From mitigating climate change, to protecting coastlines, food security, bio-diversity, and economic and social equality – mangroves offer important solutions for our planet!

Over the past 26 years the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) has worked around the globe in giving a voice to mangroves, and in helping to conserve and restore these critical forest wetlands. The world today faces a number of challenges – ranging from climate change, to protecting coastlines from strengthening storms, ensuring food security, and economic and social equality. Luckily, mangroves provide unique solutions to these pressing issues!


You may have read or heard recently about a report issued by the world’s leading climate scientists at the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warning us that urgent changes are needed to reverse the course of climate trends. Nearly 2.4 billion people live within 60 miles of the coast, and as temperatures and sea levels continue to rise these areas will be some of the most heavily impacted.


Luckily, mangroves have been found to be incredible long-term carbon sinks, storing carbon in the plants themselves, but also (and more importantly) in the soils below for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. Indeed, scientists have discovered that they store far more carbon than first thought – in some cases up to 5 times more per acre than inland forests! – all of which helps significantly in the fight against climate change.
Given this fact, as well as the numerous other benefits provided by mangroves, it is now even more imperative to conserve and restore our global mangrove forests. To this end, MAP continues leading ecology and community-based mangrove restoration workshops and trainings across Latin America, Asia – and most recently Africa – to ensure that restoration efforts globally are more successful, bringing a brighter future to coastal communities.
And while we are ramping up our efforts at MAP to protect and restore these crucial wetland ecosystems, we are also helping nurture the next generation of coastal forest defenders. Now that we have specific targets (like keeping average global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius), we need to educate the younger generations as they will be responsible for meeting these goals. Across all of our programs, MAP aims to educate and inspire young people so that they grow up informed and passionate about the issues and importance of mangroves.