[In the spring of 2018, Dr. Sidik and her colleagues were awarded a PEER Evidence to Action (EtoA) supplement. This new funding support is allowing them to produce guidelines and provide information on mangrove adaptation to sea level rise that will enhance the understanding of mangrove ecosystems in Indonesia. The guidelines and materials will be available for academics, coastal managers, and NGOs. In order to disseminate their guidelines and associated information, the team is convening workshops, open lectures, and discussions that will enhance the capacity building of researchers, practitioners, and academics on mangrove research and monitoring. The activities should also build awareness among policy makers and coastal managers regarding the importance of mangroves to mitigate climate change and their adaptation to climate change.]
The second quarter of 2019 was focused on dissemination and public outreach, with the PI Dr. Frida Sidik delivering lectures on mangroves and sea level rise to marine science students at Udayana University (Bali), Gadjah Mada University (Yogyakarta), and Brawijaya University (Malang). Another researcher from her institution also presented a mangrove remote sensing lesson geared toward providing information to academics about issues regarding mangroves and climate change, as well as techniques for mangrove monitoring. In cooperation with Conservation International and Gadjah Mada University, the PI and her colleagues developed practical guidelines on mangrove surveying and mapping for students that they handed out during the open lectures. These guidelines will be improved and published for broader users.
Additional public outreach was conducted by means of consultations and social media to ensure broader program impact among the non-academic community and high school students. PEER researchers consulted with mangrove-related community organizations to obtain supporting information they used in producing their mangrove-related videos and policy recommendations. The organizations included Clungup Mangrove Conservation (Malang, East Java), Demang Gedi Mangrove Conservation (Purwodadi, Central Java), and the Mangrove Institute (Purwodadi, Central Java). Another strategy employed was the use of Instagram as a knowledge hub to provide mangrove-related information and activity updates. To build an audience, the PI and her team organized a Mangrove Vlog Competition for high school students in Jembrana Regency, Bali. This activity aimed to gain followers for the Instagram hub and to increase students’ awareness regarding mangrove conservation. All videos were uploaded to the team’s Instagram account “MangroveNet Bali,” attracting more than 1,000 people who voted for their favorite video. The Instagram hub has about 400 followers as of July 2019, including students, members of mangrove communities, and researchers.
During the final months of the project (July-August 2019), Dr. Sidik and her colleagues will hold their last event, a science-policy interaction meeting to draft a policy recommendation related to ecosystem adaptation to climate change. The recommendations and results from previous workshops will also be discussed to support the new policy document. In addition, the PEER team will organize a training event on mangrove product utilization for the community in cooperation with Mangrove Institute. This activity will present a model of alternative livelihoods for a community that supports mangrove conservation actions. The PEER team will continue to develop cooperation with the Mangrove Institute to promote mangrove education for the local community through training, video, and other media. Two publications are being developed jointly—one a manual on mangrove/sea level rise monitoring and the other a set of practical guidelines for mangrove ecology mapping. Meanwhile, the PI and two colleagues have recently published a paper on mangrove carbon sequestration. The data collection was undertaken as part of her PEER project, in which the techniques used facilitate both the assessment of mangrove adaptation to sea level rise and the estimation of carbon sequestration in mangrove forests. Following is the citation for the new paper:
Frida Sidik, Maria Fernanda Adame, Catherine E. Lovelock. 2019. Carbon sequestration and fluxes of restored mangroves in abandoned aquaculture ponds.
Journal of the Indian Ocean Region 15 (2): 1–16.
doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2019.1605659 
