basin management centre, and the planting was supported by partners including Yayasan Gambut, the Global Environment Centre and Aramco Asia Singapore. The work is concentrated on Beting Selayang, about 25 hectares of shoreline, and Harisyah wants the site to produce what the village has so far had to be given.

"We're going to use this location as a nursery for the new seedlings," he said.

His work sits inside a much larger national effort. In 2020, President Joko Widodo pledged to restore 600,000 hectares of Indonesian mangroves by 2024, and most of that target was not met. On this stretch of coast, restoration has depended less on the pledge than on one farmer who would not stop.

Fishers working near the restored patches say the ecosystem is starting to recover. It is too early to say more than that. Mangroves grow slowly, and the sea keeps coming.

Asked about the years he worked with little institutional support, Harisyah did not talk about hardship.

"We keep going. Even if you're by yourself, keep going."