Indocement Initiates Langadai Mangrove Forest Awareness Communities

Kotabaru, S Kalimantan (AntaranewsKalsel) - The management of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk initiated the establishment of a mangrove forest Tourism Awareness Communities (Pokmasdarwis) in Langadai, Kotabaru, South Kalimantan.

Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, Tarjun factory, H Teguh Iman Wibowo, here on Friday said, initially for some people of Langadai Village, mangrove forest is just an ordinary forest and nothing special.

"At that time, the Langadai people only hoped for a shortcut to connect the village of Langadai with Tarjun Village because the two neighboring villages are separated one of them by mangrove forest," he said.

Responding to the intentions of its fostered villages, the company tried to find alternatives to open alternative roads, and by that time the community had built a footbridge made of Ironwood, but it was still an emergency.

Given the strong public interest, Indocement eventually helped build a more representative road from the footbridge into a permanent, continuing the village program of building roads with unfinished local government funds.

After the construction of the cemented road completed, the company saw that mangrove forests cleaved by the road need to be rescued from illegal logging and destruction by irresponsible people.

To save the area of mangrove forest and biota in it, then Indocement proposed the mangrove forest area of Langadai set as one tourist attraction in Kotabaru.

"The Indocement proposal was directly approved by Kotabaru Regent H Irhami Ridjani that mangrove forest Langadai is one of forest tourism object in Kotabaru," said Teguh.

Since then, Indocement together with the local community focused on working hard to improve the condition of the region.

In addition to continuing efforts to restore mangrove forest conditions, Indocement was also intensifying to foster and empower the Langadai community, through several excellent programs. Among are through a waste processing training program to have economic value by forming a waste bank, train the women to utilize fruit or plants in the area of mangrove forest for snacks and drinks.