MAP News Issue 422, August 5, 2017

GLOBAL – The Global Mangrove Alliance is a new effort to mobilize the world to stop mangrove deforestation and to undertake a massive restoration effort. The goal of the Alliance is to expand overall extent of mangrove forests 20 percent by 2030. WWF, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Wetlands International have joined together to take up this challenge. And that list is growing. The Global Mangrove Alliance was born of the belief that a renewed effort is needed across multiple sectors and geographies to give mangroves their due, and to massively scale and accelerate conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems. The know-how exists; it is the will and interest to act that needs bolstering. The Paris agreement and its focus on developing country-by-country plans to reduce carbon emissions is a new moment that will allow us to both accelerate existing work to protect and restore mangroves while generating and funneling significant new global investment. If we can generate enough momentum to accomplish these ambitious aims, we can improve the well-being of tens of millions of people and revitalize critical coastal ecosystems. READ MORE

ASIA

Mangroves vital for environmental decontamination

INDONESIA – Mangrove trees, particularly their leaf litter, filter copper out of soil and water in Indonesia. Grey mangrove trees, Avicennia marina, filter heavy metals out of the surrounding soil and water. A new study from Indonesia has found that their leaf litter accumulates the most copper, followed by leaves and then roots. Researchers from Universitas Diponegoro analysed copper concentrations in a mangrove forest in Tapak Tuguerjo, an area along the northern coast of Java, Indonesia. The forest is downstream from a river polluted by a nearby factory. Copper concentrations in seawater samples from the study area ranged from 0.02 milligrams per litre (mg/L) to 0.05 mg/L; as much as six times the 0.008 mg/L maximum permissible level for marine biota set by the Indonesian Ministry of Envi-ronment. Over the span of 12 weeks, the team collected samples of water, soil, roots, young leaves and leaf litter (fallen leaves). After drying and grinding the plant material, they analysed its copper content using atomic absorption spectroscopy. READ MORE

Explore the unexpected beauty of Sri Lanka's mangroves

SRI LANKA – Tourism in Sri Lanka — the tropical island nation just a stone's throw from the tip of southern India — is on an upswing, thanks to thousands of miles of sugar-sand coastline, lush interiors dotted with tea plantations and the mystique of a place that's still relatively undiscovered. And while the country's pristine beaches, not yet overrun with tourists or towering condos, draw budget and luxury travelers alike from around the world, a different kind of coastal tableau — shallow, shore-hugging waters where mangrove forests grow — is not only worth exploring, but a matter of national attention. At Negombo, a laid-back beach town roughly 20 miles north of the country's capital, Colombo, tours of the area's wetlands start across the street from the Muthurajawela Visitor Centre, in the gray-green waters of the Dutch Canal. READ MORE

Protecting mangroves and fish stocks from dams and deforestation

BANGLADESH – The impact of dams on the diversity of fish is a telling example of the unintended consequences of human activity. Building dams and other hydrological barriers affects mangrove forests by choking off sediment loading, while increasing nutrient pollution. Some of the impacts of these barriers on fish diversity are set out in a recent study by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a Bangalore-based research organisation. The study compared the different species found upstream and downstream of dams. As this can depend on a number of factors — agriculture, deforestation, urbanisation and location — the study separates all factors to extract just the impact of the hydrological barriers and found that the impact on the number of species is felt most immediately downstream. It also found that the recovery of species numbers downstream is enhanced by an increase in the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, but hampered by an increase in alkalinity. READ MORE

Two of Mumbai’s mangrove forests on list of 12 unique wetlands in India

INDIA – The Mangrove Society of India (MSI) has put two of Mumbai region’s mangroves — Airoli and Vikhroli wetlands — among 12 unique mangrove forests in the country. Mangrove forests grow in creeks, estuaries, bays and lagoons and in inter-tidal areas – area between the high tide and the low tide. Their ecosystem is believed to have evolved around 114 million years back in tropical and subtropical regions and India has 3% (4,740 sq km) of the world’s mangrove cover. The unique mangroves located along India’s 7,516-km coastline are in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The world’s largest mangrove forests in Sunderbans, West Bengal, are also featured in the list. The list was released by the MSI and the Goa state biodiversity board at the National Mangrove Conference in Dona Paula, Goa recently. Maharashtra is the only state to have a dedicated cell protecting its mangrove cover. READ MORE

AMERICAS

Business owners in top Belize destination want increased mangrove protections

BELIZE – Walking the shore of San Pedro provides a solid picture of the tension between natural resources and the economy in this, the top tourist town in coastal Belize. White coral sand gives way to several hundred feet of stunningly deep blue water out to where Caribbean waves strike the Mesoamerican Reef, the world’s second longest barrier reef, which stretches from Honduras in the south to its Mexican terminus to the north. Just below swooping frigatebirds stands a phalanx of hotels, ranging from funky and low slung to sleek, new, and relatively tall. Bars, restaurants and dive shops elbow right up to the water’s edge, too, where one can sit in a plastic chair drinking local rum while dangling your feet in the warm tide at establishments with names like “Sandy Toes.” But walk north along the beachfront just a little ways and your path is diverted away from the water by a wiry stand of mangrove trees growing in the gentle waves. This mangrove belongs to yet another open-air bar, La Choza, and reminds one of what this whole area once looked like. READ MORE

Mexico launches pioneering scheme to insure its coral reef

MEXICO – A stretch of coral reef off Mexico is the testing ground for a new idea that could protect fragile environments around the world: insurance. The reef, off the coast of Cancún, is the first to be protected under an insurance scheme by which the premiums will be paid by local hotels and government, and money to pay for the repair of the reef will be released if a storm strikes. Coral reefs offer a valuable buffer against storm damage from waves but their condition has deteriorated in recent years, the result of human exploitation and destruction of the reefs, as well as climate change, plastic waste and the acidification of the oceans. READ MORE

History Made In Bimini, Government Are You Listening?

BAHAMAS – ON July 14, history was made in North Bimini. On this sleepy little island with a total population of barely 3000, more than 200 people marched from Paradise Point to Resorts World Bimini, holding placards high and their heads even higher. Their demands were selfless and supported by experts, conservationists and those who care about the marine environment from around the world – stop the wanton destruction of Bimini’s fragile environment and put in place measures to protect what is left. To understand how significant and historic this was and what the people who participated are crying out for we need to first appreciate the extreme unlikeliness of an organised march in Bimini. First, the historic event that took equal doses of energy, organisation, frustration and anger took place on Bimini, a place where you would be hard-pressed to find any travel piece that did not describe the tiny island in the sun as sleepy or laid-back. This is not a college town nor a city given to uprisings. This was a march driven by a single unifying cry – to save the island that those who are fortunate enough to live there love, and those who visit on a regular basis think of as their second home. READ MORE

GLOBAL

Mangrove Day

GLOBAL – Message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem: Coastal mangroves are among the most threatened ecosystems on earth. Current estimates indicate that up to 67% of mangroves have been lost to date, and nearly all unprotected mangroves could perish over the next 100 years. The stakes are high, because mangrove ecosystems provide benefits and services that are essential for life. From advancing food security, sustaining fisheries and forest products and offering protection from storms, tsunamis and sea level rise to preventing shoreline erosion, regulating coastal water quality and providing habitats for endangered marine species — the list is long on the importance of mangrove ecosystems. This includes the unique role that they play in sequestering and storing significant amounts of coastal blue carbon from the atmosphere and ocean, crucial for mitigating climate change. UNESCO is drawing on all of its strengths — through its Man and the Biosphere Programme, its International Hydrological Programme, its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Programme — to protect mangrove ecosystems. This action reaches across the world, from the Bosque de Paz Transboundary Biosphere Reserve in Ecuador and Peru and the Delta de Saloum Biosphere Reserve in Senegal to the Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark in Malaysia. READ MORE