Mangrove cover within the protected Youtefa Bay Nature Tourism Parkin Papua Province, Indonesia, has continued to shrink under sustained pressure from commercial development, land reclamation and waste disposal, according to Mongabay Indonesia. Formally gazetted as a 1,657-hectare conservation zone under a 1996 ministerial decree, the site constitutes the customary territory of three indigenous communities — Tobati, Enggros and Nafri — whose food security has long depended on the mangrove ecosystem for shellfish, fish, crab and shrimp.
Quantitative monitoring data cited in the article document a consistent decline across multiple time horizons. Regional conservation authority BBKSDA Papua recorded mangrove extent falling from 124.3 hectares in 2022 to 116.49 hectares in 2024 — a net loss of 7.81 hectares (6.28%) in two years, with the steepest single-year drop occurring between 2022 and 2023. A 2025 study from Jayapura University of Science and Technology estimated cumulative loss at approximately 18.76 hectares over the 2017–2024 period, concentrated in areas adjacent to roads, waterfront settlements and coastal tourism facilities. Longer-term analysis by Cenderawasih University documented a 40.59% reduction in mangrove cover between 1994 and 2017 — from roughly 392 to 233 hectares — driven by logging, road construction, bridgework and residential expansion.
A 2023 joint enforcement operation by BBKSDA Papua, the provincial police, and provincial environment and forestry authorities targeted illegal land-filling along the Hamadi coastal road, and the file advanced to P21 statusin 2024. Researchers and community representatives quoted in the article are calling for tighter restrictions on new construction, active mangrove rehabilitation and formal co-management roles for indigenous communities. A BBKSDA Papua official is quoted warning that continued cover loss degrades the site’s capacity as a blue carbon sink, weakens coastal erosion defences, reduces wildlife habitat and threatens the welfare of shoreline communities that depend on mangrove-derived resources.
Carbon Market Context
- The Mangrove Restoration v1.0 methodology (ISOMETRIC-MANGROVE-RESTORATION-V1-0) provides a formal crediting framework for rehabilitated coastal mangrove ecosystems — the type of blue carbon asset that ongoing degradation at sites such as Youtefa Bay diminishes.
- The blue carbon pathway has recorded approximately 8.3 million tCO2e in total credited volume across tracked projects, of which roughly 4.8 million tCO2e has been issued and around 3.5 million tCO2e retired — figures that illustrate the carbon value embedded in functioning mangrove systems.
- Notable active developers operating in the blue carbon project space include the Livelihoods Fund SICAV SIF and Worldview International Foundation, among others.
Source
- Ketika Hutan Mangrove Teluk Youtefa Terus Tergerus Larius Kogoya 21 Jun 2026Mongabay Indonesia, 2026-06-21