Tanjung Jabung
Location:
1°01'S, 104°22'E; between the mouth of the Batang Han River and Sungai Jambat, just northeast of the Berbak Game Reserve, Jambi Province, Sumatra.
Area:
c.3,000 ha.
Altitude:
0-0.5m.
Wetland type:
06 & 07.
Description of site:
A coastal fringe of mangrove forest, approximately 200-500m wide, with some soft mudflats. The site lies to the east of the mouth of the Batang Han River. The tidal range is about 2m.
Climatic conditions:
Humid tropical climate.
Principal vegetation:
Mangrove forest; Avicennia marina dominates where the mangrove fringe is narrowest, and Rhizophora sp where the fringe is wide. Coconut plantations and rice paddies in adjacent areas.
Land tenure:
The wetland is state owned; surrounding areas are owned by the local villages.
Conservation measures taken:
The area was protected until the late l970s when the boundaries of the Berbak Game Reserve were relocated following large-scale reclamation of land behind the mangrove fringe.
Conservation measures proposed:
Silvius (1986) has recommended that the area be protected as a Nature Reserve (Cagar Aiam), to link up with the Hutan Bakau Pantai Timor Nature Reserve.
Land use:
Some cutting of mangrove poles and inshore fisheries. There are large coconut plantations behind the mangrove fringe.
Disturbances and threats:
Illegal logging and spontaneous reclamation schemes.
Economic and social values:
The mangrove is an important nursery and breeding area for species of prawns and marine fishes which are important for the inshore fisheries of the region.
Fauna:
Many species of prawns and marine fishes use the mangrove swamps as a nursery and breeding area.
The mudflats are used by many thousands of migratory shorebirds of at least 24 species. Some 12,000 shorebirds were present in autumn 1984, 7,500 in summer 1985, and 5,300 in spring1986. The area is particularly important for the rare Asian Dowitcher Limnodromus semipalmatus; 100 were present in autumn 1984, and 474 in spring 1986. The shorebird counts in April 1986 also included:
370 Charadrius mongolus 105 C. Ieschenaultii
2,760 Limosa limosa 140 Numenius phaeopus
110 N. madagascariensis 475 Tringa totanus
130 T. stagnatilis 115 Xenus cinereus
50 Arenaria interpres 44 Calidris canutus
130 C. ferruginea
Other waterbirds present at the same time included 245 Mycteria cinerea Milky Storks, thirty-five Ardea cinerea, two A. sumatrana, twenty-six Leptoptilos javanicus and sixty Anas querquedula.
Special floral values:
No information.
Research and facilities:
The area has been surveyed three times: in 1984, 1985 and 1986. The area is readily accessible by speed-boat from the village of Nipa Panjang.
References:
Danielson & Skov (1986 & 1987); Silvius (1986); Silvius et al. (1986)
Criteria for Inclusion:
1b, 2a, 2c, 3a.
Source:
Marcel J. Silvius.