The Forests That Live Between the Tides

We rarely give them a second thought, yet mangroves may be the hardest working plants on the planet. 

They grow in the muddy margins where land gives way to sea, and yet they do extraordinary work. They hold shorelines together against erosion, shelter the young fish and marine life that keep our oceans thriving, filter the water around them, and store remarkable amounts of carbon. For biodiversity and climate resilience alike, few ecosystems matter more.  

But for all they give us, we are losing them fast. Roughly 67 percent of the world's mangroves are already gone, and what remains is vanishing three to five times faster than forests on land, with every hectare cleared undoing centuries of buried carbon in a matter of years. That slow unravelling is the reason 26 July is set aside each year as World Mangrove Day, the UNESCO observance now marking its tenth anniversary in 2026. 

If mangroves have a homeland, it is Indonesia. Nowhere on Earth holds more of them, some 31,000 square kilometers woven through the country's islands and river mouths. It is also home to the Atlas Pearls South Sea pearl farms, set along remote coastlines where clean water is not a nice idea but the whole reason we can operate here at all. A pearl of any real quality demands a pristine ocean, which means that for Atlas, caring for the environment is not a gesture. It is essential to the survival of our business and the communities around us. 

That is why, over the past year, Atlas Pearls has worked hand in hand with local communities, government agencies and conservation organisations to restore mangroves across five sites in Pungu, Lembata, Denpasar, North Bali and Alor. Each project was shaped around the conditions of its own coastline and the needs of the people who live there, all in service of one long term goal, healthier coastal ecosystems that endure. 

Across those five initiatives, 3,864 mangrove seedlings were planted. Our partnership with Thresher Shark Indonesia deepened the effort further, supporting the community Mangrove Guardians in Alor who raised 3,079 nursery propagules, kept a close watch through regular monitoring, ran 21 beach cleanups, and achieved survival rates above 98 percent across their sites. In a field where young mangroves so often fail to take, a result like that speaks to genuine care and commitment.  

No two projects looked the same. In Pungu, students planted nursery grown seedlings with their own hands, learning why these forests matter as they worked. In Lembata, our staff joined regional government representatives to coax a degraded stretch of coastline back to life. In Denpasar, the team partnered with the Bali Government to adopt restoration plots within the Mangrove Arboretum, while in North Bali a new collaboration with Mangrove Conservation Menjangan laid the groundwork for years of monitoring, maintenance and planting still to come. And in Alor, the local Mangrove Guardians showed just how much community led conservation can achieve, through nursery development, careful monitoring, replacement planting and steady coastal cleanups.  

What ties it all together is a long term commitment to rehabilitation and monitoring across several years, and a habit of working hand in hand with local communities to see it through. 

Lessons in the Mud 

The real value of these projects lies in what they teach us. Lasting restoration depends on choosing the right species, reading local tidal conditions, watching carefully over what survives, and working alongside the communities and conservation partners who know their coastlines best. By weaving together restoration, education, collaboration and long term stewardship, these initiatives are helping to build healthier, more resilient coastlines for the generations still to come.