By: Natalia Trita Agnika

Surabaya is one of the cities in Indonesia located in the coastal area. For this reason, mangrove forests play an important role in the City of Heroes. In addition to preventing abrasion, mangrove forests also function as a neutralizer of sea water and a home for various animals, such as monitor lizards, turtles, snakes, monkeys and birds. Likewise with several types of fish, shrimp, and crabs.

However, currently the existence of mangrove forests in Surabaya is shrinking and the condition is alarming. The land around the mangrove forest area is mostly built as housing and used as residential areas. The tourists who do not care about the environment also throw and leave garbage as they please. As a result, the mangrove forest which is a tourist spot is no longer beautiful.

Earth Hour Surabaya as an environmental care community consisting of young Surabaya people felt moved to take positive action. They are committed to saving the existence of mangrove forests by continuing to campaign for environmentally friendly behavior in order to reduce the effects of climate change caused by human activities. Since early 2015, EH Surabaya has conducted a Mangrove Conservation program in Wonorejo Mangrove Forest until the third stage. The first stage of mangrove planting was carried out on January 25, 2015, the second stage on April 28, 2015, and the third stage on November 28, 2015.

EH Surabaya's invitation to the public to be more concerned about the existence of mangroves in their area received a positive response. Various communities, media, agencies, and even schools participated in the mangrove planting action. There are at least 100 participants involved in each planting activity. They enthusiastically took part in providing concrete action to protect the existence of mangrove forests in Surabaya. In the first phase of mangrove planting, EH Surabaya invited several communities in Surabaya and Wonorejo pond farmers to participate in planting 300 mangrove seedlings. Furthermore, in phase II planting, EH Surabaya collaborated with Sheraton Hotel & Towers to plant 700 mangrove seedlings which were attended by various communities. While the third phase of planting was attended by East Java regional EH representatives, ranging from EH Batu, EH Malang, EH Sidoarjo to EH Kediri to plant as many as 1000 mangrove seedlings provided by the Mangrove Center of Tuban City and the Surabaya City Agriculture Office.

On January 17, 2016, EH Surabaya was also involved in a collaboration initiated by HiLo Green Community (HGC) to plant mangroves in Wonorejo mangrove forest. Various environmental communities were also involved in the Konco Mangrove Collaboration. Surabaya people's concern for the environment is evident in this action.

Not only planting, they also conduct weekly pickets to check the condition of the mangroves that have been planted. If they find any dead mangrove seedlings, they will replace them with seedlings in the next planting activity.

EH Surabaya takes real action to protect its area by protecting the existing mangrove forest.This is my ACTION!