The mangrove seedling planting activity in Nipah Village, Sei Nagalawan Village, Perbaungan District, Serdang Bedagai Regency, North Sumatra, was carried out on Sunday (3/3/2024) by all lecturers, students, and employees of the USU Faculty of Forestry and their family members. Around 150 people from the local community also participated.

A total of 200 mangrove seedlings were successfully planted on empty land formed due to coastal abrasion that has occurred recently. Planting was carried out in stages since January 2024, involving at least 80 students. This planting activity is a form of implementing community service activities (PPM) of the Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara. Nipah Village is a fostered village location and has been a target location for USU PPM for the past few years. Nipah Village is considered very potential in various aspects, including tourism, natural resources, and marine products. Therefore, development and guidance are important things that support the progress and marketing of the natural potential in the village. The involvement of the university, especially the USU Faculty of Forestry, is expected to be able to create a sustainable environment, where this is also an important aspect in supporting the economy of the surrounding community.

The Dean of the USU Faculty of Forestry, Dr. Ir. Rudi Hartono, S.Hut., M.Sc., strongly supports this activity and expressed his high appreciation to all parties involved. In his speech, Dr. Rudi Hartono said that this activity is one of the positive things, the benefits of which can be directly felt by the community, not only now but also in the long term. The same thing was expressed by the Vice Dean III of the USU Faculty of Forestry and the head of the activity, Prof. Dr. Ir. Agus Purwoko in his speech. Also present were the Secretary of LPPM USU Dr. Meutia Nauly, S.Psi., M.Sc. and Prof. Dr. Ir. Darma Bakti, M.S., who represented the USU Board of Professors.

In addition to planting, environmental awareness education for children was also carried out in this activity. The environmental awareness education program participants are children from families of lecturers, employees, and the community around Mangrove Beach, Kampung Nipah, especially the Muara Baimbai cooperative administrators who manage the Kampung Nipah mangrove tourism. This education is also an effort to prepare them to become the next generation of mangrove tourism managers when the time comes for them to perform independently. Currently, they have also started to be apprenticed by being involved in the management of mangrove tourism. Therefore, LPPM USU continues to strengthen its capacity, especially in mastering digitalization skills in management and marketing. Environmental awareness education presented by Dr. Kansih Sri Hartini, S.Hut., M.P., which raised the theme "the important role of mangroves," is expected to raise the spirit of children to play an active role in maintaining and realizing mangrove sustainability through simple things.