Indonesia has the greatest expanse of mangrove forest anywhere on Earth, which formerly meant its coastline was one of the best protected in the tropics. But in the last few decades, significant swaths of that forest have been removed to make way for shrimp and fish ponds, exposing swathes of Java and Sumatra to waves that earlier smashed harmlessly against extensive root systems. Villages that never had to worry about the sea began to witness it move steadily inland, graveyards, homes and fields lost to water that mangroves used to hold back.
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