Mangroves are one of the most
threatened ecosystems on the planet. They store
carbon from the atmosphere and act as a buffer
from tropical storms and coastal erosion, so mangroves are crucial to
building climate resilience.
More than 1
million hectares (2.5 million acres) of mangroves have been lost
since 1996, with about 70% of this loss considered
restorable. But mature mangrove forests (and their vast carbon stores) are
irreplaceable.
Protecting what we still have is paramount, alongside global
efforts to plant more mangroves. So, I was excited to be at the world’s first
international mangrove conservation and restoration conference in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in December.
A key focus of this three-day
meeting – with more than 400 delegates plus 100 speakers from 82
countries – is the “mangrove
breakthrough”. This is a new global strategy supported by the Global Mangrove Alliance, an
organisation that brings together technical experts, leaders, communities,
businesses and funders to collaboratively scale up solutions.
This plan for mangrove conservation and restoration has
three goals: to stop human-driven mangrove loss, double the area of mangroves
with effective conservation status, and restore half of recently lost
mangroves.
Photo Credit: Adobe StockReflecting on the current status of world mangroves, Tom
Worthington, an aquatic ecology researcher at the University of Cambridge,
introduced an online platform called Global
Mangrove Watch. This interactive tool uses remote sensing data to map
mangrove habitats. It combines data on the geographical range and status of
mangroves with information about their value as carbon stores. Worthington
said: “This provides open-access information to help plan mangrove conservation
and restoration based on the best available global data sets.”
Meticulous planning and long-term monitoring is critical to
track change and adapt where needed. Worthington hopes that, as the project
progresses, more detailed data will become available. In the future, this could
be reliably used by local projects monitoring small areas of coastline and
revolutionise our understanding of the risks of ongoing habitat loss in some
regions. It could also highlight where exactly more mangroves could be
restored.
Refining what works best
According to experts at this conference, most mass planting
efforts fail to restore
functional mangrove forests. We need a seascape and landscape approach that
creates a corridor linking mangroves with seagrasses, corals and upstream
rivers, so that ecosystems deliver multiple socioeconomic and ecological
benefits.
I asked Elena Roddom, a technical advisor for mangrove
restoration from charity Wetlands International, about the apparent lack of
consensus around the best ways to conserve mangroves:
“We are racing against the clock, with 50% of the world’s
mangroves at risk of collapse by 2050 due
to human-driven pressure. We cannot afford to lose these forests,” she told
me. “They play a critical role in coastal resilience, food security,
biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation.”
We urgently need to prioritise proven ways to restore
mangroves. That involves a shift from mass planting to community-led mangrove
restoration that is successful in the long-term.
Mangrove planting using the right species in the right place
can assist natural regeneration. This will result in better survival, faster
growth and a more diverse and resilient mangrove forest, as studies by Jurgenne
Primavera, chief mangrove scientific advisor at the Zoological Society of
London, show.
Local successes
At this conference, I have seen fantastic examples of
successful community-based mangrove restoration at scale in Indonesia, Guinea
Bissau, Kenya, Mexico and the US. There are lessons to learn from each one.
Judith Okello, chair of the National Mangrove Management
Committee in Kenya, has been leading restoration efforts in the Lamu-Tana
area and understands the importance of engaging local people in
mangrove restoration.
She explained that Kenya’s Forest Conservation and
Management Act (2016) ensures community involvement in forest management,
through forest community associations that create a network of support. People
are empowered to have their say and help guide the national mangrove plan
organised by the Kenyan Forest Service. “Communities are the custodians of
these natural resources and this is particularly true in developing countries –
there’s no way we can leave them out of these restoration efforts,” she told me.
Benjamin Christ, the alliance manager at the Global Mangrove
Alliance, told me that the mangrove breakthrough “fosters the creation of a
community of action”. By connecting governments, philanthropic funding and
financial institutions, he explains that the goal is to galvanise US$4 billion
(£3.2 billion) in sustainable finance “to support action on the ground” for the
conservation, restoration and sustainable management of mangroves. For local
communities, this level of funding could be transformative.
A financial roadmap
Jennifer Howard, the marine climate change director at
environmental charity Conservation International, acknowledged that
“bottlenecks” are slowing down the flow of funding to high-quality projects.
“When it comes to finance strategies like the carbon market,
timelines and expectations are mismatched,” Howard outlined to me. “Investors
are looking for large, early-stage projects that will produce results within
six months, are community-led, and where they can get the largest return for
their investment. That makes sense.”
But it takes years for mangrove conservation and restoration
projects to produce tangible results because the ecosystem needs time to
establish and develop.
Most community-led projects are small and won’t capture
millions of tonnes of blue
carbon quickly. “Investors think that they are taking on all this risk
and deserve a lower price point, but the developers and communities take on
huge risk as well, then get pressured into accepting less money for their
efforts,” Howard said. “This mismatch means that very few projects are actually
getting funded.
Hydrological restoration by Wetlands International in
Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Wetlands International, CC BY-NC-ND
Global attention has already shifted perceptions of
mangroves over recent years. Now, we must build on this momentum and encourage
governments to improve management, restoration and protection while securing
substantial funds from a mix of sources. By bridging the gaps between policy,
finance and on-the-ground action, this mangrove breakthrough could transform
mangrove conservation and restoration.
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NB This article was originally published in The Conversation in December 2024 and
is published here under a creative commons license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
