FEATURE STORY

This year, give a gift to the future!

USA  – With over two decades at work at the roots of the sea, you might wonder if we are any closer to saving the mangroves. Mangroves have continued their decline, but the current rate is now half of what it was when MAP was established. While more efforts are being made to restore and conserve mangroves than ever before, we still need to do more. This is where you can help!  The time has come to pass when our actions must speak louder than words! Your continuing support has helped us maintain an active and persistent presence along the coastal belts of mangrove nations. MAP started almost 23 years ago, and has since built up an active global network, while raising public awareness about the importance of mangroves. We have long been the mangroves’ advocate, and have worked tirelessly to conserve and restore these forest wetlands. Future generations may reap the bounty of our actions and thus thank you for your timely support.
During this season of giving, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to support MAP’s work to conserve and restore mangrove forests around the world. Your donation today will go straight into helping the decline of mangrove forests. READ MORE
 
AFRICA
 
Mangrove deforestation in Madagascar: What are the options?

MADAGASCAR – The island nation of Madagascar has long captured the world’s curiosity and is renowned for its unparalleled biodiversity, magnificent landscapes and unique culture. In the northwestern coastal Ambaro-Ambanja bays region, you will encounter mountains transitioning into lowlands littered with lush agro-forest mosaics producing vanilla, cacao, coffee and a cornucopia of fruits – output that would be impossible on the arid lands found further south.  These lush landscapes reach right to the coast where they meet postcard perfect white sand beaches and turquoise waters, but also vast, dense mangrove swamps. It was during my first trip here in February 2012 that I initially experienced the diversity of these vast and fascinating coastal ecosystems, but also their rapid decline.  Clambering down a steep bank, transitioning from agro-forest to mangrove, I recall taking my first steps into what remained of a mangrove forest that had been clear-cut; sinking deeply into the muddy soil as I was confronted by a sweeping panorama of stumps. Madagascar contains about 2% of the world’s mangroves, Africa’s fourth largest extent behind Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique. These marine (or “blue”) forests are critical to the coastal communities who live in and around them, providing food, cooking fuel, and construction materials for boats and houses, as well as medicine. READ MORE
 
ASIA
 
Global Supermarkets Selling Shrimp Peeled by Slaves

Thailand – Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States. After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. Always, someone was watching. No names were ever used, only numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo Win was No. 31. Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world's biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country's $7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press investigation has found shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia. READ MORE
 
Thai Union, Whole Foods and Walmart shrimp supply tied to forced, child labor
USA – An investigation conducted by the Associated Press released on 14 December has linked Thai Union Group to forced labor in Thailand once more. AP investigators tailed a series of trucks in November that were transporting shrimp from the Gig Peeling Factory in Samut Sakhon to a number of major Thai exporting companies, one of which included a subisdiary of Thai Union. The shrimp peeling and processing plants were using forced and child labor to prepare the massive volumes of shrimp, according to the report. Utilizing U.S. customs data and Thai industry reports, investigators were able to trace the shrimp to various locations in the United States, Europe and Asia, the report writers said. Major global supermarkets and foodservice chains including Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General, Petco, Red Lobster and Olive Garden were among the supposed recipients of the shrimp, the AP found. The shrimp also allegedly made its way into the supply chains of popular U.S. brands such as Beaver Street’s Sea Best, Chicken of the Sea and Fancy Feast, noted AP reporters; retailers including Safeway, Piggly Wiggly and Albertsons are known to sell such brands. All 50 states in the United States potentially have retailers selling shrimp products linked to forced and child labor, according to AP reporters. READ MORE
 
AMERICAS
 
Editors Note : While MAP does not advocate the “simple solution” to complex issues, it applauds the innovative efforts of those to who put time and money into finding viable solutions to coastal reforestation. We advocate scientific consideration before adopting applications that may have long range ramifications. We include this story to  illustrate a novel approach by those who share the desire of mangrove restoration.
Aerial planting of mangrove seeds proving to be effective method

USA – Taking to the sky and pelting deteriorating wetlands with mangrove seeds has proven to be a quicker and cheaper way to get the plants established than the traditional method of taking long boat trips and planting by hand. Tierra Resources, a New Orleans-based group working to find new ways to fund coastal restoration through carbon credit funding, announced that three, 1-acre plots have shown the aerial planting technique works. Tierra Resources did a three-year pilot project in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes testing the theory that planting mangroves by air could be a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. The work was done in partnership with ConocoPhillips, which owns 640,000 acres of wetlands in coastal Louisiana. Up until now, if mangroves were to be planted in an area, small plants needed to be boated out in pots along with the people who would get the plants in the ground. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive work that can be close to impossible for some areas of the more remote coastline. “A lot of areas in the coast, it can take half a day just to get there,” said Sarah Mack, president and CEO of Tierra Resources. “There’s a lot more area we can cover by airplane.” READ MORE
 
Global 'blue carbon' partnership launched to highlight role of coastal ecosystems in tackling climate change
USA – A new initiative to boost awareness of the important role coastal 'blue carbon' ecosystems play in tackling climate change was launched by the Australian government yesterday at the Paris climate summit. The International Partnership for Blue Carbon aims to increase understanding of the impact carbon stored in marine and coastal habitats could have on climate change, and accelerate action to preserve coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses. "Blue carbon… could play a significant role in reducing emissions, while also supporting biodiversity conservation, fisheries habitat protection, and disaster risk reduction," said Greg Hunt, Australia's environment minister, in a statement. "Research has already demonstrated that coastal ecosystems… can be much more effective than forests at sequestering carbon." READ MORE
 
Adaptation-Based Mitigation Offers Ambitious Solution for Climate Resilience
El SALVADORE – The Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador is a good illustration of this. Located along the Pacific coast in what’s known as the Central American Dry Corridor, Bajo Lempa features everything from hillsides covered in coffee plantations, to flood-prone coastal plains where family farms border industrial sugarcane operations, to mangrove forests that compete with shrimp production. Increasing population and agricultural pressures have led to widespread deforestation, soil erosion, and pollution from agrochemicals. Landlessness and poverty – key grievances in El Salvador’s 1980s civil war – still linger in the form of a fragmented land tenure system. And climate change has exacerbated many of these issues due to reduced or erratic rainfall, and more frequent and intense tropical storms.   All of these factors are complex enough in their own right, but they present an even more daunting challenge when aggregated into a single landscape. And yet a landscape approach, focused on adaptation-based mitigation, is precisely the kind of intervention that Gerardo Segura, World Bank Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, thinks could help places like Bajo Lempa regain many of their valuable ecosystem services while sustaining economic growth. READ MORE
 
OCEANA
 
Greenpeace Report: Dodgy Prawns

AUSTRALIA – What most Australians are not aware of when they slurp a quick prawn laksa in their lunch break or tuck into a pile of prawns at Christmas is the horrific price paid in human suffering and environmental destruction in some of the main countries that supply our prawns. The market price of imported prawns, once a luxury item, has plummeted and Australians now eat about as many tonnes (about 50,000) of prawns every year, as we do of the ubiquitous pantry staple, tinned tuna. But our hunger for cheap imported prawns comes at a cost. What most Australians are not aware of when they slurp a quick prawn laksa in their lunch-break or tuck into a pile of prawns at Christmas, is the horrific price paid in human suffering and environmental destruction in some of the main countries that supply our prawns. At the extreme end of the scale, farmed prawn  production in some countries that supply the  Australian market is characterised by destruction of crucial habitat, introduction of invasive species,  pollution, chemical and pharmaceutical use,  reliance on destructive fishing for feed, and  human rights and labour abuses including slavery  and even murder. READ MORE

LAST WORD(S)

Dear Jim,
Thanks for your mail.
 
I have already informed you that we received the MAP calendar in our earlier e-mail on dated 8th Dec, 2015. Please note that we have received 8 of MAP 2016 calendar. We are planning to organize an award ceremony on date 19th December, 2015 to distribute the certificates to successful students. On this occasion, we have also plan to organise a discussion on subject “Why mangroves are important to my community” by involving various stakeholders. We will send you detail report after the completion of the programme.
 
We have not been impacted by the flood in Tamilnadu , as we are based in Odisha state.
 
Happy Holidays and cheerful Christmas!
 
Regards,
 
Bijaya Kumar Kabi
APOWA, Odisha, India