Sururi, a farmer who has consistently greened the northern coastal area with mangrove plants at Mangunharjo Beach in Mangkang Wetan, Tugu District, Semarang City, Central Java, Thursday (July 18, 2024). For over a decade, the area has served as a mangrove nursery and cultivation site managed by a local farmer group. The Mangunharjo coastline also serves as a natural laboratory for students, researchers, institutions, and environmental organizations to learn about mangroves that protect the coast. Kompas/P Raditya Mahendra Yasa (Edited by O2 Consulting)
18-07-2024
I first met Mr. Sururi in December 2022 when visiting him in Mangkang, Semarang. He was 60 years old with a robust physical build.
His tanned skin showed nearly 30 years of planting mangroves under the sun. He only finished elementary school.
Yet, his deep knowledge of mangroves surpassed academic experts. People naturally call him the “Mangrove Professor.” Learning about his 30-year dedication, my colleague and I felt he truly deserved government appreciation like the Kalpataru Award.
Mr. Sururi said some NGOs were interested in what he had done and submitted his profile for the award. Nonetheless, he never became the winner, even for the Kalpataru Award at the Central Java level. Therefore, he felt discouraged and never wanted to participate in any other award.
Later, I gradually learned what encouraged Mr. Sururi to do what he was fighting for. In 1995, when the abrasion in coastal Semarang became severe, the distance between Mr. Sururi’s home and the sea was approximately 600 meters. He was frightened that his neighborhood would be drowned due to abrasion, like what happened in Bedono village in Demak, Central Java.
As a Semarang native, I could say that Mr. Sururi’s fear is reasonable. Such a disaster would have happened if the city had no clear urban planning plan and no massive action to restore the Semarang coastal ecosystem.
Mr. Sururi then envisioned saving his home and village from abrasion and flooding by planting mangroves. Nonetheless, learning how to do it was hard as he had no teacher, education, or skills.
At first, in 1997, he bought mangrove seedlings from mangrove planters in other cities and conducted trial-and-error to plant the seedlings. He experienced failures countless times, as the mangrove’s growth and survival rate were low due to the tide dynamics. Indeed, when it failed, he lost all the money he had gathered from his side job collecting crabs at night.
Prof. Sudharto, an ecological expert from Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang—who then became his lifetime mentor—taught him how to cultivate mangroves. Believing he could not do it alone, Mr. Sururi then involved the neighborhood in preserving the mangrove by creating Komunitas Mangrove Lestari, consisting of 12 mangrove farmers and ten fishermen from the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sururi’s wife, Nurhayati, encouraged the women to cultivate mangrove parts into value-for-money products. These included syrup and chips made from mangrove fruits, batik made from the natural dye from mangrove trash, and so on.
Mr. Sururi and Mrs. Nurhayati’s persistence guided the family. I witnessed firsthand how they prioritized their children’s education. As a result, all six children of Mr. Sururi and Mrs. Nurhayati graduated from college, while the youngest was studying at university.
This was unusual. Fishermen or coastal communities usually did not prioritize education for their children. It was probably because he envisioned his children’s future.
The same vision also drives him to pave the path for regeneration, ensuring the fertile growth of 80 hectares of mangrove forest he has nurtured since 1998. Mr. Sururi has prepared his youngest son, Fajril, to continue his work as a mangrove farmer and has shared his knowledge with students and volunteers who often learn about mangrove preservation. Therefore, his knowledge and skills will continue to be passed on.
Initially taught by Prof. Sudharto how to cultivate mangroves, Mr. Sururi has also become a “professor” himself, as many academicians have asked his opinion and conducted research for their dissertations in his nursery.
My colleague and I believe that Mr. Sururi’s journey is not a story of the past but a beacon of hope for the future. Therefore, the more society knows about his story, the more people, primarily the younger generations, are inspired to initiate actions like Mr. Sururi. That was why we were determined to submit Mr. Sururi’s profile on Kalpataru 2024 in the Perintis Lingkungan category.
Even with that, doing so took work. It was like gambling because after talking to Mr. Sururi, he agreed to rejoin the competition, but only for this time. We could imagine how devastated Mr. Sururi and his family would be if he failed again. That is why we did our best in each appraisal step, starting from the submission.
We understand that numerous outstanding figures might be out there. If they had conducted environmental preservation for a longer time, with a broader preservation coverage area, and had a more significant ecological, social, and economic impact. We would have had little chance of winning. Not to mention that the judges might be bored after delving into the numbers and information in each application.
That is why we decided not to focus more on the numbers. After all, people might not remember the tiny details. Hence, we tried to communicate more through the narrative. We created a story that might be compelling for the judges, tapping into the genuine and humanistic side of Mr. Sururi’s journey.
Kalpataru: Mr. Sururi’s Fruit of Dedication to the Environment
After approximately three months of the judging process, we are thrilled that Mr. Sururi became one of the winners in the Perintis Lingkungan category. Not to mention that O2 Consulting becomes a private sector whose nominee become the winner—a rare achievement, as local Environmental Services usually nominate most figures.
The inauguration was on June 5, 2024, which coincided with World Environment Day. We will never forget this moment, as we were thrilled to help Mr. Sururi bear the fruit of his dedication to the environment.
In the future, we hope to do the same when we meet individuals or communities worthy of being submitted to the Kalpataru Award. The nation needs to hear more stories of this environmental hero, and we hope that the spirit of preserving the environment attracts people to do regeneration.
