Project media

Community-Led Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration in Lhokseumawe

Indonesia
Restoration, Community, Education
YA
Yayasan Rakan Kehidupan Lestari
Indonesia
Nonprofit

Yayasan Rakan Kehidupan Lestari is a community-led non-profit organization established in early 2026 in Aceh, Indonesia. Our mission is to drive systemic coastal and rural ecological restoration by integrating practical conservation with Islamic Ecotheology, rooted in the spiritual principle of cosmic balance, Mizan. We actively empower grassroots communities—including traditional fishermen, local youth, and women's groups—to become lifelong guardians of their natural environment. Currently, our foundational work centers on an active 0.31-hectare mangrove and coastal restoration pilot project in Desa Kuala, Lhokseumawe, which serves as our scalable blueprint for community mobilization, values-based environmental education, and climate resilience across the region.

Project story

This community-driven initiative focuses on restoring, managing, and protecting a critical 0.31-hectare coastal mangrove ecosystem located in Desa Kuala, Blang Mangat, Lhokseumawe. Driven entirely by grassroots mobilization, the project addresses severe coastal degradation, operational challenges, and resource limitations by transforming local community enthusiasm into a structured, highly monitored, and scientifically sound ecological restoration blueprint.

To ensure long-term sustainability, this initiative directly empowers traditional fishermen networks, local youth fellowships, and women's groups, transforming them into active, lifelong guardians of their native coastal buffer zones. By integrating practical conservation actions with values-based local leadership and environmental education, the project fosters a deep-rooted sense of collective environmental stewardship across generations.

The immediate scope of work includes setting up a localized mangrove nursery, deploying standard ecological monitoring tools, and executing targeted planting phases to stabilize the vulnerable shoreline. Ultimately, this 0.31-hectare demonstration pilot serves as a vital, scalable proof-of-concept. The successfully established baseline framework will be used to replicate and expand community-led restoration and climate resilience standards into larger degraded landscapes and flood-prone riparian zones across the wider region.

Project updates

Team

NA
Nurliza Abdul HamidYayasan Rakan Kehidupan Lestari, Indonesia

Location

Indonesia