COMMUNITY SERVICES: ECO-TOURISM AS A CONSERVATION STEP IN ENGGANO
Enggano Island is a small island located in Indian Ocean which appears to threat the island itself due to the global warming phenomenon. The sea level rise that is caused by the global warming tend to harm the small island such as Enggano. If the barrier is not good enough to protect the coastal area, we will lose the island in less than a century. So that, strengthen the barrier is extreamlly needed. The barrier that mentioned before is not a construction barrier, we have natural one that keep the coastal area safe from ocean threat, which is mangrove ecosystem. Besides the role to attenuate the wave, mangrove is well known as the great area of carbon saturation. In order that, it can protect the island directly from the wave, as well as reduce the emission that cause the global warming itself. Therefore, the mangrove conservation is a must-to-do.
Conservation effort in mangrove can be done easily and smoothly if the people around the area get the benefit from it. For instence, someone will protect voluntarily the coral reef because they will get fish that can be eaten or sold. With attention of rising the interest about mangrove ecosystem, we introduced them about eco-tourism in mangrove ecosystem. Eco-tourism is an tourism activity based on ecological wise, so that the citizen around the mangrove can get beneficial thing from tourism yet still can conserve the mangrove. Other than that, there are still a lot more about positive effect of mangrove that need to inform to the people in Enggano Island. Due to that, the lecturer from the Bachelor of Marine Science Study Program conducted a community service about “SOCIALIZATION OF THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF THE MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM AS A NATURAL BARRIER IN KAHYAPU VILLAGE, ENGGANO DISTRICT”.
The socialization was given to the students in SMPN 18 Bengkulu Utara. We targeted the youth since they will be the next leader in this country who are able to, either develop the country or ruin it. To create a leader that aware of environment, we have to give them more information about it more and clearly. So that they have knowledge and awareness greater about this biosphere. Because of the need to protect mangrove Enggano, which is threaten small island, we directly give the knowledge about the role and funtion of the mangrove to the yousters there. From this service, we expect the students’ knowledge about mangrove were getting more and better, so that they can be the next leader who care about their Earth.
