Giving back to the mangrove forests one by one that nurture shrimp

This corner introduces the Nichirei Group's teamwork activities with various partners. This time, we would like to introduce the Inochi-no-Mori-Project, a project to reforest mangroves on Kalimantan Island, Indonesia, one of the world's leading shrimp farming areas.

The first step taken by Nichirei Fresh and PT. Mustika Minanusa Aurora (MMA), a local shrimp farmer, has now led to a lush mangrove forest that extends beyond Indonesia to other countries.

Nichirei Fresh
Fisheries Strategy Department, Procurement & Production Division
Shrimp Group

Masatoyo Fukushima

MMA Corporation
Vice President

Ms. Shih Ho Chen

Mangroves, the cradle of life

About 5,000 km southwest of Japan. Kalimantan Island, Indonesia.
When I peeked into a corner of the office of MMA, a shrimp aquaculture company in this region, I found a wall covered with numerous photographs. They were commemorative photos taken when the company planted trees as part of the Inochi-no-Mori-Project.

Fukushima, who has been involved in shrimp procurement for many years in Nichirei Fresh's water business and was the contact person for the Inochi-no-Mori-Project looks on with deep emotion.

Fukushima

Everyone has a nice smile, don't they? I honestly didn't think this was going to be such a big project.

Shih of MMA, who has been a partner of the Inochi-no-Mori-Project since its inception, responded.

Shih.

Right. I talk about it a lot, but I'm surprised it's been such a long-lasting effort. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I look at the pictures.

Indonesia is one of the top three shrimp farms in the world.
The temperature is kept around 20 degrees Celsius all year round and the vastness of the brackish water area. The difference in sea level between high and low tides is large. Because of these conditions, shrimp farming has been popular for a long time.

Brackish water area: An area where rivers and seas, in other words, fresh water and seawater, mix.

The difference in sea level between low and high tide makes shrimp harvesting easier.

The brackish water area is thick with a group of plants called mangroves. The intricate roots of the mangroves are an important habitat for many small fish, shrimp, and crabs. A variety of creatures such as large fish, birds, and monkeys also congregate in mangrove forests to feed on them.

Mangroves are cradles of life that protect rich ecosystems.
However, in the 1980s, mangrove forests were cut down one after another.

The cause was none other than shrimp farming.

Curbing the vicious cycle of the more shrimp we grow, the less forest we have.

There are two main methods of shrimp farming.

The first is "intensive aquaculture," in which shrimp are raised in artificially constructed ponds while being fed with feed and antibiotics.

The other is extensive aquaculture. In this method, the original topography is utilized and plankton in the ponds is used as food, and the shrimp are slowly raised to a large size in an environment close to nature.

These two farming methods also differ greatly in terms of yield.

Fukushima

For example, suppose you have a pond of 100m x 100m (1 hectare). With intensive aquaculture, a total of about 20 tons of shrimp can be shipped twice a year, whereas with extensive aquaculture, shrimp can be shipped several times a year, but the total amount is only about 200 kg.

However, intensive aquaculture places a load on the soil to maintain the ponds, so the same ponds cannot continue to be used for decades. The ponds become exhausted, and the shrimp gradually stop growing. And once the ponds are exhausted, they cannot be restored to their original condition without spending several years to several decades.

Shih.

Aquaculture businesses must maintain sales, so they cut through mangrove forests to continue aquaculture elsewhere. ...... Impacts on the ecosystem were inevitable. The loss of mangroves, which also protect the land from wind and waves from the sea and prevent sediment from running off the land, also affected the safety of the people living on Kalimantan Island.

Reduce the environmental impact of production sites. Make shrimp procurement sustainable. With this determination, Nichirei Fresh has been procuring and selling black tiger prawns raised in extensive aquaculture since 1995.

It is not enough to "protect" the forest. We have to turn a negative into a positive.

However, we thought this was not enough.
We decided to take action not only to protect the existing nature but also to restore the lost mangrove forests through extensive aquaculture, in other words, to turn a negative into a positive.

In 2006, Nichirei Fresh and MMA launched the Inochi-no-Mori-Project.

In this project, a portion of the profits from shrimp raised in extensive aquaculture is donated to the "Mangrove Fund" jointly established by Nichirei Fresh and MMA. MMA and Nichirei Fresh will use the proceeds to plant mangrove trees on Kalimantan Island.

Shih.

When I first heard about the concept of the Inochi-no-Mori-Project, I felt that Nichirei Fresh was looking not only to the "present" but also to the "future" of shrimp farming.

Fukushima

We want to continue to bring delicious shrimp to your tables. This project was started with this in mind. We started by planting trees in a mangrove park in Tarakan City on the island of Kalimantan, where MMA is located. Then, we made a plan to gradually expand the project to the coastal areas of Tarakan City.

Only because we plant together, there is something we can tell them.

However, it was not easy to expand the circle of activities.

Fukushima

The tree-planting activities are funded by the proceeds from shrimp sales, so the activities themselves cannot continue unless the volume of shrimp handled is increased. However, when the project was launched in 2006, the word "sustainable" was not yet widespread. Wholesalers were still asking, "What does increasing mangrove forests have to do with Japanese dining tables?" I heard that the wholesalers had a hard time understanding the concept of sustainability.

Therefore, Nichirei Fresh invited the wholesale company to the site and organized a tour to plant mangroves with expatriates and MMA employees.

Fukushima

The area where the trees were planted was around an aquaculture pond deep in the forest in Tarakan City. We traveled by boat, sometimes almost getting buried in the mud while digging holes, and planted saplings one by one. Although we did not speak the same language, I believe that through our sweat together we were able to convey our hearts' desire to protect the mangrove forests and their producers.

Shih.

The tree-planting sites and routes to them are decided after consultation with Nichirei Fresh each time. When I see a mangrove tree that has grown to a large size, I am filled with a sense of joy and accomplishment. It gives me a real sense that we are contributing to the protection of the global environment.

The amount of shrimp handled increased year by year. The project gradually gained recognition as its activities were covered by local newspapers. The number of participants increased year by year, and the number of tree-planting sites expanded as we proactively called out to local residents, educational institutions, and government officials.

Bonds spun by 17 years of activities

It is not only mangrove forests that have spread.

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. Upon hearing the news, MMA employees' faces turned pale.

Shih.

We were really worried at the time. We thought about what we could do to help, and decided to send a message to Nichirei Fresh, saying, "Japan and Indonesia may be far apart, but we are friends living in the same world. Let us support each other."

In the photo, MMA held up the words "We are with you in this difficult time.” I know this was a difficult time, and we were all in this together.

Fukushima

I cried when I saw the picture. I felt that they trust us as "friends," and not just as producers and a company. It was a moment that deepened our bond even more.

Immediately after the earthquake and during the recent COVID-19, it was difficult for Nichirei Fresh members to visit Indonesia. Nevertheless, MMA continued its tree-planting activities in the region.

Now, the circle of activities has expanded to a total of 13 companies and organizations in neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. By the end of fiscal year 2023, more than 150 tree plantings had been carried out, and 510,000 mangroves had been planted. The green space in Kalimantan has expanded visibly and is steadily bearing fruit, as animals such as species in mudflats and monkeys are returning to the island.

Mangrove forests that have expanded over the past 10 years

Shih.

The green area of the mangrove park has increased from 9 hectares to 21 hectares as a result of tree planting. The forest has also become a habitat for the park's protected proboscis monkeys, the number of which has increased from 18 to 65 in the past 17 years. The forest has also reduced the temperature in the vicinity of the park by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, and the project seems to be having a positive effect in many other ways.

Fukushima

I believe that the reason why our activities have continued for more than 17 years since the project was launched is because people share our desire to be kind to the environment and people. Shrimps that grace our tables are a precious gift of nature, the fruit of the hard work and efforts of those involved in the aquaculture business, and through the Inochi-no-Mori-Project we hope to continue to "give back" as only Nichirei Fresh can.

To pass on safe, secure, and delicious shrimp to future generations. We will continue our tree-planting activities, one by one.

Forest of Life Project" website

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