Mangrove forests along the vast expanses of Indonesia's 95,180 kilometres of shoreline have long attracted man's curiosity for some time. These unique tidal forests have developed luxuriantly along the low-gradient, passive-margins of the wide continental shelf of Indonesia. No books concerning Indonesia's mangroves have been published previously by the Research Centre for Oceanography of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), despite the fact that these forests are areas of amazing beauty, exceptionally high biodiversity, and are the home and basis for the sociocultural and economic livelihoods of millions of Indonesians. This book highlights a particular problem regarding our 13 provinces that border with the South China Sea -- we have insufficient information about the vast coastal tracts of Indonesia's South China Sea region.