BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 24, Number 1, January 2023 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 379-390 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d240145 The fate of mangrove ecosystem sustainability on the shrimp cultivation area in Tulang Bawang District, Lampung, Indonesia SAMSUL BAKRI 1,2 , FERLI HARTATI 1, , HARI KASKOYO 1,2 , INDRA GUMAY FEBRYANO 2,3 , BAINAH SARI DEWI 2 1 Department of Environmental Science, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Lampung. Jl. Prof. Dr. Sumantri Brojonegoro No. 1 Bandar Lampung 35145, Lampung, Indonesia. Tel./fax.: +62-721-783682,  email: ferlihartati@gmail.com 2 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Lampung. Jl. Prof. Dr. Sumantri Brojonegoro No. 1, Bandar Lampung 35145, Lampung, Indonesia 3 Department of Coastal and Marine Zone Management, Graduate Program, Universitas Lampung. Jl. Prof. Dr. Sumantri Brojonegoro No. 1, Bandar Lampung 35145, Lampung, Indonesia Manuscript received: 3 November 2022. Revision accepted: 14 January 2023. Abstract. Bakri S, Hartati F, Kaskoyo H, Febryano IG, Dewi BS. 2023. The fate of mangrove ecosystem sustainability on the shrimp cultivation area in Tulang Bawang, Lampung, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 379-390. The exploitation of mangrove forests for economic purposes is rampant in tropical countries nowadays, particularly for shrimp farming, such as in the Lampung green belt in the front of the Java Sea. So, ensuring the sustainability of existing mangroves is the need of the hour. In view of above, this study aims to analyze the sustainability index of mangrove ecosystem management and the sustainability status of the mangrove ecosystem from the ecological, economic, social, and institutional dimensions using the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) method through the Rapid Appraisal for Fisheries (RAPFISH) approach in East Rawajitu Sub-district, Tulang Bawang District, Lampung Province, Indonesia. The analysis revealed that mangrove ecosystem management’s sustainability index was categorized as ‘less sustainable’ (index 43.01 out of 100). Meanwhile, the social dimension (51.65) was categorized as ‘quite sustainable’, and other dimensions (ecological, econo mic, and institutional) were ‘less sustainable.’ Therefore, it is proposed that further development of the social dimension is a strategic way to develop the other three sustainability dimensions to achieve ecosystem sustainability as a whole in the study area. Alternative strategies that can be applied for sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems in East Rawajitu Sub-district, Tulang Bawang District are increasing coordination between stakeholders, creating formal regulations, increasing the productivity and creativity of Ikatan Istri-istri Petambak Dipasena (ISTANA), formulating an integrated mangrove ecosystem management plan program, undertaking rehabilitation efforts, increasing the role of mangrove groups, and increase the attention of researchers. Key words: Mangrove ecosystem, RAPFISH, shrimp cultivation, strategy, sustainability INTRODUCTION Coastal zone is a transitional area between terrestrial and marine ecosystems that has a wealth of potential natural resources (Askar et al. 2021) and is able to maintain water productivity (Fithor et al. 2018). Mangroves ecosystem is one of the transitional ecosystems in the coastal areas that play an important role in ensuring the sustainability of the coast (Hartati et al. 2020). Mangroves are a group of salt-tolerant plant species that occur in intertidal estuarine regions of tropical and subtropical coast (Jia et al. 2020). Mangroves offers wide array of ecological, social and economic services (Basyuni et al. 2018; Melet et al. 2020). Ecologically, the mangrove ecosystem plays a role as a life support system, shoreline protection (Naharuddin 2021), seawater intrusion barrier, preventing abrasion, breakwaters, and marine biota habitat (Marlianingrum et al. 2021), while the socio-economic benefits of mangroves are as a means of ecotourism (Agaton and Collera 2022), a source of food and medicine, and can increase income (Alam et al. 2022). In addition, the mangrove ecosystem has a strategic function as a primary producer capable of sustaining and stabilizing other ecosystems around it. The various benefits of the mangrove ecosystems have an impact on people's lives, but these benefits can also have severe consequences for their existence (Menéndez et al. 2020). The higher the rate of population growth and economic development, the more changes in land use and excessive use of natural resources occur, especially in mangrove ecosystems (Marques et al. 2019). As a result, the environment’s carrying capacity for human activities will decreases and rate of environmental degradation increases. The recent estimate has revealed that the total area of mangrove forests globally is 1.7 million hectares, spread over 118 countries and territories (Wang and Gu 2021). Currently, mangrove forests are declining in quality and quantity at an alarming rate worldwide (Carugati et al. 2018; Matatula et al. 2019). Globally, mangroves have experienced an annual loss of between 0.16% and 0.39%, because of rapid coastal development (Hamilton and Casey 2016). In South Asia, mangrove forests have been lost at an average rate of 0.18% per year (Richards and Friess 2016). The global area of mangrove forests decreased by 1.04 million ha between 1990 and 2020 (Leal and Spalding 2022).