Mangroves help protect the environment by providing clean water and air and preserving biodiversity. Protecting mangroves is critical to reducing global warming and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

In North Kalimantan in Indonesia, the majority of the communities’ livelihood depends on seaweed farming and shrimp farming, which poses a significant threat to mangrove and coastal conservation. The GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Hub, GIZ, and the mobile operator Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) have partnered to roll out innovative digital solutions to reduce the destruction of mangroves in collaboration with the North Kalimantan community.

The first part of the solution – participatory mapping – uses mobile geospatial technology to map the utilisation of the coastal belt and monitor the distribution and clearance of mangroves. Smartphones are used to capture and communicate data on mangrove conditions and the state of the surrounding ecosystem. The second part of the solution tackles the belief of shrimp farmers that mangroves negatively impact their productivity, therefore leading to clearing the mangroves to start new ponds. To encourage more sustainable shrimp farming practices, IOH will provide IoT sensors, which will collect data on the water quality, such as temperature and acidity, providing guidance to farmers to improve the productivity of their existing ponds.

These projects are a testament to how the mobile industry can play a vital role in connecting vulnerable communities to digital solutions that enable them to improve their resilience to climate change. Mangrove forest conservation, for example, is a global need across many coastal communities. Pilot projects such as this, will bring invaluable learnings that can be replicated in different countries and contexts

Watch the video for more inspiration.

The content of this video is solely the responsibility of GSMA and does not represent the opinions of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ).