[Lapg] Restoring Mangroves To Know It for the First Time – Place, Environment and Ecology

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

December 29, 2004 http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001835.html
Restoring Mangroves
To Know It for the First Time ­ Place, Environment and Ecology

Coastal forests are key to preventing future disasters and restoring life 
and livelihood around the Indian Ocean

A half-century ago, if you approached a point on the shore along the rim of 
Indian Ocean, you probably would have come upon endless acres of mangroves. 
Swampy rainforests hugging the edges of both land and sea, Indo-Pacific 
mangroves are storehouses of biodiversity, home to the world's richest 
variety of salt-tolerant trees, ferns, and shrubs. Hundreds of different 
birds live in the trees, which also shelter migratory species. Mangroves 
are rich in sea life - from plankton, to mollusks, to shell and fin fish - 
and well-populated with crocodiles, monkeys, wild cats, lizards, sea 
turtles, and more.

Mangroves also insulate coastlines and coastal communities from the abuses 
of the ocean - erosion, storms, and waves.

Fast forward 50 years: on December 25, 2004, if you approched the shore 
along the rim of the Indian Ocean, you would have been much more likely to 
come upon a shrimp farm, urban landfill, or tourist resort than a 
rainforest. In the past half-century, over half the world's mangroves - 
estimated to have covered 22 million hectares (54,340,000 acres) of 
tropical and subtropical coastlines in the middle of the last century - 
have been lost to development, oil exploration, pollution, inland 
irrigation, and especially shrimp aquaculture, an export industry 
frequently underwritten by international development lenders like the World 
Bank and the Inter-Asian Development Bank.

 From Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta to southeastern India's Goadavari-Krishna 
mangroves, to the Sundarbans mangroves along the India-Bangladesh coast 
(home to nearly 700 endangered tigers), small pockets of mangroves have 
hung on, sometimes as protected areas, all highly endangered.

But in this terrible time after the tsunamis, place, environment, ecology 
and economics have combined to illuminate the simple sense of reforesting 
the mangroves.

(more...)

Mangrove destruction may have factored hugely in the loss of human life to 
the South Asia tsunamis, and mangrove restoration may be key to mitigating 
future disasters. Jeff McNeely, a World Conservation Union scientist, told 
ChennaiOnline News on December 28,

What has made this a disaster is that people have started to occupy part of 
the landscape that they shouldn't have...[F]ifty years ago, the coastline 
was not as densely occupied as now by tourist hotels...[W]hat has also 
happened over the last several decades is that many mangroves have been 
cleared to grow shrimp ponds so that we, here in Europe, can have cheap shrimp.

...When a tsunami comes in, it first hits the coral reef which slows it 
down, then it hits the mangroves which furthers slow it down. It may get 
through that but by then a lot of the energy has already been dissipated.

Other press in South Asia have picked up on the mangrove - tsunami 
connection. "The mangroves in Pitchavaram and Muthupet region acted like a 
shield and bore the brunt of the tsunami. The impact was mitigated and 
lives and property of the communities inhabiting the region were saved," 
wrote G. Venkataramani in The Hindu on December 28. "Although, mangrove 
forests are themselves victims of the power of tidal waves they help in 
mitigating much of the damage and loss of lives in such cases, according to 
biologists," wrote Latha Venkatraman in The Hindu Business Line on December 
29, and the Bangkok Press has editorialized,

Fifty years ago, the coastline rimming the Indian Ocean was occupied only 
by fishermen, not huge tourist hotels and associated attractions. As the 
tourist facilities mushroomed, and shrimp farms and other such 
''developments'' also competed for space, the coral reefs and mangrove 
forests which provided a natural barrier against heavy seas were cleared 
away. This is very much the case along Thailand's Andaman coast, especially 
in Phuket, Phangnga and Krabi _ the provinces hit hardest by the killer 
tidal waves which struck with such merciless force late on Sunday morning.

... The loss of life and property is a tragedy for those directly affected. 
It also will take governments days, perhaps even months, before they can 
account for all those who went missing on Sunday and the extent of the 
property damage. It will take years to rebuild - if this is considered wise 
- what was lost or damaged. There is clearly much to be learned from took 
place on Sunday. It would make no sense at all to embark once again on 
development patterns that contributed to such heavy losses."

Restoring mangroves is also a matter of economic and social justice, and 
this region is going to need even more of both as disaster relief moves 
forward. Britian's Environmental Justice Foundation has documented human 
rights abuses in the shrimp farming industry. Public Citizen is just one 
organization that has documented the linked ecological, economic and social 
costs of mangrove deforestation for shrimp aquaculture:

The relationship between mangroves and other wetlands with coastal 
fisheries is complex and not precisely understood.  There is, nevertheless, 
a large and growing body of evidence that many marine species use these 
habitats as nursery areas and for shelter during early development.  Their 
loss has been shown to negatively impact coastal fisheries resources and 
the livelihoods of coastal communities.  Thus, as the removal of mangroves 
devastates coastal biodiversity, coastal communities are also hurt, 
economically and socially, as the underpinnings of their society begin to 
disintegrate.

As wetland areas are destroyed, coastal communities lose their access to 
areas that provided small-scale, sustainable economic activities such as 
fishing, agriculture and the local production of forest-related 
products.  In areas where limited access is still available, resources have 
been severely degraded and the limited amounts of available food may pose a 
potential health risk linked to high levels of pollution and toxic 
compounds from the shrimp farms.

Fortunately, the alternatives are out there.

Mangrove Action Project documents sustainable management alternatives 
already in practice in the region that can both protect mangroves and 
provide solid livelihoods for the people who live near them. Silvofishery 
combines mangrove reforestation (or retention) with low-input aquaculture 
techniques. And Yad Fon's Community Forest Project in southwestern Thailand 
has successfully pioneered techniques for "community-managed forests" that 
combine grassroots organizing, democratic decision making, local economic 
development, micro-lending, and, restoration and protection of mangroves 
and local fish populations.

Are there other appropriate economic development projects in mangrove 
zones? Sustainable wood harvest and charcoal production? Products or 
pharmaceuticals derived (at rates that can be steadily replenished) from 
rare forest materials? Traditional crafts - or modern reinterpretations? 
Let us know.

Preservation of human life as well as biodiversity, restoration of a vital 
ecosystem, and just economic development - clearly interwoven in the wake 
of a disaster that defies words.

Alex has written of creating an entirely new future along the Indian Ocean 
rim, of establishing a new measure of success for relief and redevelopment. 
Based on the evidence, that measure should include restoration of what the 
region had 50 years ago: a coast lined with healthy, productive, protective 
mangroves.


(Photos: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
Maduganga Mangrove Estuary, southwestern Sri Lanka, from Ramsar Convention 
on Wetlands)
Posted by Emily Gertz at December 29, 2004 07:34 PM | TrackBack

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