Learning the importance of mangrove ecosystem in Koh Kong 
CAMBODIA – Taking place in Bak-Klong Beach in Koh Kong province, the Mangrove Youth Camp was a unique three-day event that brought so much awareness on the benefits of the mangrove ecosystem and the challenges the Areng and Prey Lang communities are presently facing. “Kang Khmer” or Khmer Bike, a youth-led organisation, initiated the camp that also highlighted arts and culture, Lakhorn Sbek Toch (storytelling through shadow puppetry) and Long-Vek era costume-wearing. Participants of the camp were supposed to visit Koh Sralao village in Koh Kapi commune. However, some legal documents were not fulfilled and the organisers were not permitted to bring the campers inside the village. Despite the sudden changes, the Mangrove Camp remained as fun and education as expected. San Mala, organiser of the Mangrove Youth Camp, said the Mangrove Festival the group held last year earned about 6,000 USD for the Koh Sralao villagers. The locals also welcomed the young participants in their homes and shared their stories. According to Mot Kimry, the camp is centered on raising awareness on how the mangrove ecosystem affects the community and foster tourism in Koh Kong province. Many people who love the beach often choose to go to Kampot province and Sihanoukville, forgetting that Koh Kong offers as much beauty and splendor. “People love visiting beach on their holiday. But they don’t really know about mangroves. That’s the reason why we are holding the Mangrove Festival and the Mangrove Youth Camp.”
READ MORE AFRICA
In Madagascar, fishermen plant mangroves for the future
MADAGASCAR – Hunched over the soil, Malagasy villagers work feverishly — deft fingers planting stalks of mangrove to replace the swathes destroyed for firewood and building material. In just two decades, Madagascar lost about a fifth of its mangrove forest area, exposing its coastline to the ocean's ravages and shrinking the nursery grounds of crabs and shrimp — two key exports. With sea levels forecast to rise further due to global warming, coastal villagers are rushing to try and undo the damage, with the help of conservation group WWF. "The ocean keeps rising and rising, and it takes everything with it," lamented 36-year-old crab fisherman Clement Joseph Rabenandrasana, who travelled several kilometres (miles) from his home in Beanjavilo to Amboanio on the island's west coast to volunteer in a two-day reforestation drive. READ MORE
The power of Mangroves to combat climate change
KENYA – Environmental conservationists in Coastal Kenya have taken new steps to preserve the endangered mangrove forests along the Indian Ocean, with the aim of preserving better environment and fight climatic change patterns. Through different projects aimed at conserving mangrove forests, communities around the coastal regions have benefitted from different programs funded by donors. Correspondent Joseph Jira has this report. LISTEN TO AUDIO
The benefits – and costs – of coastal reforestation in Senegal
SENEGAL – Because they absorb carbon at up to 10 times the rate of rainforests, mangroves are a powerful, and sometimes lucrative, tool in international efforts to mitigate climate change. In Senegal, severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as increasing urbanization, devastated thousands of acres of trees. Mangroves – one of the richest ecosystems in the world – were especially affected. Approximately 133,000 acres (54,000 hectares) of coastal forests disappeared in Senegal between 1980 and 2005, according to a study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. As of 2005, about 284,000 acres were left, mostly in the West African country’s lush and tropical southern Casamance region. Many of the ways people make a living from Senegal’s mangroves — some 2,000 species of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans live among the roots and mud of the coastal forest- also caused damage. READ MORE
ASIA
Empowering CBEMR ambassadors!
THAILAND – MAP recently hosted a Facilitation Skills Workshop that was funded by a newly established Lush: Fresh Handmade Cosmetics grant, for MAP’s Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) Community Network Capacity Building program. This workshop, which took place directly adjacent to a beautiful mangrove estuary in the town of Krabi, spanned four days at the beginning of May, 2018. There were 13 participants from five villages within MAP’s CBEMR Network throughout four provinces in Southern Thailand: Trang, Krabi, Phang-Nga, and Ranong. MAP is developing this CBEMR Network, to emphasize building capacity for communities involved in CBEMR. READ MORE
India fast losing mangrove cover, but at half of world average
INDIA – India is ranked ninth in the area of mangrove forests it lost between 2000 and 2015, but the rate of loss is only half the global average, which means India has been able to conserve its mangrove forests much better than other countries, found an international study. Published earlier this month by the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), a think tank based in Massachusetts, USA, the study looked at satellite maps to find that of India’s 4,52,676 hectare (ha) of mangrove forests (10th largest mangrove cover in the world), the country lost 3,957 ha, or 0.87% of it, over these 15 years. Indian government estimates put the extent of mangrove forests at 4,92,100 ha (100 hectares is equal to one square kilometre). Globally, 1.67% of the mangrove forests was lost over these 15 years. While Indonesia led with a loss of 1,15,000 ha, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brazil and Thailand were other countries to lose maximum cover during the period of study. READ MORE
China’s Global Infrastructure Initiative Could Bring Environmental Catastrophe
CHINA – Humans are ravaging tropical forests by hunting, logging and building roads, and the threats are mounting by the day. China is planning a series of massive infrastructure projects across four continents, an initiative that conservation biologist William Laurance described as “environmentally, the riskiest venture ever undertaken.” In a commentary published in the journal Nature Sustainability, he and an international team of researchers urge China to weigh the possibly disastrous consequences of its Belt and Road Initiative. Laurance, a research professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, recently spoke with Nexus Media about the potential dangers, including the impact on climate change. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. READ MORE
Cyclone shield: Breathing new life into Myanmar's mangroves
MYANMAR – Since 1978, one million hectares of mangroves have been cut down in Myanmar. In the Ayerwaddy Delta in the south, mangrove forests have been significantly depleted – often cut down to make way for shrimp and rice farming, as well as charcoal production and collecting palm oil. Worldwide, 35 percent of the world's mangroves are now lost. Only 16 percent of the original cover is left in the vulnerable Delta Region where the mangroves are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation. "At the moment, mangrove conditions are severely degraded," says Win Meung, a seasoned ecologist who heads a mangrove regeneration project in Myanmar. "In the coastal areas, 60 percent of the villagers don't have a permanent job and try to find their money in the mangrove areas. They cut the trees and within one hour they can get the money [they need] for their livelihood." Mangroves play a vital role in the fight against climate change and extreme weather events such as cyclones.READ MORE
Taking stock of carbon in mangroves
INDONESIA – As scientists are increasingly exploring the high carbon stocks contained in mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows – known as ‘blue carbon’ – alarm bells sounding for these ecosystems’ rapid destruction have never been louder. “Indonesia has the highest mangrove cover on earth, but Indonesia is experiencing the highest mangrove deforestation rate in the world. This is very sad,” said Virni Budi Arifanti, researcher at Indonesia’s Forestry and Environment Research, Development and Innovation Agency (FOERDIA) and panelist in the “Mangroves and Blue Carbon” discussion forum at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Mangroves, she explained, contain the second highest carbon stocks after peatlands, storing three to four times as much carbon as tropical forests. READ MORE
Ayeyarwady to embark on massive mangrove replanting program
MYANMAR – Ayeyarwady Region plans to replant 28,000 acres of mangrove forests in a 10-year project as part of its plan to restore the coastal ecosystem in the territory, regional Forestry Department Director U Khin Maung Myint said on Wednesday. “In Myanmar’s forest restoration project, 2800 acres of mangroves will be planted yearly in Ayeyarwady, so during the ten-year project, 28,000 acres of mangroves will be planted,” he told a national meeting of the central committee of coastal resources administration and management at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Due to agriculture, breeding of fish and prawns, and charcoal production, mangrove forests in Ayeyarwady have been depleted and the coastal ecosystem damaged. After the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, protection and reforestation of mangroves are being carried out with high priority, and more than 28,000 acres of mangroves have been planted throughout the country. READ MORE
Marsiling Park opens with new mangrove habitat, enhanced amenities for residents
SINGAPORE – After almost two years of redevelopment works, a popular park at Marsiling now has a new name and improved facilities for residents. Marsiling Park, formerly known as Woodlands Town Garden, was opened on Sunday (April 29) after a 22-month overhaul that gave the park a new mangrove habitat and enhanced recreational amenities. Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong, who is also the adviser to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC Grassroots Organisations (GROs), graced the opening on Sunday morning with some 800 residents who attended a community event held in conjunction with the park's opening. The 13-hectare park near Marsiling MRT station now features an enhanced mangrove forest with more than 1000 saplings of mangrove species, such as Api Api and White Teruntum. Previously, the mangrove forest was blocked from public view by a dense layer of vegetation, which prevented the growth of new mangrove saplings. Mangrove species that were endangered locally, like the Berembang, were also reintroduced.READ MORE
AMERICAS
Florida’s Mangroves Face Death by Rising Sea Level
USA – Florida’s mangroves have been forced into a hasty retreat by sea level rise and now face being drowned, imperiling coastal communities and the prized everglades wetlands, researchers have found. Mangroves in south-east Florida in an area studied by the researchers have been on a “death march” inland as they edge away from the swelling ocean, but have now hit a manmade levee and are likely to be submerged by water within 30 years, according to the Florida International University analysis. “There’s nowhere left for them to go,” said Dr. Randall Parkinson, a coastal geologist at FIU. “They are done. The sea will continue to rise and the question now is whether they will be replaced by open water. I think they will.READ MORE
The Great Mangrove Cleanup gathers 3,000 pounds of trash
VIRGIN ISLANDS – The Great Mangrove Cleanup, the first large-scale community cleanup of the St. Thomas East End Reserves, took place April 21. There were 126 volunteers, including teams from the University of the Virgin Islands, VI-EPSCoR (Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, Marine Rebuild Fund, All Hands and Hearts, Perfect Heart, Blue Flag, Camp Umoja and the Environmental Association of St. Thomas. Virgin Islands EcoTours provided four staff members and more than 30 kayaks. Custom Builders provided logistical support and supplied dump trucks to cart the trash to the Bovoni Landfill. Organizers estimate more than 3,000 pounds of trash were removed from mangrove shorelines READ MORE
Rezoning request would bulldoze mangrove land for housing
USA – Approximately 307 acres of environmentally sensitive land, owned under Eden Oak I LLC, is slated for an upcoming hearing before the Lee County Hearing Examiner for a rezoning request. The hearing was set to take place on May 18, but the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation reported on May 9 that the applicant had filed a written request for a continuance. An application dated December 2016 seeks to rezone the acreage from agricultural zoning to a residential planned development, "Eden Oak," using about 45 acres to accommodate 55 new single-family homes and a canal to the Caloosahatchee. The LLC is registered to Romas Kartavicius of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Neither the property owner nor his attorney, Wayne Arnold of Grady Minor and Associates, could be reached for comment. A Lee County Department of Community Development Zoning Section staff report recommends denial. READ MORE
