ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF MUNJANG MANGROVE FOREST AND CONSERVATION EFFORTS BASED ON COMMUNITY APPROACH

Ecotourism development in a mangrove forest area includes many positive and negative aspects and requires a sustainable comprehensive study. Ecotourism potential must be assessed to provide an understanding of local people in managing natural resources. This study aims at identifying the potential for the development of ecotourism and determining the efforts of conservation strategies for supporting mangrove forests. Data collection was done by questionnaires and interviews using a 1-5 Likert scale measurement and SWOT analysis to determine ecotourism development strategies. The results of the study indicate that the Munjang mangrove forest has very good potential to be developed as an ecotourism area. It is supported by the efforts of conservation as the main key in realizing the development of sustainable ecotourism. The role of the community and stakeholders has been well established such as mangrove seeding and nursery activities. Finally, this study recognizes that the capacity of sustainability indicators is very important to map the transformation and constant challenges of supporting mangrove ecotourism so that it can provide conservation benefits, provide quality services for visitors and improve local communities' welfare.


INTRODUCTION
Tourism has become an important social and economic activity in various parts of the world in the last few decades. Studies on tourism show that tourism activities have been able to contribute to the country's economy (Firdaus & Tutri, 2018). Tourism is currently considered as a form of motivation that underlies the fact of someone to travel to a location other than an ordinary residence, and the desire to rest and do complementary activities to fill spare time (Mondino & Beery, 2019).
The development of tourism is now experiencing a shift from the concept of "mass tourism" to special interest tourism "ecotourism" (Agarwal et al., 2018). Ecotourism is known as a form of eco-friendly tourism which is oriented to educating various focuses and meanings which are referred to as green tourism (d 'Hauteserre & Funck, 2016;Furqan et al., 2010). Ecotourism also has a very important role in increasing people's income, cultural preservation, and environmental preservation efforts (Henri et al., 2017).
Ecotourism as a form of foreign exchange source for regions that are starting to stretch currently in the form of mangrove ecotourism. The concept of developing mangrove ecotourism strategies is carried out by implementing mangrove conservation and rehabilitation efforts as one of the tourism programs, increasing participation, and empowering the tourism community (Wahyuni et al., 2015).
Mangrove areas have a high potential for tourism development, this is based on the unique characteristics of the flora and fauna (Fahrian et al., 2015).  (Munroe, 2015).
Questionnaire tabulation used a Likert scale to determine the value of perceptions of tourists with a range of 1-5 where 1 shows strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree. Likert scale is used for knowing the perceptions of tourists towards the development of ecotourism which is processed using predetermined scores (Likert, 1932). The direction of the ecotourism development strategy was formulated using a SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat). This analysis was based on internal and external factors to maximize strengths and opportunities and can minimize weaknesses and threats (Sariisik et al., 2011).

Tourists Profile
Based on the results (  Besides, mangroves also have physical, biological, and economic functions (Riwayati, 2014).
It is due to the lack of socialization conducted by the government to the community, especially students/university students as visitors with the highest percentage (Table 1), so knowledge about mangrove conservation does not reach all levels of society. Therefore, it is necessary for a conservation education approach related to the ecological benefits of mangrove forests in an integrated way (Majid et al., 2016). Based on Surjanti et al.  (Kariada & Irsadi, 2014).

Ecotourism Development Strategy
Based on an analysis that considers the importance of external and internal factors and the interrelationships between these factors (SWOT analysis, Table 3), 4 alternative strategies are obtained.
Munjang mangrove ecotourism activity strategies as follows. Proper identification of problems of the environment can help in guiding protected areas. Conservation management practices will produce sustainable ecotourism products (Gorddard et al., 2016). This identification as a form of preventing inequalities that can explain the barriers to conservation, and ultimately the conservation goals can help in achieving one of the environmentally sustainable programs (Bennett et al., 2017).

Increasing community participation and empowerment
Increasing community participation in the management of Munjang mangrove ecotourism can give benefit to the local economy. Community participation in managing mangrove ecosystems in addition to maintaining mangrove conservation will also improve community welfare (Turisno et al., 2018). The existence of community empowerment can certainly make Munjang Mangrove forest community-based ecotourism.
Community-based ecotourism was identified as having the ability to improve the local economy and has been introduced in many countries (Lee, 2013).
Ecotourism is representative of the most valuable form of sustainable tourism development because it is closely related to natural resources (Stefanica & Vlavian-Gurmeza, 2010). Ecotourism development is a way to utilize natural resources economically (Nyaupane & Poudel, 2011).