MAP NEWS Issue 432 – Dec 23, 2017

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Families who call mangroves home need your support

“I still remember that day we got to work together to improve the hydrology at the restoration site. Many people dug in the pond, working together and I could see that they felt that the land had returned to them again. It made me so happy. I felt like despite all the problems we faced we finally felt united in the village.” Ms. Ladda Ardharn (Pink), the youth group leader at Ban Talae Nok, was instrumental in the success of the project there and pursued solutions when the land tenure issue gridlocked the project from proceeding. At one point, she organized a petition to demand their land back. It was not easy for a young woman to take a strong and active role against an influential male community member. She and the other members of the youth group had the motivation it takes to make real, lasting change – and you can give them the technical support and opportunity to make it happen. “Since we started working on this restoration together, the people of my community have hope again.”

Your contribution is about more than money – it is about working together with villagers like Pink, and empowering young people to become caretakers of their environments. It is about partnering to address global challenges with local solutions. You belong to a global mangrove community, and your investment in women like Pink will mean a brighter and more secure future for us all.

The families who call mangroves home need your support. Please give a gift by December 31. READ MORE
 

SPECIAL MALDIVES REPORT

2,500 trees to be cut down for Kulhudhuffushi airport

MALDIVES – The Kulhudhuffushi council expects about 2,500 trees and plants to be felled or removed from the island’s mangrove forest for the construction of an airport. With dredging and land reclamation expected to begin in early November, the wetland area in the island’s northern end is now under the authority of the Regional Airports department of the tourism ministry, the island council president Abdul Latheef Hassan told the Maldives Independent. “It is up to Regional Airports to decide when to cut down trees in the kulhi,” he said by phone Monday morning. “We shared the land use plan of Kulhudhuffushi that includes the airport with the people before the end of July. We’ve also counted and marked the coconut palm trees two months ago after a request from the housing ministry and opened for complaints regarding the procedure.” Latheef added that the council has also contacted families who would have to move from the airport construction site. READ MORE

Maldives switches focus from climate threat to mass tourism

MALDIVES – When Mohamed Nasheed, the young, first democratically elected president of the Maldives, said in 2008 that he was seeking to buy a new homeland to save his people from being inundated by rising sea levels, it made the country of 1,200 coral islands the moral leader in the UN climate talks and helped persuade rich countries to act. This week the Maldives, under new president Abdulla Yameen, apparently changed environmental tack, saying that mass tourism and mega-developments rather than solar power and carbon neutrality would enable it to adapt itself to climate change and give its young population hope for the future. As rumours abound that Yameen has been negotiating to sell an entire atoll with 19 coral islands and dozens of reefs and lagoons to the Saudi royal family for $10bn (£8bn), his ministers outlined plans to geo-engineer artificial islands, relocate populations and attract millions more tourists by creating 50 more resorts. READ MORE

International experts called on Maldives to designate HDh. Keylakunu a 'Mangrove Wild Reserve', in 2001!

MALDIVES – n the Maldivian government to declare Keylakunu island of Haa Dhaalu atoll as a 'Mangrove Wild Reserve'. Amid its efforts to create awareness on the importance of the uninhabited island, RaajjeTV has obtained a copy of a letter sent by ISME's Executive Secretary Shigeyuki Baba, addressed to Maldives' then Director of Environmental Affairs, recommending that Keylakunu island is designated as a Wild Mangrove Reserve in the Maldives 'not only for our generation but also future generations'. In the letter, Professor Shigeyuki noted that he, along with a team from ISME, had visited mangrove forests in Kumundhoo, Neykurendhoo and Keylakunu islands in Haa Dhaalu atolls and Baarah island in Haa Alifu. READ MORE

HDh. Keylakunu is one of the few places that show the Maldives' biodiversity
MALDIVES – Ecocare Maldives has said that Keylakunu Island of Haa Dhaalu atoll 'is one of a kind' and that 'we should be proud' of it. The organization's Director of Advocacy, Maeed Mohamed Zahir emphasized that the Avicennia marina forest found in Keylakunu cannot be found anywhere else in the world, especially not in an island ecosystem. Noting that 'there are just a few places in the Maldives that shows its rich biodiversity,' Maeed said that Keylakunu is one such place, highlighting the importance of protecting the island. He also noted that international experts had, back in the early 2000s, recommended the Maldivian government to declare Keylakunu a biosphere reserve. READ MORE

Conservation and Management of Maldivian Mangrove Habitats – Baseline Study

MALDIVES – Maldives is known for its coral reefs and beaches; mangrove ecosystems in Maldives are over-shadowed by these environments and oftentimes neglected and under constant anthropogenic threats despite its crucial ecological and geomorphological function to this small island nation. This study aims at establishing a baseline of environmental conditions of significant mangrove habitats throughout the country. Data and information collected via this study will provide a foundation for conservation efforts to build upon and help future environmental monitoring of said environments. READ MORE

ASIA

720 volunteers clean up mangroves along Bandra's Carter Road of 3,000 kg trash

INDIA – The Maharashtra State Mangrove Cell began its city-wide 'Clean Mangrove' campaign on Saturday, and started with removing 3,000 kg garbage from Carter Road in Bandra. In all, 720 volunteers, including students from Rizvi College, St Andrew High School, St Pauls Institute of Communication Education, and RD National College, local residents, and cell members participated in the drive. The Mangrove Cleanup drive is expected to continue until May 31, 2018, and eight locations – Dahisar, Borivli, Versova, Bandra, Sewri, Bhandup, Airoli, and Turbhe – have been identified. N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, along with senior officials were present at the event at Carter Road. He said: "This will be a regular clean-up drive and will be done on a rotational basis. On weekdays, our officers and workers from the municipal corporation will clean these areas and on weekends, volunteers will supplement these efforts. The idea is to clear the trash near the roots of the trees." READ MORE

AFRICA

Nasako Besingi released

CAMEROON – On 27 November 2017, the Examining Military Judge in Buea, Cameroon, officially dropped all charges and signed the release order for human rights defender Nasako Besingi, who was subsequently released following over two months in detention. Nasako Besingi is a human rights defender and the director of Struggle to Economize the Future Environment – SEFE, a non-governmental organisation based in the village of Mundemba, Ndian Division, Cameroon, which has asserted the land rights of local communities in the context of the development of palm oil plantations. Nasako Besingi has been leading his community in the protests against the development of palm oil plantations by the American agribusiness company Herakles Farm. Most recently, the human rights defender has vehemently condemned the situation with regards to the human rights violations in context of the current crises in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. READ MORE

Jury still out on huge mangrove regeneration project in Senegal

SENEGAL – Climate change (lower rainfall, rising sea levels, and harsh droughts) coupled with unsustainable human exploitation has seen some 40 percent of Senegal’s mangrove cover lost since the 1970s. It’s a region of rich biodiversity: some 2,000 species of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans live among the roots and mud of the mangroves. For Ablaye Marone, who works as an volunteer guide and ranger in the national park that covers 76,000 of the delta’s 146,000 hectares, it’s a lot more than that. He told IRIN that replanting schemes are “a question of survival”. “We make a living only from mangroves,” he explained. “Take me for example. Aside from activities as a guard, I place beehives in the mangroves to collect honey. I make a lot of money doing this that allows me to make ends meet. If there were no more mangroves, there would be no more bees.” Adjarata Diouf, who also lives in Marone’s village of Bagadadji, explained how the mangroves “provide an essential source of revenue for women here”. “They offer ideal conditions for the reproduction of fish and shellfish. Our main economic activity is harvesting oysters, from which we make a significant revenue,” she told IRIN. READ MORE

AMERICA

The Truth about Shrimp Rings

CANADA – Ready-to-eat shrimp rings have had their fair share of mud thrown at them. Over the years, social justice and environmental crusaders have pointed out the problems with these cheap mainstays of December holiday parties in North America. Shrimp rings are emblematic of the pervasiveness of budget shrimp in grocery stores and at restaurants, yet they remain as popular as ever. The world consumes more than eight million tonnes of shrimp annually, and farmed shrimp makes up a bigger fraction every year. Most of the shrimp exported across the world come from Asia and Latin America—China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Ecuador are major producers. There’s nothing small about the shrimp business, including its impact on vulnerable people and environments. It’s always a good time to just say no to the ring of injustice, pollution, and coastal degradation. Share some of these facts while lingering with friends and acquaintances over the holiday trough, a communal reminder that there are happier things to eat over the holidays. But don’t despair, there is a way to change this narrative, one story at a time. READ MORE

Amazonian fish need tropical forests to survive

BRAZIL – Even fish can be treehuggers. In a large study published recently, fisheries ecologists at Virginia Tech have found a link between tropical forest loss in the Amazon and declines in freshwater fish populations. Their work could inspire new policy protections for tropical forests on the Amazon river floodplain, where fishing is a major source of income and food. Virginia Tech’s Leandro Castello’s team reports in the journal Fish and Fisheries that lakes in the Amazon River floodplain with a larger forest amount had a greater fishery yield, demonstrating a relationship between the forest and fish. Forest survival accounted for 85 percent of fishery yields for the majority of species examined. Prior work found 56 percent of the forest in these areas were lost to clearing for plantations and cattle ranching in recent years. Many scientists are concerned about drought, carbon emissions and degraded water quality. But Castello cautions that the problem extend beyond the land. “Everyone talks about deforestation as a terrestrial issue – carbon stock, climate change. This study shows that in river basins such as the Amazon, deforestation an issue of food security for the local people,” Castello said. READ MORE

GLOBAL

World Bank to end financial support for oil and gas extraction

GLOBAL – The World Bank will end its financial support for oil and gas extraction within the next two years in response to the growing threat posed by climate change. In a statement that delighted campaigners opposed to fossil fuels, the Bank used a conference in Paris to announce that it “will no longer finance upstream oil and gas” after 2019. The Bank ceased lending for coal-fired power stations in 2010 but has been under pressure from lobby groups also to halt the $1bn (£750m) a year it has been lending for oil and gas in developing countries. The Bank said it saw the need to change the way it was operating in a “rapidly changing world”, adding that it was on course to have 28% of its lending going to climate action by 2020. At present, 1-2% of the Bank’s $280bn portfolio is accounted for by oil and gas projects. In exceptional circumstances, the Bank said it would consider lending for oil and gas projects in the very poorest countries but only where it helped the poor get access to energy and the project did not conflict with commitments to reduce greenhouse gases made in the 2015 Paris climate change accord. READ MORE

A Productivity Paradox In Very Wet Mangrove Forests Of The Neotropics?

GLOBAL – A group of researchers from Colombia (Universidad del Valle) and Germany (Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research-ZMT) joined efforts to produce an ecosystem model of a mangrove area in the Panama Bight eco-region synthesizing for the first time knowledge from a particular system – Bahía Málaga in the Colombian Pacific coast – collected in the last ~10 years. The mangroves here are probably the wettest in the world, – rainfall can easily reach 7 m every year -, and represent an especially interesting system to investigate which factors determine the productivity of a mangrove ecosystem. The resulting EwE model of Bahía Málaga indicated that mangrove trees contributed most to the biomass of the whole system (96%) and that secondary production in the form of macrobenthos (crabs, cockles) and fish biomass was extremely low compared to that of other mangrove systems. The transfer of energy through trophic levels seems to be very low in this system being the reason for an impoverished biomass of primary and secondary order consumers. The characteristics of this system indicate that despite being little affected by anthropogenic activities, any increase in such activities (i.e. fishing) may severely affect the capacity of the mangrove to deliver food to human populations. The astounding nature of this mangrove forest contrasts with the apparent natural scarcity of other biotic living forms in this system in an unexpected productivity paradox. READ MORE

 

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