Mangroves and Poverty: Do they interrelated?

This is fishpond and the house of poor people around it. Formerly the area was mangroves area. This picture was taken from Paojepe Beach, South Sulawesi.

Mangroves and poverty in some cases are always interrelated based on the example and experiences of South Celebes Mangroves areas. For instance at Tongke-Tongke Sub-district in Sinjai Regency, mangroves can be prereserved and maintained as the fishermen in there do not depend themselves on the fishing of fish around their areas. They are actually far distance fishermen and hunting Sunu Fish (in local term) and gone to another sea areas for a long period of time. Therefore no intensive interaction with mangroves in their place. Poverty is eradicated through the fishing work in the middle of the sea. Sometimes this type of fishermen went away from their home for three months and comeback to their homes after this period of time. And those in Paojepe where mangroves have gone they are not fishermen anymore and become fishpond workers. Poverty has destructed mangroves from its own environment as the people in the area and people from another areas coming to Paojepe Beach area to seek income from fishpond and shrimp fishery business. Poverty will cause fishpond and shrimp fishery business become severe as people trying to earn their income from this activities. If society in the beach areas still depend themselves from income close to the beach, there is a tendency if mangroves would be destructed. Not only mangroves, but also coral reef would have similar destiny with mangroves as the people would also destruct it in order to sustain their family life. In order there is a sequence where poverty become the antecedent variable of fishpond or shrimp fishery business activities, and then the fishpond or shrimp fishery business activities will cause the destruction toward mangroves. The higher the poverty level in the area, the higher the probability to the people to do fishpond or shrimp fishery business activities, and the higher the level of these activities, there would also the higher the level of mangroves will be destroyed. Research in several mangroves areas still need to be done as the comparison of this hypothesis.