Linking the land to the sea

Much maligned as 'smelly, swampy, mosquito-ridden places',

the true beauty and value of mangroves should not be
overlooked.
Dominating many coastlines in tropical and subtropical areas, mangroves
are a bridge between terrestrial and marine environments. They are also
extremely productive ecosystems.
The forests transfer organic matter and energy from the land to the sea,
forming the base of many marine food webs. They are also home to a
wide variety of marine and terrestrial life, and serve as nurseries for many
coral reef and commercially important fish species.

In addition, mangrove forests play a vital role in trapping sediments,

thereby stabilizing coastlines and protecting coral reefs and sea grass
meadows. http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/coasts/mangroves/

Managing Cambodia's mangroves for all

20 January 2011 | News story
The Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary covers more than 25,000 hectares and
protects one of Cambodias most important mangrove areas. These mangrove
forests are a haven for saltwater crocodiles and Irrawaddy dolphins and serve as
a stopover for migrating birds like the Asiatic dowitcher and the spotted
greenshank.
But uncontrolled access to the area as well as competing uses for its resources, including
fishing by local communities and tourism, has led to degradation of this valuable site.
National and international concern for the future of the sanctuary led to the establishment of
a Protected Area Law in February 2009 which allows for zoning of the area according to the
different uses.
IUCN is involved in ongoing efforts to restore the sanctuary through its Livelihoods and
Landscapes Strategy. The work aims to show how sustainable natural resource management
and zoning an area according to different uses and needs can help secure livelihoods. Local
people are now involved in managing the protected area. They now have secure and
exclusive rights to harvest fish and crabs in parts of the reserve which is seen as key to the
long term viability of conservation efforts. Guidelines for sustainable catch quotas of crabs
and fish are being set through scientific monitoring and consultations with the local
community and best practice guidelines to help the village management committee are
being developed.
This approach to natural resource management is already seeing results. The local
communities benefit from sustained income generation through fishing and tourism. The
local economy benefits from increased and better-managed tourism. Biodiversity benefits
from a sustainably managed reserve that includes a core no-harvest zone. And on the
national level, Cambodia now has a pilot area that can be used to guide other protected area
management projects based on zoning and securing access rights for local people.
http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/focus/?uNewsId=4609
Cambodias mangrove resources are under threats. Mangroves are
dwindling every year due to the increase of shrimp aquaculture,
industrialization and touristy development, deforestation for
charcoal production, rising sea level, and the severe impact of
climate changes. In 1990, mangrove area covered 82,400 hectares
nationwide, while in 2005 it remained only 69,200 hectares. The loss
of mangrove system spells a disaster for the local livelihood in the
form of fishery, bird species, and biodiversity decline, soil erosion,
salinization of coastal soil, and deterioration of clean water resource.
http://mangroveconservation.wix.com/susicambodia

Protecting mangrove forests in Cambodia

Lisa Waldick
With support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a
group of researchers at the national level and in Koh Kong province are taking a
new approach to managing mangrove resources one that involves the
leadership of local people. And the group is having success: people who were
destroying the mangroves are now helping to protect them. Based in part on
these results, the Cambodian government has also modified its policy on the
environment.

Lush resources

With their roots deep in mud, jagged and gnarled mangrove trees are able to
grow in the brackish wetlands between land and sea where other plant life
cannot survive. The trees offer refuge and nursery grounds for fish, crabs,
shrimp, and mollusks. They are nesting and migratory sites for hundreds of bird
species. They also provide homes for monkeys, lizards, sea turtles, and many
other animals as well as countless insects.

Until relatively recently, the mangroves of Koh Kong, Cambodia have remained
relatively intact. This is partly because of the regions location it is an
isolated, inaccessible place and because decades of war and conflict
perversely protected the forests from overexploitation. Local people, however,
tended to use the forests sustainably, for food, fuel, medicine, building
materials, and other basic needs.

However, in the early 1990s, conflict in Cambodia began to abate and the
situation changed. Poverty-stricken families from other parts of the country
moved to Koh Kong hoping to earn a living from the areas lush resources. So did
entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the lucrative trade with Thailand in aquatic
resources, logs, and illegally produced mangrove charcoal. (The wood of
mangroves, when cured in a kiln, can be transformed into high quality
charcoal.)

As resources rapidly became depleted, villagers were tempted by short-term

gains: cutting mangrove trees to illegally make charcoal to sell to intermediaries
or undertaking illegal cyanide or grenade fishing.

Taking stock

To find solutions, the Participatory Management of Mangrove Resources project

was implemented in Peam Krasoap Wildlife Sanctuary (PKWS) in Koh Kong
province in 1997. PKWS, which still contains large and dense mangrove forests,
was established in 1993 and is one of 23 protected areas in Cambodia. Project
researchers are focusing on finding ways for villagers to use natural resources
for their livelihood, also managing them so that they last.

Researchers began by taking stock of the natural resources in the area and how
they were used. They were starting from scratch because, as project leader Kim
Nong explains, "In Cambodia, we lack documentation about the history of each
region. During the Pol Pot time, all documents were destroyed. And people living
in the region are all new to the area."

Researchers worked with villagers to identify the various tree species. They then
began working with villages to find solutions: replanting the mangroves,
developing strategies for small scale fishing, investigating siliviculture for
charcoal production, undertaking experiments with aquaculture.

However, researchers had to first work to gain the trust of villagers. As Mr. Nong
explains: "People have bad history from the Pol Pot time. Because during this
time, when they called people to a study meeting, people never came back. And
after Pol Pot, no government or institution invited villagers to join a meeting.
Never. So after our project became involved in the area, when we invited them
to come to a meeting, they were still thinking about Pol Pot. They were afraid."

Through steady communication, trust built and villagers became more actively
involved in the project. "Weve gone from seeing village chiefs who were half-
interested to having them completely on board." says Melissa Marschke, a
project advisor in Koh Kong. "Now villages are initiating their own strategies and
coming up with their own ideas of how they would like to protect their
resources." For example, they have developed community regulations, and
developed strategies for protecting the mangroves: anyone caught cutting
mangroves has his or her boat confiscated.

Getting government buy-in

The team also focused on building the capacity of the Cambodian government
to protect the environment. They helped them to see the environment as
inextricably linked to sustainable livelihoods and peoples participation as
essential for environmental protection. Researchers communicated regularly
with Ministers, chiefs of departments, and the provincial government. They
provided training about biodiversity or mangrove ecology, and organized study
tours opportunities for officials to come to the village and actually see the
work in the field.

"To have a Minister come down to the field level is still very rare in Cambodia,"
says Ms Marschke. "And the fact that the Minister here is coming down every
year to see what the project is doing and to have him really listening to those
results is really significant".

In Koh Kong, officials saw that villagers were experimenting with new
approaches for example, attempting small scale aquaculture. "In a society
that is risk-adverse life is hard, and you dont want to take chances this is
significant," says Ms Marschke.

In addition, says Ms Marschke, "People who once made charcoal by cutting

mangrove trees have actually come to help protect the mangrove." As Mr Nong
explains it, powerful and authoritative people in community were offering
protection to those who illegally extracted resources in exchange for a cut of
the profits. However, because of the project the dynamic has changed in the
community such that people are now "shy" to covertly extract resources,
according to Mr Nong.

"Because of the project, resource degradation has stopped not all, not a
complete stop, but 80 percent," says Mr Nong. "Before people were thinking
they didnt have the right [to protect natural resources]. Now they are thinking
its not just your resource, its my resource too," he says.

Because of these results, government officials changed their policy on how

natural resources should be protected, revising a draft subdecree to
acknowledge that communities do have the right to manage their own
resources. They initially believed that the most effective way to protect natural
resources was to move people out of the protected areas. "But after the
discussion that they had throughout the project," says Mr Nong, "they decided it
was important for the community to control their own
resources." http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Themes/Natural_Resources/Pages/ArticleDetails.a
spx?PublicationID=912
 FACTS & FIGURES

o Roughly 1/5 of coral reefs worldwide are already considered damaged beyond
repair
o Another 2/3 under serious threat
o More than 35% of the world's mangroves are already gone, and the figure is
as high as 50% in some countries
o Less than 1% of the remaining mangrove forests are adequately
protectedhttp://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/marine/prote
cted_areas/increasing_protection/corals_mangroves/
Cambodian Mangroves

18 June 2008

Beyond the bustling town of Koh Kong, off the coast of southern Cambodia, lie 45,000 hectares
of mangrove forest among the most pristine in Southeast Asia. Like others around the
world, Cambodias mangroves are under threat.

Mangroves form a transition zone between land and sea. Like all transitional ecosystems, they are
diverse. Mangrove foliage provides rich bird habitat. Fish, crabs and mollusks hide and breed in their
dense, aerial root system, which is adapted to salty water.

As if these ecosystem services werent enough, mangroves stabilize soil, moderate the force of wind
and waves, recycle nutrients and sequester carbon.

Ironically, Cambodian mangroves prospered under the Khmer Rouge, which preferred to herd its
citizens into the middle of the country. With their downfall, and the emergence of a market
economy in the 1990s, powerful entrepreneurs with military or government links began clearing
the mangroves for shrimp farms and charcoal. Local middlemen joined in, along
with inland Cambodians and foreign fishermen attracted to the regions rich mangroves.

Alarmed by resource decline and encouraged by international NGOs the Cambodian government
began cracking down. Conservation and poverty reduction could both be promoted, the government
reasoned, by empowering local communities. Commune elections were held for the first time in 2002,
followed by a community fisheries law. For the first time, mangrove communities began managing
their own resources.

With help from the U.N. Development Program and Canadas International Development Research
Center, Cambodia Environment Ministry launched the Participatory Management of Coastal Resources
Project in 1997. Community workshops were held on mangroveecology and management. In 2001, the
first village management committees were formed within the boundaries of Peam Krasaop Wildlife
Sanctuary, deep in Koh Kongs mangroves. Villages outside the sanctuary, around Chrouy Pros Bay,
have been invited to participate, in order to reduce fishing conflicts.
Community management has been a success. Villagers have protected local sea grass beds, which are
linked to the mangroveecosystem and add fish spawning habitat. In the mangroves themselves,
community patrols do their best to control illegal cutting and fishing practices. Mangroves have been
successfully regenerated.

On the down side, government support for enforcement is limited and inconsistent and, outside the
confines of community areas, illegal practices continue, such as the use of light boats armed with
powerful lamps that attract fish. Some fear that commercial dredging of the Koh Kong River led by
powerful Cambodian interests will damage the mangroves.

As elsewhere in the world, mangrove villagers and their international supporters realize that tourism
may be the greatest force formangrove protection. At least one villager in the area is planning an
ecotourism initiative.
http://mangroveactionproject.org/news/current_headlines/cambodian-
mangroves

Phuket lifestyle: Saving Thailands

mangroves
Phuket Gazette - Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:46:00 AM

Krabi
mangrove
habitats.
 A special
report from
Krabi about
plans by
the
Mangrove
Action
Project and
the Global
Nature
Fund to
rehabilitate
Thailands
mangrove
habitats.

PHUKET: Conserving the mangroves may not be as sexy as saving

the rainforest, but its arguably even more important for the
environment, says Udo Gattenlhner, Executive Director of the
Global Nature Fund (GNF).

The non-profit, independent foundation is facilitating an

international project designed to rehabilitate lost mangrove forests
in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

Funded by the German government, the collaboration between

NGOs in the four Asian countries aims to rehabilitate a hundred
hectares of damaged or destroyed mangrove forest while creating a
network to enable effective knowledge transfer between the
partners.

Jaruwan Kaewmahanin, Field Coordinator for the Trang-based Asia

branch of the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) which hosted the initial
project meeting in Krabi said, Mangrove forests are a really
important habitat and nursery ground for fish, plants and many
other organisms, and around 40% of the Worlds mangroves are
located in Asia.

While theyre one of the most productive, theyre also amongst the
most threatened ecosystems on Earth. Half of the worlds mangrove
forests have been destroyed and the rate of destruction has been
fastest in the last 30 years, Jaruwan said.

Local people living around the coasts or near tidal areas are
becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of retaining intact
mangrove forests, which can ensure a sustainable source of income
from the harvesting of fish, crabs, wild shrimps as well as other
animal and plant sources of food, fuel and medicines. They also
provide a defense against coastal erosion, storm surges and even
catastrophic events such as the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Bang Don, a community leader in Ban Lang Da village on the Krabi

estuary, has been a consistently supportive advocate of efforts by
MAP and Wetlands International to restore lost mangroves near his
village. He says that many of the local mangroves have been
destroyed during his lifetime and that he has observed first-hand, as
a result, the decline in wild fish and other species in the area.

GNFs Udo Gattenlhner says that any efforts to rehabilitate lost

mangroves must engage with, and support, local interests. Local
communities must be fully involved and supportive, he says, and
they must see tangible benefits from the results of mangrove
rehabilitation.

At a restoration project near Ban Taleh Nok, close to Ranong, Nipa

Palm was chosen as one of the main species to plant in consultation
with local people as it provides a direct economic value to their
community. However, the choice of mangrove species
to plant is highly dependent on factors such as water salinity, depth
and flow. Potential economic value has to consider whether local
conditions will enable plants to thrive.

The GNF project partners will utilize the principles of Ecological

Mangrove Restoration (EMR) which is being promoted by MAP as the
best method to rehabilitate mangroves. During the meeting in Krabi,
representatives of the partner organizations received training in
EMR techniques which offer a more holistic approach to mangrove
restoration incorporating consideration of the wider ecosystem and
including the interests of local people.

The EMR approach starts from the premise that mangrove forests
may recover naturally without the need for extensive planting
efforts, and recommends that inhibiting factors such as blocked
waterways are first corrected. Restoring the natural hydrology is a
key element of the EMR approach to mangrove rehabilitation,
returning water flows to their original courses where this is possible.
Planting is only utilized when the level of mangrove recovery doesnt
meet the objectives of the project.

One of the difficulties associated with efforts to restore mangrove

habitats in Thailand is the existence of regulations which forbid the
use in mangrove areas of heavy machinery which can be very
helpful in restoring the original tidal exchange patterns, breaking
down former pond walls and performing other heavy earth moving
functions.

While commercial shrimp ponds in places like Ban Taleh Nok have
been created by removing mangroves (and often without legal right
to use the land) with tractors and other large machines, those
attempting to restore them may not be allowed to use similar
machinery to rehabilitate them without going through the
bureaucratic and often time consuming process of obtaining a
permit. While the regulations have been designed to protect
mangroves, in some cases their effect may be to hamper efforts to
restore them.

Jim Enright, MAPs Asia Coordinator, explains that having arranged a

contractor with heavy machinery for rehabilitation work at Ban Taleh
Nok, the NGO waited almost five months for official permission to go
ahead. Becoming frustrated with the delay as project funding was
only for a one year period, MAP proposed an alternative approach
and succeeded in motivating the local villagers to clear the drainage
channels and reconfigure the former shrimp ponds equipped with
only spades, specialized buckets and shovels.

Enright said, This actually turned into a win-win situation. The work
was done in a reasonable amount of time and having been so
engaged in the activity, the community now has gained full
stewardship for the restoration site and will make sure a healthy
mangrove area is maintained here.

Experts have calculated that Asia has around 250,000 hectares of

abandoned shrimp ponds which were previously mangroves. Much
of this area is capable of being returned to healthy mangrove
through restoring the hydrology and allowing natural regeneration to
take place without the need for planting. Doing so should ensure a
return to the biodiversity of the original mangrove forest over time.

An important goal of the GNF programme is the establishment of an

international network for the protection of mangroves, which will
meet regularly to discuss activities and exchange experience and
knowledge. One of the outputs from the project will be the
publication of a guidebook to help inform restoration efforts
elsewhere.
Partners in GNFs Mangrove Restoration in Asia project include: The
Nagenahiru Foundation and EMACE Foundation, Sri Lanka; Center for
Research on a New International Economic Order (CReNIEO), India;
Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), Cambodia and the Mangrove
Action Project (MAP),
Thailand. http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/phuketlifestyle/2012/article16029.html

Mangrove restoration is necessary, mangrove monoculture plantation is not

The December 2004 tsunami that played havoc on several Asian coasts also exposed the level of human-
made destruction of protective greenbelts including mangroves along coastlines. The need to re-establish
natural protective greenbelts followed suit with quite often failed attempts.

As the organization Mangrove Action Project (MAP) explains in its website, Much of the post-tsunami effort
to restore coastal greenbelts involved simple planting of mangrove seedlings and propagules. There have
been numerous failures, already, due to planting of inappropriate species, and in inappropriate locations.
Failure occurs, in general, due to a lack of understanding of the restoration site itself.

The history of the site, the mangrove species that have grown there as long as their hydrological
requirements, the depth of the substrate in which they grew, the fresh water inputs to the area or where did
exchange of tidal water take place are usually not taken fully into account in standard planting practice
which sometimes promotes an afforestation approach which is not mangrove restoration.

A lot of money has been spent in developing mangrove seedling nurseries while neglecting the need to
determine the site-specific needs of mangroves at each restoration location. MAP gives the example that
contrary to popular belief, mangroves require some freshwater to grow well, and they are submerged only
around 33% of the time. Planting mangroves along an exposed coastline, in too-deep water without fresh
water input, is a recipe for failure.

A recent case of alleged mangrove restoration project at the estuary of Sabarmati, Gujarat, India has been
questioned as only being a monoculture plantation. The project is about planting mainly one mangrove
species (Avicennia marina) on mudflats. However, mangroves do not grow well in mudflats till conditions of
hydrology change and mangroves may move into these adjacent wetland areas to colonize them. This
occurs when substrate height increases along the shorelines allowing mangroves to migrate into the
changing mudflat zone.

MAPs Executive Director Alfredo Quarto questions the approach: As sea levels rise, as is the case today,
should we not expect mangroves to move upland to the areas behind the present mangrove boundaries
-into the salt flats or salt marshes, perhaps? Another question is: how can planting mangroves in a mudflat
be likened to mangrove ecosystem restoration, when it is actually ecosystem conversion and afforestation?
Aren't mudflats themselves important, productive ecosystem components of a dynamic, interconnecting,
intertidal zone, which includes the mangroves, salt flats, salt marshes and mudflats? Don't migratory birds
such as wader birds and other species such as mollusks and other marine life have important connections
with and dependencies on a healthy mudflat?

He concludes that a plantation approach does not restore a viable, biodiverse ecosystem, but instead
creates a monoculture. In no way is a mangrove plantation a healthy mangrove ecosystem.

There is a better way than promoting monocultures of such a multi-species ecosystem -especially in Asia,
where there may well be 20-30 varieties of mangroves found in a single area. The Ecological Mangrove
Restoration (EMR) approach is an ecosystem approach that MAP is promoting as a long-term, biodiverse
method of mangrove restoration that prioritizes the restoration of the natural hydrology of disturbed areas.

As MAP explains, Restoring an area's natural hydrology will, in many cases, allow Nature to restore the
mangroves via tidal ebbs and flows, transporting mangrove propagules (seeds) for the natural regeneration
of a bio-diverse and healthy forest wetland.

MAP Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) Method promotes an economical and efficient 6-Step
approach to mangrove restoration which follows basic natural processes and places the local community at
center stage in the restoration and management process.

Government and NGOs should work jointly with local communities to:

1. Understand both the individual species and community ecology of the naturally occurring mangrove
species at the site, paying particular attention to patterns of reproduction, distribution, and successful
seedling establishment;
2. Understand the normal hydrology that controls the distribution and successful establishment and
growth of targeted mangrove species;
3. Assess the modifications of the mangrove environment that occurred and that currently prevent
natural secondary succession;
4. Select appropriate restoration areas through application of Steps 1-3, above, that are both likely to
succeed in rehabilitating a forest ecosystem and are cost effective. Consider the available labor to carry out
the projects, including adequate monitoring of their progress toward meeting quantitative goals established
prior to restoration. This step includes resolving land ownership/use issues necessary for ensuring long-
term access to and conservation of the site;
5. Design the restoration program at appropriate sites selected in Step 4, above, to restore the
appropriate hydrology and utilize natural volunteer mangrove recruitment for natural plant establishment;
6. Utilize actual planting of propagules or seedlings only after determining through Steps 1-5, above,
that natural recruitment will not provide the quantity of successfully established seedlings, rate of
stabilization, or rate of growth as required for project success.

Compared to the huge and often failed programs supported by World Bank loans and government
agencies, MAP EMR small-scale approach has been very successful. As part of post-tsunami recovery,
with the engagement of local communities, 580 hectares of mangrove forests in Riau and North Sumatra,
Indonesia have been rehabilitated using the MAP EMR Method.
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/151/Mangrove.html
Communities Vote for the Protection of KampongSmach in
Cambodia
Over 60 village members in Prey Nob District, members of the Fisheries Administration and the Technical
Working Group for Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) in Preah Sihanouk in Cambodia came together
for a consultative workshop to establish the 1,000-hectare Marine Protected Area
in Prek Kampong Smach.

"Traditional fishing is the main source of income for the families around here and this site has potential for
ecotourism," District Governor Mr. Tith Vuthy explained at the opening of the consultative workshop on
Protected Area declaration on 17 September 2010 in Prey Nob District. He added that illegal fishing and
other destructive resource uses will destroy this potential if not acted upon immediately.

While Prek Kampong Smach is a major source of income for fishing families, it is under threat from
various users, including businessmen wanting to put up tourism projects in the site.

Several community members said that there have been several business owners coming to the site and
talking about putting up large-scale tourism projects here. We have seen that in many cases, mangrove
areas like these are soon deforested to make way for resorts. Were trying to avoid that here, says an
official from the Provincial Fisheries Administration.

The consultative workshop in September was a culminating activity after more than one year of
consultations, discussions and field researches with the villages. Prior to the workshop, the Fishery
Administration led a resource assessment to determine the boundaries of the site, existing resources and
resource utilization patterns among the communities. Based on the status of resources identified, the
proposed protected area was divided into three zones: (1) Conservation area; (2) Protected area; and (3)
Multiple use area. The task team, which was organized during the workshop will monitor activities within
the MPA based on agreed permitted and prohibited activities.

Click to view more images

Marine Protected Area establishment in Kampong Smach is one of the priority action programs of the
Provincial Government of Preah Sihanouks ICM Programme for 2010-2012, supported by PEMSEA.
http://pemsea.org/about-pemsea/pemsea-news/communities-vote-for-the-protection-of-kampong-
smach-in-cambodia

What is Biodiversity?
The word 'biodiversity' is a contraction of biological diversity. Diversity is a concept which refers to the
range of variation or differences among some set of entities; biological diversity thus refers to variety
within the living world. The term 'biodiversity' is indeed commonly used to describe the number, variety
and variability of living organisms. This very broad usage, embracing many different parameters, is
essentially a synonym of 'Life on Earth'.
Management requires measurement, and measures of diversity only become possible when a quantitative
value can be ascribed to them and these values can be compared. It is thus necessary to try and
disentangle some of the separate elements of which biodiversity is composed.

It has become a widespread practice to define biodiversity in terms of genes, species and ecosystems,
corresponding to three fundamental and hierarchically-related levels of biological organisation.

Genetic diversity
This represents the heritable variation within and between populations of organisms. Ultimately, this
resides in variations in the sequence of the four base-pairs which, as components of nucleic acids,
constitute the genetic code.

Species diversity
Perhaps because the living world is most widely considered in terms of species, biodiversity is very
commonly used as a synonym of species diversity, in particular of 'species richness', which is the number
of species in a site or habitat. Discussion of global biodiversity is typically presented in terms of global
numbers of species in different taxonomic groups. An estimated 1.8 million species have been described
to date; estimates for the total number of species existing on earth at present vary from 5 milliion to
nearly 100 million. A conservative working estimate suggests there might be around 12.5 million. In
terms of species numbers alone, life on earth appears to consist essentially of insects and
microorganisms.

Ecosystem diversity
The quantitative assessment of diversity at the ecosystem, habitat or community level remains
problematic. Whilst it is possible to define what is in principle meant by genetic and species diversity, and
to produce various measures thereof, there is no unique definition and classification of ecosystems at the
global level, and it is thus difficult in practice to assess ecosystem diversity other than on a local or
regional basis and then only largely in terms of vegetation. Ecosystems further differ from genes and
species in that they explicitly include abiotic components, being partly determined by soil parent material
and climate. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/what-is-biodiversity_50.html

Mangroves are woody plants that grow at the interface between land and sea in tropical and
sub-tropical latitudes where they exist in conditions of high salinity, extreme tides, strong
winds, high temperatures and muddy, anaerobic soils. There may be no other group of
plants with such highly developed morphological and physiological adaptations to extreme
conditions.

Because of their environment, mangroves are necessarily tolerant of high salt levels and
have mechanisms to take up water despite strong osmotic potentials. Some also take up
salts, but excrete them through specialized glands in the leaves. Others transfer salts into
senescent leaves or store them in the bark or the wood. Still others simply become
increasingly conservative in their water use as water salinity increases Morphological
specializations include profuse lateral roots that anchor the trees in the loose sediments,
exposed aerial roots for gas exchange and viviparous waterdispersed propagules.

Mangroves create unique ecological environments that host rich assemblages of species.
The muddy or sandy sediments of the mangal are home to a variety of epibenthic, infaunal,
and meiofaunal invertebrates Channels within the mangal support communities of
phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. The mangal may play a special role as nursery habitat
for juveniles of fish whose adults occupy other habitats (e.g. coral reefs and seagrass beds).

Because they are surrounded by loose sediments, the submerged mangroves' roots, trunks
and branches are islands of habitat that may attract rich epifaunal communities including
bacteria, fungi, macroalgae and invertebrates. The aerial roots, trunks, leaves and branches
host other groups of organisms. A number of crab species live among the roots, on the
trunks or even forage in the canopy. Insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals thrive
in the habitat and contribute to its unique character.

Living at the interface between land and sea, mangroves are well adapted to deal with
natural stressors (e.g. temperature, salinity, anoxia, UV). However, because they live close
to their tolerance limits, they may be particularly sensitive to disturbances like those created
by human activities. Because of their proximity to population centers, mangals have
historically been favored sites for sewage disposal. Industrial effluents have contributed to
heavy metal contamination in the sediments. Oil from spills and from petroleum production
has flowed into many mangals. These insults have had significant negative effects on the
mangroves.

Habitat destruction through human encroachment has been the primary cause of mangrove
loss. Diversion of freshwater for irrigation and land reclamation has destroyed extensive
mangrove forests. In the past several decades, numerous tracts of mangrove have been
converted for aquaculture, fundamentally altering the nature of the habitat. Measurements
reveal alarming levels of mangrove destruction. Some estimates put global loss rates at one
million ha y1, with mangroves in some regions in danger of complete collapse. Heavy
historical exploitation of mangroves has left many remaining habitats severely damaged.
These impacts are likely to continue, and worsen, as human populations expand further into
the mangals. In regions where mangrove removal has produced significant environmental
problems, efforts are underway to launch mangrove agroforestry and agriculture projects.
Mangrove systems require intensive care to save threatened areas. So far, conservation and
management efforts lag behind the destruction; there is still much to learn about proper
management and sustainable harvesting of mangrove forests.

Mangroves have enormous ecological value. They protect and stabilize coastlines, enrich
coastal waters, yield commercial forest products and support coastal fisheries. Mangrove
forests are among the world's most productive ecosystems, producing organic carbon well in
excess of the ecosystem requirements and contributing significantly to the global carbon
cycle. Extracts from mangroves and mangrove-dependent species have proven activity
against human, animal and plant pathogens. Mangroves may be further developed as
sources of high-value commercial products and fishery resources and as sites for a
burgeoning ecotourism industry. Their unique features also make them ideal sites for
experimental studies of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Where degraded areas are
being revegetated, continued monitoring and thorough assessment must be done to help
understand the recovery process. This knowledge will help develop strategies to promote
better rehabilitation of degraded mangrove habitats the world over and ensure that these
unique ecosystems survive and flourish.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065288101400034