The importance of protecting mangroves

A recent report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has revealed the shocking fact that mangroves are being destroyed at a rate of three to five times greater than the average rates of forest loss, costing billions in economic damages and denying millions of people the ecosystem services they need to survive.

The report, called  “The Importance of Mangroves: A Call to Action”, describes how emissions resulting from mangrove losses make up nearly one-fifth of global emissions from deforestation, resulting in economic damages of some $6- $42bn annually. Mangroves are also threatened by climate change, which could result in the loss of a further 10 – 15% of mangroves by 2100.

Found in 123 countries and covering 152,000 sq km, more than 100mn people around the world live within 10km of large mangrove forests, benefiting from a variety of goods and services such as fisheries and forest products, clean water and protection against erosion and extreme weather events.

As UN under-secretary-general and UNEP executive director Achim Steiner stated, mangroves provide ecosystem services worth around $33 - 57,000 per hectare per year. Add to that their superior ability to store carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and it becomes clear that their continued destruction makes neither ecological nor economic sense.

Yet, the escalating destruction and degradation of mangroves - driven by land conversion for aquaculture and agriculture, coastal development, and pollution - is occurring at an alarming rate, with over a quarter of the earth’s original mangrove cover now lost. This has potentially devastating effects on biodiversity, food security and the livelihoods of some of the most marginalised coastal communities in developing countries where more than 90% of the world’s mangroves are found.

By quantifying in economic terms the value of the ecosystem services provided by mangroves as well as the critical role they play in global climate regulation, the report aims to encourage policymakers to use the tools and guidelines outlined to better ensure the conservation and sustainable management of mangroves, Steiner added.

The report argues that in spite of the mounting evidence in support of the multitude of benefits derived from mangroves, they remain one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet.

Research is increasingly pointing to the role of mangroves as significant carbon storage systems, sequestering vast amounts of carbon – about 1,000 tonnes per hectare – over thousands of years, making them some of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on the planet.

Protecting these long-term reservoirs of carbon, and preventing their emissions from being released back into the atmosphere is, the report says, a sensible and cost-effective measure that can be taken to help mitigate climate change.