I saw its periscope in the tide;

its torpedo-seed seeking the soft side

of the island, the grey mud-bank.

And, where it touched, it seemed the land sank

with its tree exploding from water; the green

mangroves' fountainhead of leaves bursting, seen

like a mushroom-top of detritus and spray.

Today, in my boat, at the close end of the bay,

I saw its dark devastations; islet and spit

sunk in the flat high tide…

The above excerpt from John Blight’s poem “Mangrove” explicitly describes the pent-up feelings about the condition of mangrove forests. This description can also be easily found in various coastal areas of Indonesia.

Indonesia is listed as the country with the largest mangrove area in the world (Hamilton & Casey, 2016). However, Indonesia is the largest contributor to global mangrove forest loss and degradation (Hamilton & Casey, 2016). How ironic!

A recent publication (Bryan-Brown et al., 2020) shows that Indonesia and Malaysia are at a very high stage of mangrove forest loss and fragmentation. In the last three decades, Indonesia has lost about 1 million ha of mangroves (Ilman et al., 2016). About 60% of mangrove forests on North Sumatra’s east coast were lost and damaged in 1977–2006 (Onrizal, 2010) and have reduced fish populations that reduce fishermen’s income (Onrizal et al. 2009). Therefore, improving mangrove management in Indonesia is necessary by integrating ecological, social, and economic aspects in mangrove restoration activities (Onrizal, 2014).

On the other hand, mangroves are a resource that supports the lives of coastal communities. Good mangroves will help coastal communities and vice versa. Therefore, damaged mangrove forests need to be restored through mangrove restoration activities with the involvement of the surrounding community. The mangrove forests in the area of Kampung Nelayan, Medan Belawan Sub-district, and its surroundings are one of the damaged mangrove forest areas.

The Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU), through its lecturers who pay attention to this issue, seeks to provide real solutions through community service activities by cooperating with the USU Institute for Community Service (LPPM). One of them was carried out by lecturers of the Universitas Sumatera Utara through the Assisted Village Program led by Dr. Achmad Siddik Thoha, S.Hut., M.Si., as team coordinator, through mangrove restoration activities with the Kampung Nelayan community. Also members of the team were Dr. Alfan Gunawan Ahmad, S.Hut., M.Si. and Dr. Agus Purwoko, S.Hut., M.Si. This mangrove restoration service activity in Nelayan Seberang Village was carried out from July to November 2020.

Five thousand mangrove seedlings were planted during the activity process, resulting from various activities to prepare skilled personnel in mangrove nurseries, planting, and maintenance, including classroom training and direct practice in the field. From the activities carried out in Kampung Nelayan, the service team assessed that, in general, the local community understands the role of mangrove forests and agrees that mangrove conservation must be done together.

The mangrove forest replanting area is designated as a mangrove ecotourism area, one of the attractions in the ecotourism package. Assisted village partners carry out planting and maintenance activities. Partners also have a nursery that continues to be managed together to support restoration activities in preparing seedlings, which are expected to help increase community income.