MAP News Issue #588 – Dec 30, 2023

MAP News Issue #588 – Dec 30, 2023

WEST AFRICA – Young people across the globe are spearheading the movement for a fairer and healthier world through activism, outreach and community-led solutions for ecosystems and livelihoods. Mitigating climate change from biodiversity hotspots: Anna Obi Akpe, from Nigeria, is one of the two 2024 Wetland Restoration Stewards. A graduate in plant and ecological studies, Anna is a passionate and dedicated biodiversity conservator. She will represent the Biodiversity Rescue Club (BRC)’s Mangrove Restoration Project (MRP), which aims to revive and reconstruct the natural structure and functioning of mangrove forests in the community of Esierebom in Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria. The project will enhance biodiversity, local livelihoods, carbon capture and water quality. To deepen the impact of their projects, they will be offered scientific and peer guidance, training, a grant of 5,000 EUR and other resources. 

Call to demolish constructions in mangrove forest site

INDIA – Environmentalist and Jana Sena leader Bolisetty Satyanarayana has sought demolition of all constructions in mangroves under Coringa Sanctuary near Kakinada Port, in view of enforcement of the Biodiversity Act in 2004. Three years ago, Deccan Chronicle highlighted the destruction of mangroves at Kakinada for the ‘housing for the poor’ project by the district officials. Based on this report, Bolisetty Satyanarayana filed a case before the National Green Tribunal. Satyanarayana and ornithologist K. Mruthyunjaya Rao visited the mangrove site near Dummulapeta here on Thursday and observed the development of mangroves. The environmentalist said that he approached NGT after Deccan Chronicle brought the destruction of mangroves to limelight some time ago. “The tribunal has delivered a clear order that the mangroves should be restored and it also suggested guidelines for this. But, the Kakinada district administration has not taken due note of the judgement. Hence, I approached NGT again.”

MEXICO – Mangrove forests in Mexico have undergone mass deforestation over the years, alongside hurricane damage that has adversely affected local populations, but a new insurance policy aims to protect the fishermen restoring swamps in the Yucatán Peninsula.
In the last 20 years, 35% of the world’s mangrove forests have disappeared – that number rises to 70% in certain areas. This is due to a host of human causes and natural climate events, from deforestation and urbanisation to rising sea levels and cyclones. But even though the rate of mangrove forest loss has slowed in recent years, climate change and natural disasters are unpredictable, and can hit swamps and local communities hard. In fact, it’s estimated that a further 10-15% of mangroves could be lost by the end of the century, and this already results in damages worth $6-42B annually.

Green Gardening: We have a real SOS: Save Our Shorelines

Dwindling fish stocks hit incomes in Cambodia, prey to climate change

CAMBODIA – Fisherman Siem Huat has seen fish stocks dwindle in recent years in Cambodia’s majestic Tonle Sap Lake, and with them, his family’s sole source of income. Experts say extreme weather brought by climate change, ecological disruption from dam-building, wetland conversions, and overfishing threaten food supplies and livelihoods for the millions who depend on Southeast Asia’s largest lake. “Sometimes there is rainfall in the wrong months or it gets so hot I can’t go out to fish,” said the 45-year-old Siem Huat, as he navigated his boat through mangroves to pull in nets carrying disappointingly few fish. The Mekong River typically swells in the rainy season as it converges with Cambodia’s Tonle Sap River, sending an unusual reversed flow into the Tonle Sap Lake that fills up the latter and spawns bountiful fish stocks. But in recent years, the reversal has been delayed or disrupted, so that those who rely on the lake to earn a living find themselves in a battle to survive.

MEXICO – Antonio Merlin watched from his living room window as the ocean inched closer to his home. When the 55-year-old fisher built the concrete house with mosaic tile floors for his wife and four children in the village of El Bosque in 2002, the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico was nearly a kilometre away, a 15-minute walk from his back door. But since 2019, residents of El Bosque say a series of severe weather fronts, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds, have been eroding the shoreline. As the ocean has encroached, more than 60 homes in the village have been destroyed by the waves. Among them was Merlin’s, which was overtaken by the sea in 2021. “The idea that the sea would someday arrive at our door was unthinkable,” said Merlin, who has lived in the village since 1987. “Once the sea entered our homes, it began to knock them down one after another.”

USA – In the heart of the Tampa Bay area lies the Mangrove ecosystem at Weedon Island Preserve. The preserve is just north of St. Petersburg and known for its hiking trails and historical significance.”Weedon Island’s mangrove forests are all interconnected by waterways, most of them natural creeks, and some of them are man-made channels. But that network of interconnected waterways creates a vast area of thick mangrove forest,” said Kendal Jackson, PhD at the University of South Florida. The labyrinth of intertwined mangrove roots is a sanctuary for plants and animals that have seamlessly adapted to the distinctive habitat.”Next time you’re out at Weedon Island Preserve, and you’re walking in the mangrove ecosystem, make sure that you stop, look around, and listen. You’ll observe a whole new world of wildlife and ecological interactions happening around you,” said Jackson.

MAP is proud to release a report of our annual accomplishments and financial health for the past year. Check out a global map of the places we’re working, and highlights from all of our programs. Thank you to our many supporters who made this work possible, and to all of our friends and partners working to protect mangrove forests, worldwide.

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ACTION ALERTS

Please sign: Save Murchison Falls!

Uganda is sitting on large oil reserves – international corporations want to exploit them. The Tilenga and Kingfisher projects have catastrophic consequences for the nature in Murchison Falls National Park and the population. The EACOP pipeline, which is to be built to export oil to the port of Tanga in Tanzania, is also devastating.