Structural sustainability imbalances in community-managed mangrove ecosystems in Central Java, Indonesia
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Abstract. Iftitani MA, Dewi MPS, Sheliana MS, Hapsari M, Wahyuni T, Yap CK, Setyawan AD. 2025. Spatio-temporal changes in mangrove density and cover in Sriwulan and Pasar Banggi-Tireman, Central Java, Indonesia. Intl J Bonorowo Wetlands 15: 130-139. Mangrove ecosystems play a strategic role in supporting ecological integrity, coastal protection, and socio-economic resilience in tropical coastal landscapes by providing essential ecosystem services such as shoreline stabilization, biodiversity support, and livelihood resources for coastal communities. Despite their importance, mangrove systems continue to face sustainability challenges driven by anthropogenic pressures, including land-use conversion, aquaculture expansion, and weak governance arrangements. Existing assessments of mangrove sustainability have predominantly adopted sectoral approaches that emphasize either ecological or socio-economic dimensions in isolation, limiting the ability to diagnose cross-dimensional interactions and structural conditions in which progress in one dimension coexists with persistent constraints in others. As a result, structural sustainability imbalances remain insufficiently examined, particularly in community-managed mangrove systems. This study diagnoses structural sustainability imbalance in a community-managed mangrove ecosystem in Kartika Jaya Village, Central Java, Indonesia, using a cross-sectional, single-site design. A multidimensional assessment was conducted using the Rapid Appraisal for Mangrove Forest (RAP-MForest) method, applying Multidimensional Scaling, leverage analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation. Rather than functioning solely as an evaluative index, RAP-MForest was applied as a diagnostic framework to examine relative performance and sensitivity across ecological, economic, and social dimensions. The results indicate that the ecological (68.16) and social (73.87) dimensions exhibit fairly sustainable conditions, supported by moderate ecosystem resilience and strong community awareness and participation. In contrast, the economic dimension (41.93) shows substantially weaker performance, reflecting limited economic utilization, funding constraints, and weak integration with local development. This cross-dimensional disparity produces a clear structural sustainability imbalance, in which economic underperformance constrains overall system coherence. Conceptually, this study advances sustainability assessment by framing sustainability as a configuration of interacting dimensions rather than an average composite score. Practically, the findings highlight the need for management and policy interventions that prioritize economic leverage points to consolidate existing ecological recovery and social capital within community-based mangrove management.
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