Rome: Found on the coastlines of 123 countries worldwide, over 20 per cent of mangroves are estimated to have been lost globally over the past 40 years, mainly due to both human activities and natural retraction. While 677,000 hectares of mangroves were lost between 2000 and 2020, the rate at which they are disappearing fell by almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the second decade, according to The World’s Mangroves, 2000–2020, launched today on the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It reports that the total global area of mangroves in 2020 stood at 14.8 million hectares.
The study reveals that mangroves, unlike other forests, can spread very fast given the chance, and some 393,000 hectares of new mangrove forests – an area equivalent to 550,000 football pitches – have grown in areas where they were not present in 2000, offsetting more than half of the global loss in the last 20 years.
The world is making progress towards ending the loss of mangrove forests, the report says.
Asia accounted for 68 per cent of global mangrove area loss in 2000–2010 and for 54 per cent of the loss in 2010–2020. Of the global mangrove area gains, 47 per cent in 2000–2010 and 54 per cent in 2010–2020 were in Asia.
“This new study shows positive steps countries are taking towards slowing the loss of mangroves, but also underlines that we must continue to prioritize their restoration, sustainable use and conservation to safeguard their critical services for people and the planet,” said Zhimin Wu, Director of FAO’s Forestry Division.
“Mangroves have a vital role to play in helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, providing food and livelihoods for coastal communities, protecting our coastlines against natural disasters, storing carbon, mitigating climate change, and harbouring an extraordinary range of biodiversity,” he added.
Drivers of loss and gain in mangrove areas
Providing some of the most detailed information yet on what is happening to the world’s mangroves, the FAO study combined remote sensing satellite imagery and local expert knowledge to collect and analyse data across five regions over the 20-year period, including on the drivers of mangrove loss.
While most aquaculture practices do not affect mangroves, pond shrimp aquaculture, one of the main causes of mangrove loss, went from causing 31 per cent of all losses between 2000 and 2010 to 21 per cent between 2010 and 2020, according to the report.
Natural retraction was the second most important driver of mangrove loss, causing 26 per cent of loss over the 20-year period, at least partly caused by intensifying impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels and temperatures.
Natural disasters accounted for only 2 per cent of all losses over the 20-year period. However, the area they destroyed increased threefold and is expected to worsen, the report warns, leaving coastal communities even more vulnerable to storm surges, floods and tsunamis.
In terms of drivers of mangrove area gain, natural expansion accounted for 82 per cent of all the gains in mangrove areas over the two decades, and restoration for the remaining 18 per cent.
Mangroves are among the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth, storing an estimated 6.23 gigatonnes of carbon worldwide in their biomass and soils, they should also be further emphasized in climate mitigation strategies, according to the publication.
– global bihari bureau
