Dampak Pembangunan Ekonomi Di Kota Ambon Terhadap Tutupan Lahan Dan Ekosistem Mangrove Di Teluk Ambon

The government of Ambon City has a program to accelerate the economic development and focuses on the development of Ambon City as water front city. This study applied remote sensing and transect method and utilized the economic data to identify the impacts of economic development in Ambon City on the land cover and mangrove ecosystem at Ambon Bay. The result indicated the average rate of economic growth significantly positively correlated with the average rate of land clearing (r = 0.92). The average rate of land clearing from 1972 to 2006 was 0.37 persen per year. During the social conflicts from 1999 to 2001 in Ambon, the average rate of land clearing dramatically declined from 26.4 ha/year to 0.93 ha/year. However, after the conflict, the land clearing increased sharply to 10.4 ha/year. Land clearing has also been accuring in mangrove forest areas that caused a lot of mangrove forests became fragmented into small spots. In addition, mangrove regeneration has also been disturbed by the mud resulted from the land clearing and by the piles of rubbish. Regarding to the environment standard of Indonesian ministry of environment Decision Number 201 Year 2004, mangrove ecosystem in Ambon Bay is categorised in the bad condition. Oseanologi dan Limnologi Indonesia, Tahun 2013, Volume 39(3), Halaman 269-382