Where Mangroves Have Gone in Paojepe Beach, Wajo Regency.

Mangroves and its surrounding environments have gone in Paojepe Beach. All we can see at the beach when we visit the place are just empty beach sand and mud which is dirty. Paojepe Beach is situated in Sengkang, Wajo Regency, South Sulawesi or South Celebes some people named it. This beach is not far enough from Palopo, a small city about two hours drive to Tana Toraja Regency. Go back to Paojepe Beach what happen in this place is the result of human behavior to exploit beach environment for their own economic interests. Almost all of mangroves have gone as the beach land was converted into fish pond. The people who cultivate the land mostly came from other parts of the region and have experiences in doing that business. Usually they are the owner or partners of the owner of fishpond business. They come from Pangkep Regency which is also in South Sulawesi Province. However, they usually just came alone and do not bring their own family there. Their family still stay at their home in Pangkep and for their children attentd the school and the wive take care of the children. This place is also not suitable for children, especially little children as the wind very heavy and the weather is very hot. We can understand why the weather is very hot here. It could happen as there are not so many trees are found in Paojepe Beach. People do not care about the environment and just thinking about their economic benefit to use the beach for doing fish and prawn business as a profitable export commodites for prawn and local consumption for fish. The impact is very severe, especially toward beach environment and its inhabitants such as bird, bat, crabs, and other biological living.