ENTRIES NOW OPEN! Mangrove Photography Awards 2024
10 Years Celebrating Mangroves |
GLOBAL – MAP has launched our 10th Mangrove Photography Awards. The competition invites photographers of all ages and levels to submit images that showcase the beauty, diversity and fragility of mangrove forests worldwide. Mangroves are one of the world’s most critical ecosystems – and one of the most threatened. Their ability to store up to five times more carbon in soil compared to tropical inland forests makes them among our most powerful nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. Yet today, less than half the world’s original mangrove forest cover remains. In an effort to highlight the importance of mangrove forests and the threats they and coastal communities relying on them face, the annual Awards aims to catalyse conservation and restoration efforts for these complex ecosystems. By drawing on the power of visual storytelling, we can deepen peoples’ understanding of the importance of mangroves and ways we can continue to protect them. There are 5 single image categories that appeal to a range of interests and approaches – Wildlife, People, Landscape, Threats and Underwater – as well as Conservation Stories, a multiple image category allowing photographers to tell powerful narratives related to mangrove habitats. |
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MAP film maker once again recognized for outstanding documentary |
Return of the Mangroves follows the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) team to El Salvador to assess the health of mangroves in the Bay of Jiquilisco. MAP Co-Founder Alfredo Quarto and Jim Enright return to the bay 12 years after they conducted a mangrove restoration training, and with the help of Dr Laura Michie discover the impact of the training on the local people and the mangroves of the bay. The documentary, created by MAP’s creative director, Leo Thom, was recently named Best Documentary at the Wildsound Festival. To date the documentary has been selected to be screened at eight film festivals around the world. The film focusses on the Bay of Jiquilisco, the largest mangrove forest in Central America, and explores the impact of the reforestation training on the people and the mangroves of the bay. In 2018 Thom won the Good Natured Conservation Optimism short film festival’s Best Student Film Award for his film The Wondrous Mangrove Forest. |
| Biologists Find 700 Species Of Wildlife In Cambodian Mangrove Jungles |
CAMBODIA – Mangrove jungles in Cambodia are nothing less than preserved treasures to discover a wide array of different species of wildlife. Rich in flora and fauna, Cambodian mangroves surprised a team of biologists with the huge numbers of species found. A recent biodiversity survey conducted in a mangrove jungle in Cambodia unveiled the presence of hundreds of wildlife species. The research was organised at the Peam Krasop sanctuary. The recently conducted biodiversity survey shed light on the huge numbers of species of wildlife living in these habitats in Cambodia. The biologists discovered about 700 species of wildlife in these mangrove forests, according to a report by The Times of India. The findings are indeed one-of-a-kind and surprising for the researchers, to say the least. Fauna & Flora International sponsored this biodiversity survey in the mangrove jungles in Cambodia, according to a report by The Guardian. It unveiled the presence of more than hundreds of species of birds, insects, bats, and fishes. |
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Mighty Mangroves: Forest Service Researchers Help Conserve Coastal Guardians in Micronesia |
MICRONESIA – Mangroves help curb climate change, create wildlife habitat, and protect communities. And Pacific Southwest Research Station ecologist Rich MacKenzie’s mission is to promote their conservation. MacKenzie’s research focuses on mangroves in Micronesia, which includes Palau, the Marshall Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. This region’s area of ocean is equivalent to the size of the continental U.S., and the land mass could fit within Rhode Island. “Mangroves here colonize coastlines, and their optimal elevation level is just above mean or average tide. They thrive outside of water on the exposed forest floor,” MacKenzie stated. Superstars of carbon absorption, mangroves fall under the umbrella of blue carbon, which includes wetlands, sea grass, and the ocean. These critical carbon sinks sustain a healthy planet. “I’m particularly proud to work for the Forest Service, because it is leading the way in blue carbon research and mangroves are a big part of that. Forest Service funding and a grant from U.S. Geological Survey’s Pacific Island Climate Adaptation Science Center is helping make mangrove research possible,” MacKenzie stated. |
| Abandoned fishpond areas to be restored as mangroves |
PHILIPPINES – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has ordered the immediate assessment of abandoned, undeveloped and underutilized (AUU) areas for fishpond purposes, beginning in the regions of Bicol, Western Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula. DENR Memorandum Order 2024-01 signed by Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga calls for data-sharing between DENR offices and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on restoring mangroves which are vital in the defense against flooding and extreme weather events and in improving climate actions. The order covers fishpond areas released by the DENR to the BFAR in the 1970s. The order is in accordance with Presidential Directive No. 2023-296 on the Review of Areas with Fishpond Lease Agreements (FLA) that are AUU. The order also seeks recommendations to transfer the administrative control over AUU fishpond areas under FLA and biophysical reversion from BFAR to the DENR. This involves the process of putting back damaged components of the mangrove forest from fishpond to mangrove state through methods such as replanting, enrichment planting and assisted regeneration. |
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Uncovering potential mangrove microbial bioindicators to assess urban and agricultural pressures on Martinique island |
MARTINIQUE – Martinique’s mangroves, which cover 1.85 ha of the island (<0.1 % of the total area), are considerably vulnerable to local urban, agricultural, and industrial pollutants. Unlike for temperate ecosystems, there are limited indicators that can be used to assess the anthropogenic pressures on mangroves. This study investigated four stations on Martinique Island, with each being subject to varying anthropogenic pressures. An analysis of mangrove sediment cores approximately 18 cm in depth revealed two primary types of pressures on Martinique mangroves: (i) an enrichment in organic matter in the two stations within the highly urbanized bay of Fort-de-France and (ii) agricultural pressure observed in the four studied mangrove stations. This pressure was characterized by contamination, exceeding the regulatory thresholds, with dieldrin, total DDT, and metals (As, Cu and Ni) found in phytosanitary products. The mangroves of Martinique are subjected to varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure, but all are subjected to contamination by organochlorine pesticides. |
| Rising seas and warming weather threaten vulnerable native flora and fauna in Singapore |
SINGAPORE: Rising sea levels and warming weather could potentially mark the end of vulnerable native animals and plants that call Singapore home. A recent climate projection citing progressively hotter days and the inevitable rise of the mean sea level has painted a gloomy picture for the flora and fauna at risk.Conservation advocates are sounding the alarm on the increasing threat to these habitats and the species within them, and calling for a nation-wide effort to reduce carbon emissions and protect the precious pockets of nature.Ecosystems in low-lying areas are particularly susceptible to rising tides brought by climate change. Among them are Singapore’s mangrove forests, which are crucial to a plethora of local wildlife. “With the rising sea level, we lose our sedimentation. Without sedimentation, our mudflats and mangroves may not keep up with the sea level rise,” said Mr Lester Tan, a member of the Nature Society Singapore (NSS), a non-government conservation organisation. |
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Mangrove Action Project Report |
MAP is proud of our annual accomplishments and financial health for 2022. 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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