MAP News Issue 459 - Jan 5, 2019

The MAP News 459th Edition                                                     Jan 05, 2019
FEATURE   Locals seek help to save Pulau Kukup National Park MALAYSIA - Established in 1997 under the National Parks (Johor) Corporation Enactment 1989, the 647.5-ha Pulau Kukup National Park protected the second largest mangrove island in the world. The park, which was an integral component of Malaysia’s protected area network, is also of global conservation significance. It was designated as a Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar site) in 2003 and forms the heart of the Southwest Johor Coast Important Bird Area (IBA) that was designated in 2004. The withdrawal of legal protection will pave the way for large scale development of the island. This is likely to cause the loss of biodiversity and critical ecosystem services, with detrimental impacts at the local, national and global levels. At the local level, for example, our fish stock will be affected, as mangroves are breeding grounds for many commercial fish species. On the global scale, it will contribute towards climate change, since mangroves are important carbon sinks (more carbon is stored in mangroves than most other habitats, including dipterocarp forests). Sign The Petition AFRICA Restoring Ghana’s Mangroves and Depleted Fish Stock GHANA - It was just three and a half years ago that the Sanwoma fishing village, which sits between the sea and the mouth of the Ankobra River on the west coast of Ghana, experienced perpetual flooding that resulted in a loss of property and life. This was because the local mangrove forests that play a key role in combating the effects of coastal erosion and rising sea levels had been wantonly and indiscriminately harvested. “Of a total 118-hectares mangrove, we had depleted 115 hectares,” Paul Nato Codjoe, a fisherman and a resident of the community explains. The fisherfolk here depended heavily on the Ankobra wetland mangroves for cheap and available sources of fuel for fish processing. Wood from the mangroves was also used as material for construction, and sold to generate income. But a video shown by officials of Hen Mpoano (HM), a local non-governmental organisation, helped the community understand the direct impact of their indiscriminate felling. And it spurred the fishfolk into action. Led by Odikro Nkrumah, Chief of the Sanwoma, the community commenced a mangrove restoration plan, planting about 45,000 seeds over the last three years. READ MORE Coral reef restoration toolkit provides guidance on ‘coral gardening’ strategy SEYCHELLES - A new toolkit on coral reef restoration has been released by Nature Seychelles, an NGO. The guidance is based on a large-scale coral reef restoration project – called Reef Rescuers – carried out by Nature Seychelles over the past eight years. The toolkit describes how to complete a coral reef restoration project using ‘coral gardening’. This technique takes fragments of corals that have withstood bleaching events and cultivates them for several months before transplanting them to restoration sites. The toolkit describes the protocol for this, and offers guidance on appropriate design, logistics, and execution, based on experience and field-tested methods. The Reef Rescuers project has raised over 40,000 coral fragments in underwater nurseries and transplanted over 24,000 of them onto a 5225-m2 area of degraded reef in Cousin Island Special Reserve, an MPA managed by Nature Seychelles. READ MORE Omani researcher shows how mangroves fight climate change OMAN - Zakiya Al Afifi, who is currently doing her PhD in environmental sciences from the University of York in the United Kingdom, is studying the role of nature and man coexisting alongside each other, and hopes to share her work with the authorities so they can use it to benefit the country. “Primarily a coastal tree, mangroves have several benefits to the environment, such as coastal erosion prevention and mitigating the effects of wave and storm energy,” said Al Afifi, speaking to the Times of Oman. “They also host species of both ecological and subsistence importance, for example in the case of fish. The research centred around identifying and highlighting the contribution of Al-Qurum and Quriyat mangroves to community well-being,” she added. “It also aimed at identifying the drivers of environmental change affecting these mangrove ecosystems such as storms and urbanisation, and providing recommendations for the sustainable management of mangrove forests at the national level in Oman.” READ MORE ASIA A development project in a Bali mangrove bay gets a new lease on life INDONESIA - Four months after activists in Bali celebrated what they believed was the end of a controversial plan to develop part of the island’s mangrove-rich Benoa Bay, the scheme has been revived by the Indonesian government. In August, PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI), a property development unit of Indonesian tycoon Tomy Winata’s Artha Graha conglomerate, lost its permit for an ambitious commercial and tourism development in Benoa Bay, an area that serves as a key source of livelihood for thousands of local fishermen. The permit granted the company control of an area spanning 700 hectares (1,730 acres), where it planned to build artificial islands for a multibillion-dollar complex featuring hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and a convention center. That particular type of permit is automatically annulled if it isn’t renewed after four years. And that’s what happened to PT TWBI, which failed to receive government approval for a renewal. That stemmed from the environment ministry not approving the developer’s environmental impact assessment, known locally as an AMDAL, for its project plans. READ MORE Ministry asks governors to focus on mangroves CAMBODIA - In a bid to improve environmental protection, the Agriculture Ministry yesterday urged provincial governors along coastal areas to maintain mangrove forests within their jurisdictions. In a letter, Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon informed the provincial governors of Kep, Preah Sihanouk and Koh Kong to be more attentive in preventing mangrove forests encroachment. “Land is being cleared to make houses and mangrove forests are being fenced off for ownership,” Mr Sakhon said in the letter. “The issuance of land titles have been noticeably happening.” “This practice of issuing land titles in mangrove forests is apparent in fishing communities such as ones in Preah Sihanouk province,” he added. The letter did not detail how many hectares of mangrove forests have been encroached upon. READ MORE There's benefit in them mangroves MALAYSIA - THE recent tsunami in Banten, Indonesia reminded us of the tsunami that happened exactly 14 years ago on Dec 26, which had devastated many countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Many villages on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, too, were badly affected, and most of the survivors are still being haunted by vivid memories of that catastrophic event. The 2004 catastrophe in one way drove home the lesson that Malaysia was not entirely safe from geological disasters. More importantly, the killer waves also taught us the importance of mangroves as they have been proven to blunt the destructive force of tsunamis. Realising this, Malaysia embarked on a mission to rehabilitate mangrove and coastal forests throughout the country’s coastlines. A special annual budget has been continuously allocated for this mission and many rehabilitated areas along the coasts have seen much improvement since the launch of the programme in 2005. The issue is, however, not only about the success of the rehabilitation programme, but also the legal protection and sustainability of the existing and the rehabilitated mangrove habitats. READ MORE Island’s mangrove forests and folklore attract tourists MYANMAR - To the locals, Pulau Kukup is precious. “There are not many tourist attractions in Pontian,” said seafood restaurant owner Roh­aidah Wahab, 43. The island, she said, helped to attract Malaysian and foreign visitors. The Tourism Johor website adds a magical touch to Pulau Kukup, stating that it is “an island shrouded in legends of princesses and curses, or so the folklore says”. It also pointed out that Pulau Kukup is “one of the largest uninhabited mangrove forests in the world” and that it is home to an abundance of flora and fauna. Monkeys and mudskippers can be spotted from the boardwalk. According to Rohaidah, any move to de-gazette the place would become a “huge issue”. The state government, she said, should give some consideration to the people here. READ MORE AMERICAS An indigenous community rejects, then accepts, a protected mangrove area GUATEMALA - Riding in a small motorboat along the Atlantic coast of Guatemala, Francisco Cuz Acal looked over his left shoulder at the lush forest cover whizzing by. To his right lay nothing but open water. Straight ahead, far off in the distance, he could just barely make out the Belizean coastline behind a misty haze. “There could arrive a time when none of this exists, and our kids who are growing up won’t see any of it if it all is destroyed,” said Cuz Acal, a Q’eqchi’ and vice president of La Guaira Cocolí’s local government. “That’s why it’s important to take care of it and maintain it, so that when they are older, they’ll know what nature is like, what the forest is like, and what the mountains are like.” Designating this site a multiple use area is supposed to ensure that Cuz Acal’s vision comes true. But he didn’t always see it that way. The local Q’eqchi’ initially opposed the designation, and vociferously, for fear it would infringe on their rights to the land. Over time, though, they grew to realize that it was helping ensure the future of the environment and their own community. More than a decade since the site was named a multiple use area, the relationship between the Guatemalan government and local communities is starting to settle into a symbiotic groove, and conservation initiatives, including efforts to decrease overfishing, empower forest guards and run ecotourism projects, are having a noticeable effect on the forests and wildlife. READ MORE Half 0f Costa Rica's regrown forests are gone within two decades COSTA RICA - Secondary forests—those that regrow naturally after being cleared or degraded—constitute more than half of existing tropical forests. When they are old enough, they support a wide range of species and store carbon at a higher rate than old-growth forest because the trees grow more rapidly. But in southern Costa Rica, a country with strong environmental commitments, young forests are ephemeral, a new study claims. When Leighton Reid, a restoration ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, and his colleagues studied the history of secondary forests in a region of Coto Brus canton, Costa Rica, they found that half of them were re-cleared within 20 years. And within 54 years, 85 percent of these young forests were gone, the team reported recently in Conservation Letters. "I wasn't expecting this at all," says Reid, who has worked in Costa Rica for more than a decade studying tropical forest restoration. "I was shocked." READ MORE EUROPE New study looks at increasing the success and effectiveness of mangrove conservation investments GERMANY - Mangroves are under threat globally due to land conversion, overexploitation, and other human-induced stressors. Various stakeholders, including governments and NGOs, have been working on the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems for years, yet with mixed results. Lack of sustainable finance, beyond an initial project implementation cycle, is often cited as a reason for long-term project failure.A new report by the Save Our Mangroves Now! initiative, co-led by WWF-Germany and IUCN and supported by BMZ, provides guidance on making mangrove conservation investments more sustainable and impactful. As part of the study, the authors looked at the common successes and challenges linked to mangrove conservation and the business case for private sector to engage in conservation efforts.Mangroves provide valuable ecosystem services estimated to be worth thousands to tens of thousands of USD per hectare, and play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation.Investing in mangroves can deliver a number of environmental and social benefits. This is of great interest to governments wanting to reduce coastal damage and impact investors wanting to ‘do good’ while earning economic returns. READ MORE OCEANA Deep Seagrass Bed Could Stall Climate Change, If Climate Change Doesn't Kill It First AUSTRALIA - Amid a sea of dire climate change news, researchers say they've found a rare bright spot. A meadow of seagrass among Australia's Great Barrier Reef — estimated to be twice the size of New Jersey — is soaking up and storing carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming. Scientists call this carbon-removal powerhouse a "blue carbon sink." The term refers to an ocean or coastal ecosystem — including seagrasses, salt marshes and mangrove forests — that captures carbon compounds from the atmosphere, effectively removing carbon dioxide, a known greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. "These coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems can sequester or remove carbon from the atmosphere about four times the rate of terrestrial forests on land, and they store about 10 times more carbon in the system itself compared to forest on land," says Jennifer Howard, director of marine climate change at Conservation International. READ MORE	ACTION ALERT Save Pulau Kukup National Park - second largest mangrove island in the world. Sign The Petition 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 Making the case for Emergency Climate Change Action Volunteer with MAP - LEARN MORE Watch Children's Mangrove Art Calendar Promo 2019 Click Here MAP 2019 Children’s Calendar available now  CLICK HERE You can help ensure that the knowledge and skills needed to conserve and restore mangroves is preserved in coastal communities READ MORE WANT TO GET INVOLVED? Follow and Join MAP!           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? Easy to follow fact sheet – CLICK HERE What is EPIC? - The Ecosystems Protecting Infrastructure and Communities (EPIC) project:  the role of ecosystems as protective barriers against climate induced hazards MANGROVES APP AVAILABLE A pictorial field guide for easy identification of various mangrove species and learning about the mangroves ecosystem. CLICK HERE View MAP’s uploaded Videos at MAPmangrover’sChannel Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign!   WATCH VIDEO Mangrove Restoration in Asia – Watch Short Video The Value of Mangrove Forests View Video CBEMR Experience Exchange MAP 2017 English Subtitles VIEW THE VIDEO Mangroves: Guidebook to Malaysia – Click Here   Mangrove rehabilitation in Asia – Local Action and cross-border Transfer of Knowledge for the Conservation of Climate, Forests and Biodiversity VIEW VIDEOS 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   Exclusive Interview with Alfredo Quarto, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mangrove Action Project - See more   Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum The Marvellous Mangroves Education Forum is an online hub for those utilizing the Marvellous Mangroves (MM) Curriculum. It gives students, teachers and anyone interested in mangroves, the opportunity to learn and share ideas themed around the curriculum, to connect and communicate with others around the globe whilst exploring mangroves from your computer or on the go. 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 MAP Education Director Martin Keeley’s most recent book is Marvellous Mangroves: Myths and Legends, a compilation of stories from “Mangrove Peoples”—those who live on shorelines where mangroves thrive—from around the world. READ MORE Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum in Bangladesh - WATCH VIDEO MARVELLOUS MANGROVES IN BRAZIL En Portuges Marvellous Mangroves – A Curriculum-Based Teachers Guide. FOR MORE ON MAPs AWARD WINNING CHINA MANGROVE CURRICULUM VISIT VIMEO SHOW VISIT OUR "MM" WEBPAGE Check out our presentation for more details on Marvellous Mangroves Read this 10 page history of the development of MAP’s educational curriculum VIEW DOCUMENT   Article in Canada's Green Teacher Magazine - Read More FREE MAP Mangrove e-cards CLICK HERE MAP’s e-Cards offer you a unique way to spread the word about MAP’s good works, while sharing beautiful photographs of the mangroves Donate to MAP via Paypal Giving could never be easier It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. —Mahatma Gandhi Green Planet Fundraising Assists MAP – LEARN MORE  Volunteer Opportunities with Mangrove Action Project CLICK HERE "Question Your Shrimp" Campaign Question Your Shrimp- Don't Buy or Sell Imported Tropical Shrimp! Sign the Petition Learn more about the affects of the shrimp industry on mangroves by visiting our blog Editor’s Note: Mangrove Action Project’s Executive Director, Alfredo Quarto was interviewed about shrimp by Green Acre Radio’s Martha Baskin LISTEN TO INTERVIEW Information sheds clear light on shrimp-mangrove connection SEE DETAILS MANGROVE/SHRIMP Sign the Consumer's Pledge to avoid imported shrimp Join MAP on Facebook Not yet a MAP News subscriber? Click here to subscribe. 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. Help Mangrove Action Project through your recycled E-Waste.  List of Accepted E-waste Items: Injet Cartidges, Cell Phones, Pagers, GPS, Radar Detectors, Mobile Hot Spots, Calculators, eBook Readers, iPods/MP3 players, Digital/Video Cameras/Camcorders, PDAs, iPads/Tablets/Laptops, Video Game Consoles, Handheld Video Games Visit the Mangrove Action Project recycle website Click on the recycle button then click on the Download Shipping Label, and follow the instructions.
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