MAP News Issue #591 – Feb 10, 2024

MAP News Issue #591 – Feb 10, 2024

Neglect and corruption destroy mangroves in Puttalam Lagoon Sri Lanka

SRI LANKA Environmentalist groups accuse the authorities and ruling class for the destruction of the mangroves in the Palaviya area, part of the Puttalam lagoon, near the Old Hamilton Canal, guilty of negligence because in the last 20 years they have done nothing to prevent the havoc. Despite the damage, the area still remains one of the most characteristic lagoon systems in Sri Lanka, with a variety of fish of the highest order. All around the area you can also find 16 authentic varieties of mangroves and 12 other plants belonging to the mangrove community. For environmentalists, immediate intervention by the Forestry Department is necessary to curb destruction that could have devastating consequences. Mangroves are an important coastal ecosystem that has an impact on human life and nourishes biodiversity, as a nursery for numerous coastal and marine species, as well as guaranteeing support for fishing. They also provide a buffer to coastal communities against extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, stabilize coastlines and provide a shield against the effects of climate change, including coastal erosion and sea level rise. In addition, they provide housing, protection and food for all types of species, including fish, conserve coral and nourish sea grass. Officials from the Center for Environmental Justice (CEJ) report that “mangrove cover in Sri Lanka has drastically reduced over the last decade”. According to a 2010 survey, there were up to 12 thousand hectares of plantations in the country, but with the progressive uprooting recorded over the years, the coverage has been reduced to 8 thousand hectares.

Pakistan bucks global trend with 30-year mangrove expansion

PAKISTAN – About three-quarters of Pakistan’s 1,050-kilometer (652-mile) coastline lies in Balochistan province, where the remaining mangrove trees stand in dispersed patches. The rest of the coast lies in Sindh province, where more than 90% of the country’s mangroves live. There, the Indus Delta stretches over 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres), an intertidal wetland home to the world’s seventh-largest mangrove forest, which supports the livelihoods of at least 100,000 people in fisheries. However, many people in the once-prosperous delta have been forced to leave in recent decades, as damming and diversions of the Indus River, compounded by sea level rise, have led to the sea encroaching, freshwater becoming scarce, and farmland turning saline. Pakistan’s alarming vulnerability to climate change is well documented. The devastating mega floods in 2022 — made 75% more intense by climate change, according to scientists — killed at least 1,700 people, displaced 8 million, and inflicted losses of $30 billion. To cope with these and other environmental disasters, national and provincial governments under various ruling parties have carried out massive tree-planting projects to enhance terrestrial forest cover since 2008. 

How tides of change transformed Yundang Lake

CHINA – So far, the renovation of Yundang Lake has cost about 1.99 billion yuan ($277 million). “We are not only engaged in environmental restoration, but also preserving our city’s culture,” Pan said. “For example, our sailing sports lead the way in China. People in Xiamen no longer just observe the sea from the shore. They can now sail and see dolphins in the sea. It has changed our lifestyle.” To restore wetlands, the city’s forestry bureau and Xiamen University planted mangroves along lakefronts and seashores. The mangrove restoration projects were done in “forest-friendly” areas including Yundang Lake and Tong’an Bay. The area of mangrove forests in Xiamen increased from around 33 hectares in 2000 to 174 hectares in 2023, the ministry said. As mangrove plantations expanded, marine ecosystems flourished, with water birds returning to nest and frolic. In the past, coastal waters in Xiamen suffered from severe eutrophication — an overabundance of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in water caused by excessive aquaculture and haphazard development. As a result, the native mangrove forests, known for their crucial role in protecting coastlines and mitigating the impact of waves, disappeared.

What is ‘blue carbon’? Southeast Asia’s net zero answer faces setbacks

GLOBAL – From Bali to Phuket, Southeast Asia’s beaches have always captured the imagination of tourists. But rarely has anybody recognised another potential of its vast coastline – the ability of its rich marine life to achieve carbon neutrality. The ocean system comprising tiny phytoplanktons to mangrove belts and sea grasses can store up to five times more carbon than tropical forests, but its vast natural potential is being rapidly depleted, according to Siti Maryam Yaakub, senior director at Singapore-based International Blue Carbon Institute. So-called blue carbon is known by scientists as carbon stored in ocean systems, and Southeast Asia has one of the largest such sources, but the region is also experiencing massive losses of this potential due to human activity such as aquaculture.Within Southeast Asia, the two dominant blue carbon ecosystems are mangroves and seagrass habitats. Mangroves are essentially forests that grow in the interface between the land and the sea, while seagrass are underwater plants that thrive in brackish and shallow water.

The region had been lax in preserving its blue carbon potential. “For example, a lot of the mangroves in Sumatra and Java [in Indonesia] are quickly being converted into shrimp farming, and there’s also conversion into palm oil [cultivation],” she said.

Mphasis F1 Foundation Launch Mangrove Restoration Initiative

INDIA – Mphasis F1 Foundation in collaboration with United Way Bengaluru (UWBe), has launched an initiative on World Wetlands Day, February 2, 2024, dedicated to the restoration of mangroves. This initiative has been launched at Pulicat or Pazhaverkadu (in Tamil, which translates to ‘jungle of roots’, implying the presence of Mangrove forests in the entire area), a coastal town on the outskirts of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Pulicat coastline spans 720 sq. km and is India’s second-biggest brackish water body. The lake’s depth has reduced from 3.8m to 2m due to the large-scale destruction of the mangrove vegetation due to human-caused and factors. Currently, the area is left with patches of mangrove vegetation; hence these efforts are aimed at its restoration. Often overlooked yet critically important, mangroves play a pivotal role in coastal biodiversity, climate resilience, and community well-being. Unfortunately, mangroves are under threat, with a loss of 35% between 1996-2000, as suggested by various reports. The State of the World’s Mangrove 2022 report reveals that only 147,000 km2 of mangroves remain globally. These salt-tolerant trees provide a habitat for diverse marine and terrestrial species and offer numerous environmental and community benefits. Their dense root systems act as a natural buffer against extreme weather events, stabilize shorelines, and are highly effective carbon sinks, absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide, about 5 times higher than that of tropical upland forests. 

‘Will Cut Only 10,582 Mangroves For Pipeline,’ BPCL Informs Bombay High Court

INDIA – The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has informed the Bombay high court on Thursday that it will cut only 10,582 mangrove trees and no other terrestrial trees while laying pipelines from its refinery in Mahul, Chembur to Rasayani in Raigad district. BPCL has undertaken a project to lay underground 43km-long pipelines for transporting petroleum products that will pass through its refinery, Mumbai Port Trust Authority, CIDCO and private lands. It filed an affidavit before the HC which is hearing an application filed by activist Zoru Bathena urging the court to recall its January 23 order allowing BPCL to cut 11,677 trees, including mangrove trees, for laying of the pipelines. “It is true that 10,582 mangrove trees and 1,095 terrestrial trees have been identified for cutting. However, there will be cutting of only mangrove trees and no terrestrial trees will be cut,” BPCL’s reply read. In view of September 2017 order of the high court which mandated its permission for felling of trees, BPCL had approached the high court. BPCL had contended that the pipeline was crucial for transportation of petroleum products due to non-availability of the railways which would reduce road traffic. Also, it would reduce losses on accounts of loading and unloading operations.

Why the next two years will make or break battle to rescue tropical forests

BRAZIL – To see how escalating deforestation and rising temperatures are already having profound impacts, look no further than the Amazon rainforest, where water levels last year reached their lowest since measurement began, threatening both humans and animals, and the integrity of the world’s biggest tropical forest.
In the lead up to COP28, the annual Forest Declaration Assessment report , opens new tabfound that despite more than 140 countries pledging at COP26 to end deforestation by 2030, tree loss increased by 4% in 2022 compared with 2021. The amount would have been higher had not Brazil, under its new president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and two other important rainforest countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, achieved drastic reductions.So, while activists such as Global Canopy celebrated the fact that the promise to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 made it into the final text at COP28 for the first time, they also called attention to the fact that global pledges to end deforestation, stretching back to the 2014 New York Declaration (when the deadline was 2020), have rung hollow. Last month, there was a grim reminder of how easily progress can be reversed, when official data from Brazil showed that deforestation in the Cerrado biome, Brazil’s agricultural heartland, increased by 43% on the previous year, even as deforestation in the Amazon fell 50%.

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