MAP News Issue # 531 - Oct 16, 2021

The MAP News 531st Edition                                                  Oct 16, 2021
FEATURED STORY MAP’s International Children’s Art Calendars 2022 MAP’s International Children’s Art Calendars 2022 are here and ready to order! With beautiful artwork submitted by students from many countries around the world, these calendars both make a great gift, and are a helpful reminder for what we can do to assist in saving our world’s mangroves. All proceeds will go towards furthering MAP’s mission of conserving, restoring, and protecting the world’s invaluable mangrove forests. We wish to thank every child, their teachers and associate non-governmental organizations that participated and collaborated in MAP’s 20th anniversary International Children’s Mangrove Art Contest during 2021. For two decades, MAP’s art contest has been inspiring and creating awareness as well as giving the youths the opportunity to voice and express their point of view on mangrove forests and the problems mangroves face today. We are thrilled to see interest for mangroves continuing to grow among youths, inspiring creative art and learning through participation. Through the art contest, young artists discover the incredible beauty, importance, and biodiversity of mangrove forests, depicting through their art what they have experienced via mangrove field trips, or in the classroom, and home studies. ORDER HERE GLOBAL Identifying global and local drivers of change in mangrove cover and the implications for management GLOBAL - Climate change and human activities continue to drive a widespread decline in global mangrove coverage, undermining their capacity to provide ecosystem benefits. While global and local scale drivers of change on mangroves are widely acknowledged, the relative importance and the exposure of mangroves to climatic, geomorphological, and direct human threats vary spatially. Understanding the role and relative importance of the multiscale and multiple threats to mangroves and how these vary spatially is fundamental for formulating a spatially adaptive approach to their management and conservation. Using satellite-derived indicators of mangrove condition aggregated over 19 years (2002 to 2019) and 14 proxies of climate, human activity, and geomorphology, we applied machine learning methods to determine the role and relative importance of the change drivers. Using outputs from this deductive statistical process, we applied inductive methods to map mangrove exposure spatially. READ MORE Global restoration now has an online meeting point GLOBAL - With all of the environmental problems in the world, it can be easy to forget that there are also many solutions. Across the globe, people are working to restore nature, and good ideas abound. Organizing and visualizing this work, however, is a mammoth task, but it is one that the online platform Restor is attempting to achieve. Restor is a map-based, open-source platform that combines on-the-ground knowledge, ecosystem research, and satellite imagery so people can better plan, manage and monitor restoration projects. The locations of more than 50,000 restoration and conservation initiatives are now registered in Restor, as well as data from more than 60,000 scientists on environmental parameters such as climate, temperature, precipitation, local plant and tree species, soil characteristics and more. READ MORE AFRICA Restoring Nigeria’s Lost Ecosystem NIGERIA - According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, (IUCN), the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) challenges everyone to massively scale up restoration efforts that breathe new life into our degraded ecosystems. The IUCN contends that ecosystem restoration manifests through actions as varied as new mangroves, grass or other plantings, natural or assisted regeneration, agroforestry, soil enhancement measures, or improved and sustainable management to accommodate a mosaic of land, aquatic, or marine uses. It added that: “Any degraded ecosystem including agricultural areas, savannah, wetlands, protected wildlife reserves, fisheries, managed plantations, riversides, coastal areas, and many others may offer opportunities for improvement through restoration. Ecosystem restoration could focus on re-establishing ecological integrity on a hillside or a seagrass bed to the large-scale landscape restoration of a plateau or mountain range. “There are already millions of hectares of terrestrial and marine ecosystems under restoration across the globe, supported by efforts like the Global Mangrove Alliance and the Bonn Challenge, with contributing regional initiatives such as AFR100 and Initiative 20×20. READ MORE AMERICAS Caribbean Utilities Company and “Marvellous Mangroves” Celebrate 20 Years Together CAYMAN ISLANDS - The highly successful partnership between Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) and the Mangrove Action Project’s Marvellous Mangroves Year 5 curriculum is celebrating over 20 years of working together. This programme teaches Cayman’s students about the function and value of its mangrove ecosystems. Executive Director of the Mangrove Education Project, Martin Keeley, estimates that over 15,000 students and more than 200 teachers have experienced the wonders of Cayman’s mangrove forests in the past 20 years. This number also includes many Year 3 classes, which have also experienced the programme. During this time Mr. Keeley explains that the programme has not only relied on the financial support of CUC but also the classroom and logistical support of the National Trust, the Department of Education, Sea Elements and, of course, the many teachers of Cayman’s primary schools. “It was great that CUC joined us earlier this year on a scheduled programme with both Year 5 and Year 3 classes from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School,” Mr. Keeley adds, “It has been part of CUC’s mandate to help support environmental programmes and it is obvious that they are in this for the long run as we continue to learn about the true value of our mangrove ecosystems and efforts to protect and conserve them.” READ MORE Relict inland mangrove ecosystem reveals Last Interglacial sea levels MEXICO - With geological sea-level fluctuations driven by climate change, the distribution of mangrove forests has expanded and contracted through time. We studied an inland, isolated mangrove forest located 170 km away from the nearest coastline in the interior of the rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). Combining multiple lines of evidence, we demonstrate that this extant forest is a relict from a past, warmer world when relative sea levels were 6 to 9 m higher than at the present. Our finding highlights the extensive landscape impacts of past climate change on the world’s coastline and opens opportunities to better understand future scenarios of relative sea level rise. Climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene played a major role in shaping the spatial distribution and demographic dynamics of Earth's biota, including our own species. The Last Interglacial (LIG) or Eemian Period (ca. 130 to 115 thousand years B.P.) was particularly influential because this period of peak warmth led to the retreat of all ice sheets with concomitant changes in global sea level. The impact of these strong environmental changes on the spatial distribution of marine and terrestrial ecosystems was severe as revealed by fossil data and paleogeographic modeling. Here, we report the occurrence of an extant, inland mangrove ecosystem and demonstrate that it is a relict of the LIG. READ MORE Inland mangroves reveal a tumultuous climatic past — and hint at our future MEXICO - Exequiel Ezcurra was dubious when he first heard about the possibility of mangroves on the San Pedro Mártir River in southern Mexico from Carlos Burelo-Ramos, a botanist at Mexico’s University of Tabasco. The red mangrove tree (Rhizophora mangle) does inhabit freshwater environs — Cuba’s Bay of Pigs and the Florida Everglades are two notable examples. But mangroves sitting at least 170 kilometers (106 miles) inland? That seemed unlikely. “You probably got your botanical identification wrong because it doesn’t seem plausible that mangroves are growing in a river with freshwater at such a distance from the coast,” Ezcurra, a professor of ecology at the University of California, Riverside, told Burelo-Ramos. But a confident Burelo-Ramos pushed back, respectfully telling Ezcurra, “I’m a good taxonomist. I know my plants, and this is red mangrove.” READ MORE ASIA Women on storm-hit Philippine island lead Indigenous effort to restore mangroves PHILIPPINES - Almost eight years after Typhoon Haiyan barreled into Busuanga Island in the western Philippines, the lesson it left is still etched in the mind of village leader Annabel Dela Cruz. For her and other Indigenous women in the village of Quezon on Busuanga’s northern coast, keeping their mangrove forest intact is now seen as a matter of survival amid the climate crisis. “We were surprised because we were rarely in the path of tropical storms,” said Dela Cruz, recalling the night in November 2013 when Haiyan ravaged this island town. Quezon’s mangrove forest, then classified by the government as logged over, provided Dela Cruz’s community with little protection against strong waves and wind. Many wooden fishing boats and thatch-roofed houses, including Dela Cruz’s, were destroyed. Had they realized earlier how a healthy mangrove forest’s complex root network can shield a community from typhoons, they would have it restored a long time ago, the 56-year-old Indigenous leader said. So, as the villagers gradually got back on their feet, they started shoring up their defenses against future storms by restoring their mangroves. READ MORE Photos show Manila Bay mangroves ‘choking’ in plastic pollution PHILIPPINES - There are stray, abandoned flip flops, old foil food wrappers, crumpled plastic bags, and discarded water bottles. The Navotas mudflats and mangroves in Manila Bay are buried in a thick layer of rubbish. It is “almost choking the mangrove roots,” Diuvs de Jesus, a marine biologist in the Philippines who photographed the area on a recent visit, said. The wetlands are of huge environmental significance. They provide a crucial feeding ground for migratory birds, offer protection against floodwater and help tackle climate change by absorbing far greater levels of carbon dioxide than mountain forests. The plastic pollution, though, could devastate the area. Mangroves have special roots, known as pneumatophores, “sort of like a snorkel that helps them breathe in when sea water rises,” says Janina Castro, member of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and advocate for wetland conservation. Plastic risks suffocating pneumatophores, weakening, and potentially killing the trees. READ MORE In a sea of oil palms, even monitor lizards need islands of natural forest MALAYSIA - The Kinabatangan River rises in the beating heart of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, where ancient primary forest cloaks the slopes of steep-sided mountains. As it meanders east toward the Sulu Sea, the river traverses floodplains overrun by vast monocultures. Regimented rows of oil palms claw at the thin weft of natural forest that lines the Kinabatangan’s course. This fragile lifeline is home to some of the region’s most spectacular species, including Bornean elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus). Now, scientists have found that the forested river corridor, designated in 2005 as the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, is also vital for the somewhat less glamorous Asian water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator). As both predators and scavengers, Asian water monitor lizards are known to flourish in human-impacted landscapes, including oil palm plantations, where they thrive on an abundance of leftovers and rodent prey. Prior research has even shown that they fare better in plantations than natural habitats. READ MORE FEATURED VIDEO How Shrimp Is Made   Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going.  Giving could never be easier	URGENT ACTION BHP: Stop the Greenwash There is no such thing as ‘green mining’. SIGN OUR PETITION Strengthen 60 Women Farmers in El Salvador DONATE HERE Stop the East African Pipeline that threatens the planet #STOPEACOP – CLICK HERE Stop construction work on a private port In Defense of the Quilombo Boca Do Rio TAKE ACTION! Tell Sumitomo to stop building polluting coal power in Bangladesh! TAKE ACTION! Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier ORDER YOUR 2022 MAP CHILDREN'S ART CALENDER HERE 13 Year old Linda Li "Mangrove Adventure" from Kid Dream Art School WATCH NOW Restoring The Natural Mangrove Forest Watch movie Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration in Rufiji Delta VIEW VIDEO Video: Mangroves for the Future - A look bacK. As the latest phase of Mangroves for the Future (MFF) draws to a close, this video highlights some of the project’s most successful initiatives – from local women supporting national park management in Viet Nam to an island in the Maldives that has become a model for waste management, and everything in between. View Here WANT TO GET INVOLVED? Follow and Join MAP!             Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier   Singing for the Sundarbans WATCH HERE Entrevista con Monica Quarto del Mangrove Action Project (Spanish language) Oye Aqui Interested in connecting or working with MAP? Check out our opportunities here MANGROVE ISSUES  Want to learn more about mangroves? Our short presentation will give you a better understanding of the issues we are working to solve. WATCH PRESENTATION What is CBEMR? Download MAP's 2 page CBEMR Information Sheet containing links to all MAP's CBEMR resources – CLICK HERE   View MAP’s uploaded Videos at  MAP Video Gallery Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign!   WATCH VIDEO Mangroves: Guidebook to Malaysia – Click Here SHARE MAP'S VISION  CLICK HERE to watch short introductory video. Together we can work "at the roots of the sea". Our short documentary, Reducing the Risk of Disaster through Nature-Based Solutions : Mangroves   Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum The Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum begins with a simple philosophy – getting future generations to not only learn about, but understand the importance of mangrove forests. VISIT The award-winning Marvellous Mangroves (MM) curriculum educates children on the importance of mangroves and their ecological functions, teaching them about modern challenges and mechanisms for sustainability. VIEW VIDEO Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum in Bangladesh - WATCH VIDEO MARVELLOUS MANGROVES IN BRAZIL En Portuges Marvellous Mangroves – A Curriculum-Based Teachers Guide. Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier   "Question Your Shrimp" Campaign Question Your Shrimp - is it really sustainable? Sign the Petition Note to Our Readers: We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story. Not yet a MAP News subscriber? Click here to subscribe.
Mangrove Action Project Click here to view past newsletters

Caribbean Utilities Company and “Marvellous Mangroves” Celebrate 20 Years Together

Contact: Haileigh Farrington at 927-5871 or Martin Keeley at 526-5072

Year 5 students from Sir John A Cumber Primary School and the salt taste test for black mangrove leaves.

The highly successful partnership between Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) and the Mangrove Education Project’s Marvellous Mangroves Year 5 curriculum is celebrating over 20 years of working together. This programme teaches Cayman’s students about the function and value of its mangrove ecosystems.

Executive Director of the Mangrove Education Project, Martin Keeley, estimates that over 15,000 students and more than 200 teachers have experienced the wonders of Cayman’s mangrove forests in the past 20 years. This number also includes many Year 3 classes, which have also experienced the programme.

During this time Mr. Keeley explains that the programme has not only relied on the financial support of CUC but also the classroom and logistical support of the National Trust, the Department of Education, Sea Elements and, of course, the many teachers of Cayman’s primary schools.

“It was great that CUC joined us earlier this year on a scheduled programme with both Year 5 and Year 3 classes from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School,” Mr. Keeley adds, “It has been part of CUC’s mandate to help support environmental programmes and it is obvious that they are in this for the long run as we continue to learn about the true value of our mangrove ecosystems and efforts to protect and conserve them.”

Commenting on the programme, Pat Bynoe-Clarke, CUC’s Manager Corporate Communications, added, “Recognising the value of environmental awareness and protecting the environment has always been one of the Company’s strategic initiatives. In 2000, CUC partnered with Mr. Keeley to introduce the Marvellous Mangroves Programme to primary school students so that they could learn the importance mangroves play in the Cayman Islands’ ecosystem. It has been an exciting and educational journey for the Company and we will continue to support worthy causes such as this.”

In the past year Mr. Keeley has been joined by several of the recently formed Cayman Islands Mangrove Rangers – several of whom have a teaching background and will be taking over several aspects of running the hands-on science Marvellous Mangroves Programme. This will shortly be combined with the soon-to-be-introduced Coastal Lagoon Ecosystem Teachers Resources linking mangroves to seagrass and reefs.

*See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJnhnSIpHYg&t=2s

Teachers can book the programmes by contacting Haileigh Farrington at: hcfarrington@gmail.com or info@mangroverangers.ky or 927-5871.

Photos: Martin Keeley and Catherine Childs.

Mangrove Ranger Chaiz Frederick and Year 5 students from the Edna Moyle Primary School in North Side

Mangrove Ranger Cassie McDowell and Year 2 students from Cayman International School.

Year 5 students from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School study seagrass at the Central Mangroves

Wetlands through the netting on board the Red Bay Sports catamaran.

Mike Nelson of Sea Elements introduces the Upside-down Jellyfish to Year 5 students

from the Red Bay Primary School field trip.

Rangers (right) Cassie McDowell and Chaiz le Frederick with Year 5 at Savannah Primary and many mangroves!

MAP News Issue #530 - October 2, 2021

The MAP News 530th Edition                                                  Oct 02, 2021
FEATURED STORY Mangrove protection still limited by laws CAYMAN ISLANDS - Mangroves are still disappearing under the bulldozer, even after the National Conservation Council (NCC) adopted a Species Conservation Plan for Mangroves, because this protection is limited by the parameters of the conservation and planning laws, which do not prevent owners from developing their land in accordance with the planning laws. Department of Environment (DoE) Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie told CNS that mangroves cannot be removed without planning permission and there are now stiff penalties when they are, but once a landowner gets the green light to build on or clear mangroves from their land, then all the DoE can do is implore and encourage the owners to save these plants. Responding to public concerns that mangroves are still being cleared on an almost weekly basis, despite the roll out of the species protection plan earlier this year, the DoE director explained that the plan is “an instrument under the National Conservation Act”, so it must be compatible with the law. The conservation law operates by virtue of consultation with the planning authorities and the NCC, which has delegated the consultation function to the DoE, who are the technical experts. This means that if someone owns a tract of mangroves and they are granted planning permission to remove them, regardless of any recommendations made by the DoE, the clearance of those mangrove is lawful and the conservation plan cannot protect them, Ebanks-Petrie explained. “People misunderstand this. They think that the plan somehow allows the National Conservation Council to do more than the act can do,” she said. READ MORE GLOBAL Identifying global and local drivers of change in mangrove cover and the implications for management GLOBAL - Climate change and human activities continue to drive a widespread decline in global mangrove coverage, undermining their capacity to provide ecosystem benefits. While global and local scale drivers of change on mangroves are widely acknowledged, the relative importance and the exposure of mangroves to climatic, geomorphological, and direct human threats vary spatially. Understanding the role and relative importance of the multiscale and multiple threats to mangroves and how these vary spatially is fundamental for formulating a spatially adaptive approach to their management and conservation. Using satellite-derived indicators of mangrove condition aggregated over 19 years (2002 to 2019) and 14 proxies of climate, human activity, and geomorphology, we applied machine learning methods to determine the role and relative importance of the change drivers. Using outputs from this deductive statistical process, we applied inductive methods to map mangrove exposure spatially. READ MORE AFRICA Seychelles pledges to protect all mangroves, seagrass by 2030 SEYCHELLES - Seychelles has pledged to protect 100 percent of its mangroves and seagrass ecosystem and reduce greenhouse gas emission by 24 percent by 2030 in its climate action plan submitted ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November. The climate change and environment ministry said in a press statement on Wednesday that Seychelles submitted its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in July. The NDCs are national climate plans highlighting climate actions and targets by governments to respond to climate change. They work on a five-year cycle. The first round of submissions was in 2015 where 184 countries made their pledges. The second round was due last year, but most countries faced delays partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ideal situation is for all countries to submit their commitments before the start of COP26 on November 1st where world leaders will come together to debate on climate change. READ MORE ‘Ecofeminism is about respect’: the activist working to revolutionise west African farming   SENEGAL - Outside Mariama Sonko’s home in the Casamance region of southern Senegal pink shells hang on improvised nets that will be placed in mangroves to provide a breeding spot for oysters. Normally, women collecting oysters chop at the branches – a method that can harm the mangroves. But these nets allow them to harvest sustainably, says Sonko, who is trying to revolutionise agriculture in west Africa. Sonko, 52, heads Nous Sommes la Solution (NSS, We are the Solution), an ecofeminist movement of more than 500 rural women’s associations in Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Mali. The movement promotes sustainable agroecology and fights large-scale industrial farming. “We promote agroecology and food sovereignty in Africa. Women are invaluable actors for the development of the rural areas,” she says. READ MORE The Climate-Ecology Nexus at the IUCN World Conservation Congress SENEGAL - Two weeks ago, I had the great privilege of attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress, running from September 3rd to the 11th. Climate change was a very evident cross-cutting theme at the meeting, right from the start. In the opening ceremony and session, President Emmanuel Macron emphatically stated France’s commitment to addressing the challenges of biodiversity and climate change at a global scale, reiterating the key policy target of ’30 by 30’, or protecting 30% of land and water by 2030. Agroecology was considered as a nature-based solution for climate change adaptation and mitigation – with inputs from the French Ministry for Agriculture, as well as the Senegalese Ministry for Agriculture; emphasizing a paradigm shift from focusing just on the performance of just a few species (and considering, for the example, the beneficial effect of wild species). More specialized thematic sessions considered, amongst others, how species conservation planning can help reverse the decline of threatened species – particularly in the context of multiple stressors, including climate change (this is obviously of particular concern in an environment where a number of CBD targets are not being achieved); learning from best practice examples around the world to improve island resilience and sustainability in a changing climate; and a session focused specifically on mangroves – drawing on the State of the World’s Mangroves report to consider how mangrove cover might be increased 20% by 2030 as an explicit climate action. READ MORE AMERICAS Rookery Bay mangrove restoration project USA - The long-awaited Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Restoration Project, the largest mangrove restoration project in the history of Florida, is about to become a reality. Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Friday morning at 10:00 AM at the project site on east San Marco Road. The groundbreaking was attended by many of those involved in what is being hailed as a great example of intergovernmental cooperation. Leaders, project managers, partners and elected officials from the DEP, Office of Resiliency and Coastal Protection, the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the City of Marco Island and Coastal Resources Group (CSG) were on hand for the ceremony. The ceremony was staged directly in front of the ravaged mangrove basin forests that abut San Marco Road, across from Stevens Landing. On a hot summer morning with no shade, attendees got a taste of what’s in store for the workers who will be executing the restoration plan. The project was originally the dream of Robin Lewis, late board member of Mangrove Action Project. READ MORE VIEW THE ROJECT IN PHOTOS – CLICK HERE ASIA The Huiwen wetlands: balancing conservation and aquaculture CHINA - The Huiwen wetlands stretch 15 kilometres along the northeast coast of Hainan, from Bamen bay next to the city of Wenchang down to Fengjia bay. (The name, used locally, comes from the nearby town of Huiwen.) Varying in width from one to four kilometres, the wetlands include large areas of tidal flats and mangrove swamp, which are protected at the provincial level by the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve. They are rich in biodiversity, home to several species of mangrove and over 340 types of mangrove mollusc. And over the winter, they host huge flocks of migratory birds, including endangered species such as Nordmann’s greenshank. For years, the Qinglan reserve was also home to numerous aquaculture farms, mainly growing a species of sea snail called Babylonia lutosa. But in June this year, all 84 of the farms were removed for falling foul of China’s “ecological redline” rules against aquaculture in natural reserves. The management of Huiwen’s environment has been a focus since 2017, when the Central Supervision Office of Ecological and Environmental Protection criticised the unregulated development of aquaculture in Hainan. The farms within the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve were specifically mentioned for damaging “shelterbelts” that protect against coastal erosion and storm surges. READ MORE Saving one of the earth's green lungs - Indonesia's mangrove forests INDONESIA - Indonesia, home to one of the world's largest mangrove forests, has set a target of rehabilitating 150,000ha of its area under mangroves this year. Based on data recorded in 2011, about three million ha of mangrove forests can be found along 95,000km of Indonesia's coastal areas, constituting 23 per cent of the world's mangrove ecosystem. Papua, Kalimantan, and Sumatra Islands are the most crucial regional mangrove ecosystems. This year's ambitious mangrove rehabilitation programme, which will be carried out particularly in critical and tsunami-prone areas, was announced by Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan. Indonesia's mangrove forests store around 3.14 billion metric tons of carbon, or five times more carbon per hectare than highland tropical forests, says Mr Daniel Murdiyarso, a long-time principal scientist at the Centre for International Forestry Research and a leading wetlands expert. READ MORE Protecting the country through restoration: Jokowi plants mangroves with local community INDONESIA - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo planted mangroves with members of the local community at Raja Kecik Beach, Muntai Barat village, Bengkalis regency, Riau, on Sept. 28, accompanied by the environment and forestry minister and the head of Mangrove and Peatland Restoration Agency (BRGM), Hartono. Jokowi said the government would rehabilitate mangrove forests and land throughout the country covering an area of 34,000 hectares by the end of 2021. According to Jokowi, mangrove rehabilitation is a strategy to defend our national territory, as well as anticipating global climate change. "We’re doing this mangrove rehabilitation not only in Bengkalis regency but across Indonesia because mangroves store four to five times more carbon than tropical forests. The mangrove rehabilitation will contribute greatly to the absorption of carbon emissions and confirm our commitment to the Paris Agreement," Jokowi said after planting the mangroves. READ MORE Tropical cyclones can improve mangrove health INDIA - The health of India's mangrove forests, important to mitigate the effects of sea-level rise caused by climate warming, is influenced by tropical storms that change nutrient levels of coastal waters, according to new research. Mangrove restoration can provide mitigation and adaptation solutions to climate change and support progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals more broadly, says Wetland International, a non-profit dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands. The study, published in Scientific Reports, says that mangrove ecosystems have high rates of carbon sequestration which is reflected in their vast aboveground biomass and soil carbon content. Some 57 percent of the world's mangrove species can be found in India although the country only has about 3 percent of the world's mangrove forests. READ MORE OCEANA Land-based and climatic stressors of mangrove cover change in the Auckland Region, New Zealand NEW ZEALAND - Changes in mangrove forest cover (increases and decreases) have been observed globally as a result of the influence of environmental changes and human impacts. Although mangrove forest increases are globally uncommon, in New Zealand mangroves are increasing in distribution at the expense of other intertidal estuarine habitats. This study quantified the change in mangrove area over a period of 74 years (1940–2014), and investigated the influence of land-based (e.g. land use conversion in the catchments), climatic, and oceanic factors on the change in temperate mangrove forest cover in the Auckland Region of New Zealand over that period. Mangrove area increased from 2313 ha in 1940 to 10 483 ha in 2014 (on average 3.2% yr), with higher rates in small estuaries (<1000 ha) than in large estuaries (>1000 ha). The area of the intertidal mudflat habitat, i.e. potential area for mangrove colonization, has doubled from 14,193 ha in 1974 to 28,764 ha in 2014. Catchment land use, especially the clearing of forests, associated with increased sediment supply into estuaries is the strongest driver of mangrove forest gain. READ MORE   Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going.  Giving could never be easier	URGENT ACTION Strengthen 60 Women Farmers in El Salvador DONATE HERE Stop the East African Pipeline that threatens the planet #STOPEACOP – CLICK HERE Stop construction work on a private port In Defense of the Quilombo Boca Do Rio TAKE ACTION! Tell Sumitomo to stop building polluting coal power in Bangladesh! TAKE ACTION!   Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier 13 Year old Linda Li "Mangrove Adventure" from Kid Dream Art School WATCH NOW Restoring The Natural Mangrove Forest Watch movie Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration in Rufiji Delta VIEW VIDEO Video: Mangroves for the Future - A look bacK. As the latest phase of Mangroves for the Future (MFF) draws to a close, this video highlights some of the project’s most successful initiatives – from local women supporting national park management in Viet Nam to an island in the Maldives that has become a model for waste management, and everything in between. View Here WANT TO GET INVOLVED? Follow and Join MAP!             Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier   Singing for the Sundarbans WATCH HERE Entrevista con Monica Quarto del Mangrove Action Project (Spanish language) Oye Aqui VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY MANGROVE ISSUES  Want to learn more about mangroves? Our short presentation will give you a better understanding of the issues we are working to solve. WATCH PRESENTATION What is CBEMR? Download MAP's 2 page CBEMR Information Sheet containing links to all MAP's CBEMR resources – CLICK HERE   View MAP’s uploaded Videos at  MAP Video Gallery Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign!   WATCH VIDEO Mangroves: Guidebook to Malaysia – Click Here SHARE MAP'S VISION  CLICK HERE to watch short introductory video. Together we can work "at the roots of the sea". Our short documentary, Reducing the Risk of Disaster through Nature-Based Solutions : Mangroves   Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum The Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum begins with a simple philosophy – getting future generations to not only learn about, but understand the importance of mangrove forests. VISIT The award-winning Marvellous Mangroves (MM) curriculum educates children on the importance of mangroves and their ecological functions, teaching them about modern challenges and mechanisms for sustainability. VIEW VIDEO Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum in Bangladesh - WATCH VIDEO MARVELLOUS MANGROVES IN BRAZIL En Portuges Marvellous Mangroves – A Curriculum-Based Teachers Guide. Like this newsletter? Pease consider donating to MAP to keep it going. Giving could never be easier   "Question Your Shrimp" Campaign Question Your Shrimp - is it really sustainable? Sign the Petition Note to Our Readers: We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story. Not yet a MAP News subscriber? Click here to subscribe.
Mangrove Action Project Click here to view past newsletters