29 April 2009

The Mangrove Action Project (MAP) is collaborating with New Zealand-based writer and photographer Kennedy Warne to publish a new general-interest book on the loss of the world’s mangrove forests.

The book, to be published in 2010 by leading US environmental publisher Island Press, is provisionally titled Last Stands: The Disappearing Rainforests of the Sea.

Kennedy wrote a feature story on mangroves for National Geographic magazine in February 2007, and says it was seeing the scale and impact of mangrove depletion during his field work that made him want to write a book on the subject.

“Mangroves are being destroyed at an alarming rate, but their passing elicits barely a murmur of protest in developed countries,” he says. “Terrestrial rainforests have many advocates, but mangroves have few. I want to help bring these imperiled forest ecosystems to wider public attention.”

The marine-biology graduate and founding editor of New Zealand Geographic magazine has written widely on the marine environment, including stories on sharks in South Africa, harp seals in Canada, albatrosses in New Zealand and sea-level rise in Tuvalu—but says the mangrove story “begged to be expanded.”

“These forests are the fish nurseries of the sea, the breakwaters and land-preservers of vulnerable coastlines and the supermarkets of the coastal poor. Yet they are razed to make way for everything from golf courses to shrimp ponds, and face the added threat of being drowned through sea-level rise. The planet is being robbed of a potent carbon sink, a vital coastal shield, a stunning repository of plant and animal communities and an indispensable food source for millions. It’s a story that needs to be told afresh, and told now, before these astonishing places disappear completely.”

The book aims to explore the biological wonder of mangrove forests and describe the human cultural traditions that have evolved within them. As well as examining the ecological importance of mangroves, it will reveal the social and economic value of these vanishing wetlands.

“I want to put a human face on the mangrove plight,” says Kennedy, recalling the suffering he witnessed first-hand while traveling through mangrove regions in Malaysia, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Belize during his National Geographic field work in 2005.

He especially remembers visiting coastal communities in northeastern Brazil with MAP’s Latin America coordinator, Elaine Corets. 

“We visited a tiny settlement where the people’s access to mangroves—their traditional seafood harvesting area—had been cut off by the barbed-wire fences of a shrimp farm. Their wells had become contaminated and undrinkable by salt-water seepage from the ponds. Their village, called Porto do Ceu—the gates of paradise—had been turned into the gates of hell. I want to tell the stories of these people, and millions like them who rely on mangroves to sustain their lives.”


Photo:  Kennedy Warne (right) and Elaine Corets (center) visted Brazilian shrimp farms with Jeovah Meireles of the Federal University of Ceara (UFC).

Kennedy plans to visit as many of MAP’s global network of projects and affiliates as time and funds allow during 2009, before returning to his home in Auckland, New Zealand, to write. The first stage of the journey, during May and June, includes mangrove destinations in Latin America, the US and the Caribbean. Elaine will be guiding and translating for Kennedy in Latin America, and the pair will be posting regular reports of their travels to the project blog.

Elaine encourages MAP’s supporters and friends to bookmark the Last Stands website, and to browse often for updates from the field. “Following the blog will be a great way to discover and explore the mangroves of the Americas.”

MAP’s Executive Director, Alfredo Quarto, says the organization is excited to be working with Kennedy on the Last Stands venture. “Our board of directors sees this as a timely project, and is giving its full support.”

The project has received financial support from the Overbrook Foundation and the Rainforest Information Centre, to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks. But more funds are needed to ensure the successful completion of the project.

Get involved

• Help get the word out about the Last Stands campaign by placing a link to our blog www.laststands.kennedywarne.com on your website, blog, Facebook, etc.
• Sign up for email updates
  
  

Support the Last Stands campaign
MAP is reaching out to its membership base and friends to help cover research expenses for the book and associated media campaign. Please make a donation today.

Submitted by:  Kennedy Warne