Tangerang district has been chosen as the host of the “2022 Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) Network of Local Government Summit,” which is being held from October 25–29.

The event is being attended by 11 member countries, namely Cambodia, China, North Korea, Japan, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Timor Leste, Vietnam, and Indonesia, along with 3 other partners, namely Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar, according to a release posted by the Pemsea Network of Local Government (PNLG) on its official website.

According to the PNLG release, Ketapang Village in Mauk sub-district is the main venue for the summit in Tangerang district, and the village will later serve as a model for environmental management, especially for member countries.

The fishing village of Ketapang used to be a slum, a left-behind and isolated area.

However, through gradual development that has taken place over more than 5 years, the village has been transformed into an environmentally managed area called Ketapang Aquaculture.

One of the programs implemented in the village has involved home renovations.

“Ketapang Village from what was originally a slum has now become livable. Likewise, the river in the village that used to have high and narrow sedimentation is now widened and become a ship dock,” PNLG said in a statement.

Moreover, the Tangerang district government has also invited the local community in Ketapang village to improve the economy through a training program for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

That way the community will not only make a living from fishing, but also from culinary arts because Ketapang Aquaculture also serves as a local tourist location, it said.

All those efforts and programs for environmental management improvement have been the basis for Tangerang district being chosen as the host of the 2022 PEMSEA NLG Summit.

Another reason for Tangerang district’s selection has been the program for planting mangrove trees.

Currently, at least 720 thousand mangrove stems of 16 different varieties have been planted in the district.

The mangrove planting areas have provided many benefits for the district, such as building abrasion resistance and improving the water quality in coastal waters.

In fact, the mangrove areas can now be used for fish and shrimp farming since the water quality has gradually improved.

Source: Antara News