MAP celebrates 25 years of Mangrove Action with Mangrove Action Day 
USA – Mangrove Action Project is proud to celebrate 25 years of working to expand the awareness of mangrove forests and the people who depend upon them. Twenty-five years ago, raising public awareness on mangroves and roles they play in fisheries, human safety, carbon-storage, coral reel protection, migratory bird habitat, and myriads of other benefits and value, seemed nearly insurmountable. Forests were being decimated, and destructive forces seemed unwilling to listen to the small voices of communities and NGO who cried out against them. However, here we are in 2017, 25 years later, celebrating Mangrove Action Day which has been recognized by the United Nations and endorsed by countless communities and organizations, both public and private around the globe. We here at MAP are pleased to join in honoring Mangrove Action Day July 26, 2017 activities. It is now apparent that the entire world has joined us in recognizing the role these vital forest ecosystems play in human life as well as the planet’s life. However, there is still much to be done. Coal fired power plants, dams, overfishing, coastal development and yes, still, unsustainable shrimp farming continue to destroy countless hectares of forest annually. As you remember Mangrove Action Day today, we encourage you to use your small voice to continue to work towards a healthier future; for the planet and for our children. We are here to attest, it works.
READ MORE AFRICA
‘Safeguarding Wetlands’: YES Launches Sustainable Environmental Actions
LIBERIA – The Youth Exploring Solutions (YES), an accredited non-for-profit, passionate and voluntary grassroots youth-led development organization has launched a landmark project titled “Promoting Sustainable Environmental Actions”. This project is being supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unprecedented small grant initiative for youth-led development organization working on environmental issues. The youth leader stressed that the project will involve a crowd-sourcing and voluntary grassroots-based solutions to solving some of the most critical and pressing issues facing the wetlands and mangroves alongside the SKD Boulevard through the ‘Liberian Environmental Awareness Forum’. “Mangroves are among the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems. They allow many species to thrive from starfish to monkey and are important for local communities living along the coastlines.” READ MORE
Tanzania dam threatens Eastern Africa’s largest mangrove forest
TANZANIA – Tanzania’s government still wants a hydroelectric dam built in a key wildlife reserve despite mounting appeals from UNESCO. The WWF conservation group says the project also threatens the livelihoods of 200,000 residents. In its report Tuesday cited by Associated Press, the WWF said the project would have much wider impacts such as cutting off wildlife migration routes, endangering existing wetlands and harming the present livelihoods of more than 200,000 residents reliant on fishing downstream of the intended dam. WWF called on Tanzania’s government to consider alternative ways to generate electricity, which currently reaches few rural residents. he project would more than double Tanzania’s power generation from 1,450 megawatts to at least 4,000 megawatts, the paper said. Currently, the river’s coastline delta contains the largest mangrove forest in eastern Africa, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Dar es Salaam. READ MORE
ASIA
To Plant or Not to Plant
Experts draw attention to a successful method of mangrove regeneration on International Mangrove Day, 26th July 2017
Today, on the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, conservation organisations and mangrove specialists worldwide highlight the multifunctional benefits of the practice of ‘natural regeneration’ of mangroves. Compared to planting efforts, survival rates are considerably higher and it results in a more biodiverse, resilient and productive mangrove forest, enhancing community livelihoods and reducing disaster risk. During the last decade enormous interest has been raised in the role mangroves can play in reducing tropical storm, coastal erosion and flood risk for coastal communities. Across the world hundreds of thousands of hectares of mangroves have been actively planted. But the majority of planting efforts fail as planted seedlings die and even if seedlings survive, the ecological value of a monoculture and benefits of the planting efforts for increased community resilience are questionable. Wetlands International, Mangrove Action Project, Mangroves for the Future and the IUCN Mangrove Specialist Group (MSG) say that a more appropriate mangrove restoration is urgently needed worldwide to enhance coastal safety, fisheries, aquaculture and carbon sequestration. To support best practices, they pulled together lessons learnt in a discussion paper and raise attention for the ‘Ecological Mangrove Restoration approach’ (Lewis 2014). READ MORE
Lessons on conservation from ‘the land of eternal mangroves’
SRI LANKA – People are still missing in Sri Lanka after devastating floods and landslides last month killed hundreds and displaced thousands on the island nation. But in communities all along the coastline of this island nation in the Indian Ocean, there are efforts to protect ecosystems that could in turn protect the country from rains and storms capable of wiping away entire towns. Sri Lanka is working on mangrove forest protection measures that have been praised as the first of their kind in the world. And while recent heavy rains may have destroyed seedlings, they have only strengthened the determination of the government and its partners to continue their work on mangrove conservation and restoration. “Weather events in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere on the planet, have become more and more extreme and unpredictable. Again and again, communities with intact mangrove forests fare better during and in the aftermath of these events than those where mangroves have been destroyed,” said Karen Peterson. READ MORE
Massive loss in mangrove saplings in last 4 years
INDIA – In a massive setback for the environment, more than 94,000 saplings planted by the state mangrove cell at Charkop and Malwani have died in the past four years. Maharashtra government has plans to plant 50 lakh mangrove saplings by 2019 to revive degraded wetlands. The cases of mangrove destruction has been rampant, with at least two per week being recorded in the state. The destruction is continuing despite orders from the Bombay High Court and laws such as the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and Indian Forest Act, 1927, which are supposed to protect the mangrove ecosystem. The state government planted mangrove saplings between 2013 and 2016 across 300 hectares in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. While 84,000 saplings were planted near Charkop village on 19 hectares — all of which died. Around 20,000 saplings were planted near Manori village of which 10,000 saplings died over the past four years. READ MORE
Encroached mangrove forest seized in Surat Thani
THAILAND -Authorities seized more than 500 rai of encroached mangrove forest in Tha Chang district. The raid, jointly conducted by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), the military and local administrative officers, was part of a national operation to restore mangrove forests. DMCR deputy director-general Sopon Thongdee said a total of 544 rai and 3 blocks of mangrove forest reserve land were confiscated in coastal tambons of Khao Than and Tha Khoei in Tha Chang district. Located on the land were deserted shrimp farms and palm oil plantations. There were no people there. In Surat Thani, over 1,700 rai of encroached mangrove land had also been reclaimed so far. READ MORE
AMERICAS
Why the World’s Rivers Are Losing Sediment and Why It Matters
EDITORS NOTE: The damming of the Mekong is having big effect on the Delta and its mangroves in Vietnam, just as the dams on the Mississippi have had ruinous effects on the delta there and resulted in the loss of about a 50 mile wetland buffer between New Orleans and the sea, resulting in the recent disaster created by Hurricane Katrina. Closer to MAP’s home in Washington State, scientist are seeing an unexpected benefit of sediment on coastal ecologies that may apply to mangrove forests worldwide.
U.S.A. – Elwha and Glines dams on the Elwha River in northwestern Washington state. At the time, it was the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, and it took nearly three years for both barriers to be dismantled and for the river to once again flow freely. Over the course of their nearly century-long lives, the two dams collected more than 24 million cubic yards of sediment behind them, enough to fill the Seattle Seahawks football stadium eight times. And since their removal, the Elwha has taken back the trapped sediment and distributed it downstream, causing the riverine ecosystem to be rebuilt and transformed. Massive quantities of silt, sand, and gravel have been carried to the coast, resurrecting a wetlands ecosystem long deprived of sediment. Scientists are now beginning to fully appreciate the life-giving effects of sediment, which some researchers, as well as people who live along waterways, once viewed as a malevolent force that choked the life out of rivers, streams, and wetlands. READ MORE
Open Source GIS Tools Helping Save Mangrove Forests
MEXICO – At the end of the Baja Peninsula between the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit lies the Marismas Nacionales,or National Marshes, the largest intact mangrove forest on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The ecosystem services provided by these hundreds of square miles of mangrove forests are important to the local economy, especially the families who rely on fishing and shrimping. The mangrove ecosystems in the Marismas Nacionales also provide other benefits sustaining and fulfilling human life, such as local coastal erosion protection and carbon sequestration. Mangrove forests can remove greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and they store enormous amounts of carbon in their sediments, leaves, and other biomass. Yet over the last 45 years, mangrove forests in the Marismas Nacionales have been in decline. The construction of dams is a likely cause. Dams create imbalances in salinity and sediment that can affect large areas of mangrove forest. READ MORE
Walking Trees Terrorize Marshes
Editor’s Note: This recent study predicts salt marshes will be able to keep up with sea level rise & migrate inland, IF there is no hard infrastructure preventing expansion. The other big factor is there no change to the sediment load. Both factors are also critical to mangroves re: sea level rise.
U.S.A. – The good news: mangroves in Florida are on the rise. The bad news: mangroves in Florida are on the rise. In the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida’s Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a quiet invasion is taking place. Amid the brackish water and rustling grass that dominate this salt marsh ecosystem, thickets of mangroves—known locally as “walking trees” for their spindly wooden “legs”—are putting down roots. Mangrove forests are critical tropical habitat and are disappearing worldwide. But in Florida, mangroves are booming. Helped along by rising temperatures, mangrove coverage in the Sunshine State’s northern reaches has doubled over the past 30 years. This should be great news for the flagging ecosystem, but the mangrove takeover in Florida is a hostile one. Given time, the colonizing mangroves are likely to entirely consume some of the state’s iconic salt marshes. Coastal ecologist Samantha Chapman from Pennsylvania’s Villanova University and doctoral candidate Cheryl Doughty visited Merritt Island in 2013 to get a sense of how the area could change if the mangroves have their way. Such a shift could be dramatic, they found, but the mangroves’ takeover will have considerable upsides. READ MORE
EUROPE
JULY 26 International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem
GLOBAL – Mangroves are rare, spectacular and prolific ecosystems on the boundary between land and sea. They ensure food security for local communities. They provide biomass, forest products and sustain fisheries. They contribute to the protection of coastlines. They help mitigate the effects of climate change and extreme weather events. This is why the protection of mangrove ecosystems is essential today. Their survival faces serious challenges —from the alarming rise of the sea level and biodiversity that is increasingly endangered. The earth and humanity simply cannot afford to lose these vital ecosystems. UNESCO has always been on the frontline of promoting new and harmonious relations between humanity and nature, where the preservation of mangrove ecosystems carries special importance. To this end, UNESCO is working across the board and with all partners on an open initiative on mangroves and sustainable development. UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves has 86 sites out of 669 that include areas of mangroves. READ MORE
Sundarbans Solidarity Action Networking and An Alternative Energy Solutions for Bangladesh Aug 19-20
GERMANY – The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) have signed a joint venture to commission a 1320 MW coal fired power plant, Rampal Power plant in the vicinity of the Sundarbans. From the beginning of the project, we – the concerned citizens, activist groups and organisations, the environment and the ecological experts at national and international levels – have expressed our deep concerns to the destructive project. Despite, unprecedented concerns expressed by numerous environmentalist groups and activists from Bangladesh and all over the world the BIFPCL has recklessly started the construction work of the 1,320 MW coal fired power plant in the vicinity of the Sundarbans in April 2017. Therefore, we are organising an European convention in Berlin to bring together Bangladeshi and international energy experts, activists and advocates to meet in a forum of what we call a diverse yet united platform – where we can express our solidarity to the movement to Save the Sundarbans through productive discussion on the feasibility of renewable energy in Bangladesh. Join us 19-20 August, 2017 READ MORE
