Mangroves under threat Globally, half of all mangrove forests have been lost since the mid-twentieth century, with onefifth since 1980 (Spalding et al. 2010). Conversion into
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Regional Public Affairs Office Caraga Administrative Region
shrimp farms causes 25% of the total destruction, according to UNEP (Botkin and Keller, 2003), happening mostly in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Other drivers of mangrove
destruction are wood
extraction, climate change and industrial development such as harbours and tourism.
MANGROVES Some of the National Greening Program Mangrove sites in Caraga
Defenders of the coast
Intrinsic Values of Mangroves
Forests of the Tide At the intersection of land and sea, mangrove forests support a wealth of life, from starfish to people, and may be more important to the health of the planet than we ever realized. –National Geographic
Coastal Resilience
Carbon Storage
Mangrove forests provide protection and
Storage of carbon in mangroves takes place
shelter against extreme weather events, such as storm
through accumulation in living biomass and through
winds and floods, as well as tsunamis. Mangroves
burial in sediment deposits. With living biomass
absorb and disperse tidal surges associated with these
typically ranging between 100-400 tonnes/ha, and
events – as indicated by Hirashi and Harada (2003), a
significant quantities of organic matter being stored in
mangrove stand of 30 trees per 0.01 hectare with a
the sediments, mangroves rival the sequestration
depth of 100 m can reduce the destructive force of a
potential of rainforests.
tsunami by up to 90%.
Mangroves are a crossroad where oceans, freshwater, and land realms meet. They are among the most productive and complex ecosystems on the planet, growing under environmental conditions that would kill ordinary plants very quickly. Mangrove forests are particularly found in tropical and subtropical regions within 300 of the equator. These tidal areas, such as estuaries and marine shorelines, are frequently inundated with salt water. Strongly in decline, mangrove forests occupy about 15.2 million hectares of tropical coast worldwide: across Africa, Australia, Asia and America (Spalding et al.2010).
Livelihoods
Biodiversity
Traditional economic activities vary from
Mangrove forests are rich in biodiversity
fishing and gathering of crustaceans to usages of the
providing a habitat for wide varieties of animal and
trees for timber or tannin production. Research by
plant species. They are dynamic areas, rich in food.
Barbier (2007) concluded that the economic annual
Live and decaying mangrove leaves and roots provide
value of just one hectare of mangrove forest (by
nutrients that nourish plankton, algae, fish and
adding the values of collected wood and non-wood
shellfish. Many of the fish caught commercially in
forest products, fishery, nursery and coastal protection
tropical regions reproduce and spend time in the
against storms) is $12,392.
mangroves as juveniles or adults. Mangroves are also
Next to economic value, mangroves also bear great cultural significance for communities, such as
home to many birds and mammals – such as mangrove monkeys in South Asia.
the Concheras (shellfish-gatherers) in South America, as their identity is strongly related to the ecosystem they live in.
SOURCE: http://www.wetlands.org