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Saturday, April 27, 2019

MAP News Issue 467 - April 27, 2019

Mangrove Action Project
The MAP News
467th Edition                                                     April 27, 2019

FEATURE

MAP Team Evaluates Mangrove Conservation Potential at Kulhuduffushi, Maldives
Maldives airport
MALDIVES - In March 2019, MAP's co-founder and program director, Alfredo Quarto, was invited by the Minister of Environment of the Maldives, Dr. Hassan to visit the Maldives. MAP was asked to help advise on whether or not a damaged mangrove area found on the island of Kulhuduffushi could be saved or whether it was best to simply reclaim the remaining area of mangroves that had been adversely affected by recent construction of an airport runway that had been constructed cutting across a once healthy mangrove lagoon. Though most of the mangroves were destroyed by the runway development itself, some remnant areas of mangroves survived, but were affected by loss of normal hydrology because the runway blocked the original access points to the sea and could lead to dangerous flooding conditions during the ensuing monsoons. As well, increased heat and dry conditions led to a large fish die-off in the existing damaged water body due to rapid decrease in oxygen, and this generated calls to fill in the remnant mangrove wetland to prevent foul odors and increased  mosquito breeding grounds. READ MORE


AFRICA

Planting Trees to Save the Mangrove
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GUINEA - A group of local women in Guinea were so concerned about the disappearing mangrove forest due to the overuse of wood for drying and smoking fish that they decided to band together to do something about it. Their solution was simple, successful and sustainable. The women created cooperatives on four island villages to stop the deforestation of mangrove wood. They now use non-polluting solar driers to dry and smoke the fish. And they plant fast-growing Moringa trees to reforest the area and create a sustainable source of income, by drying and selling the tree’s nutritionally dense leaves and water-purifying seeds. Women living in the unique protected marine area in North of Guinea traditionally dry and smoke the fish caught by their husbands with mangrove wood. A group of concerned women decided to save the mangrove habitat by planting trees to generate income. READ MORE

ASIA

Illegal charcoal trade threatens Myanmar’s remaining mangroves
Illegal mangrove charcoal
MYANMAR - Mangroves from Myanmar are illegally harvested and converted into charcoal that is sent to Thailand before it’s sold to China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia by sea. Beyond a metal gate in Ranong, a port town in southern Thailand, a warehouse is filled nearly wall to wall and floor to ceiling with bags of illegally sourced charcoal. Workers hoist bags of charcoal off a long wooden boat powered by a small gas engine, which just arrived from Myanmar this morning. Others repackage charcoal into bags labeled as animal feed or that are left unmarked to be further processed before delivery to China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia by sea. The charcoal that gets sent to Ranong is made from mangrove trees found in southern Myanmar. It’s illegal to produce charcoal in Myanmar for commercial use, so figures of cross-border trade are sketchy at best. (A 2017-2018 Mongabay investigation found that approximately $10 million worth of charcoal was being smuggled from Katha, a town in northern Myanmar, into China.) Thailand used to produce its own charcoal, but the government banned the practice in the late 1990s. READ MORE

Can rice husk briquettes stem the tide of mangrove deforestation in Myanmar?
Rice Husk Charcoal
MYANMAR - The importance of mangroves in mitigating disaster was emphasized after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar in 2008, when communities were shielded by the swamp-like forests. For many in Myanmar, Cyclone Nargis was a wake-up call. When it made landfall in May 2008, it devastated the Irrawaddy Delta, a rural and low-lying region of the country. It became the country’s deadliest natural disaster: more than 100,000 people died, and many more were displaced. After Nargis, villagers living on the coast were reminded of how mangroves protect them: those located behind mangrove forests remained relatively unscathed. Villages with less protection had greater fatalities. Mangroves, an ecosystem of strong-rooted trees that grow in swampy, intertidal regions, would serve as an important bulwark in the case of another natural disaster like Nargis. But over the years, mangrove coverage in Myanmar has plummeted. By the early 1990s, Myanmar had lost up to 75 percent of its original mangrove cover, much of this land converted to aquaculture and rice fields, and the mangrove trees themselves burned as firewood or to make charcoal. READ MORE

Irrigation, drought, sea level rise causing salt to build up in soils around the world
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VIETNAM - Thi Tran, a young woman who farms 2 acres (0.8 hectares) of rice and vegetables in the coastal villages of the Ca Mau peninsula at the southern tip of Vietnam’s Mekong River delta, says she fears for her family. “When we moved here 10 years ago it was OK to farm. But we struggle to grow anything now and have to buy fresh water. The soil and the water gets saltier. If I don’t grow rice, I do not have anything to feed my family. We can only use this water for gargling and cooking. I think we will have to leave.” Tran is one of millions of farmers around the world who is a victim of a build-up of salts in the soil, known as salinization. Where she lives close to the coast this is caused both by poor drainage in the rice irrigation channels and by sea-level rise, which sees saltwater overtopping the defensive dikes and inundating her land. But she and other Ca Mau farmers now face a further problem. Severe droughts are becoming more common and a series of major dams on the Mekong have led to less freshwater reaching the delta. READ MORE

CP Foods making commitments to reduce environmental impact
Thailand mangroves
Thailand - In the past few months, Charoen Pokphand Foods has been making a concerted effort to reduce the company’s environmental impact, both domestically and abroad. The company made a pledge in 2018 to reduce the amount of plastic in its packaging, aiming for a 100 percent reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025 for domestic operations, and 2030 for overseas operations. In addition to the packaging commitment, the company has also partnered up with public and civil sectors to restore natural habitats in the regions around its processing plants and farms. “We have made significant progress. So far, we have restored over 1,613 hectares of mangrove forest and watershed forest within the boundary of our operations. The projects also encourages community to live with nature,” Wuthichai Sithipreedanant, senior vice president of social responsibility and sustainability development for CP Foods, said in a release. READ MORE

AMERICAS

200 hectares of mangrove threatened by fire in Campeche’s Los Petenes Biosphere Reserve
Campeche fire
MEXICO - “The area of ​​vegetation affected by the fire in the Biosphere Reserve of “Los Petenes” will take at least five years to recover”, said César Uriel Romero Herrera, director of this Reserve that is managed by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp), stressing that the damage could’ve been greater if the mangroves were burned. The biologist explained that the recovery of the mangrove would be a slower process since it would take decades for this type of natural resource to be fully recovered, and added, “it is fundamental to understand the importance of our ecosystems and know that within the Biosphere ‘Los Petenes’ there is a diversity of living beings, that depend on each other and make up a system and all of them have a specific task for the preservation of life” He stated that fortunately, due to the coordination of the different institutions that exist in the state, it was possible to stop this big magnitude fire in “Los Petenes” before it could reach the mangrove, and even when some plants and animals were lost, there were no human casualties. READ MORE

Plastic Trash Tops Haul from 2nd ‘Great Mangrove Cleanup’
Plastic trash cleanup
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS - Data from the Second Annual Great Mangrove Cleanup held recently shows that land-based plastic pollution – including water bottles, cups and grocery bags – comprise the majority of marine trash that gets caught in the mangrove forests around the St. Thomas East End Reserve. The data, compiled by the University of the Virgin Islands Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, shows that among the 1,800 total pounds of trash collected were 246 plastic beverage bottles, 133 plastic pieces, 114 other plastic bottles, 113 plastic cups and plates, 92 plastic grocery bags, 89 other plastic bags and 83 other plastic or foam packaging. “Like last year, the most common item we collected were plastic beverage bottles. What that tells me is that plastic beverage bottles are a consistent marine debris problem for St. Thomas, so we should all be thinking more about what we are drinking out of, where we dispose of it, and where it may end up,” said Kristin Grimes, assistant professor at the Center for Marine and Environmental Science. READ MORE

An integral valuation of mangrove’s ecosystem services in a marine protected area.
Tibuga-Corrientes
COLUMBIA - In one of the most biodiverse regions of Colombia, the national government has proposed building a port within the protected area of the Tribuga-Corrientes cape, on Colombia’s northern Pacific coast. This port would destroy mangroves and the ecosystem services (that is, the tangible benefits that nature provides) that local communities rely on. A new study puts an exact price tag on the cost of destroying those mangroves: If the port is built, it would cost US$ 230 million per year in lost ecosystem services such as providing habitat for fish, protecting the coast from storms and storing carbon. Plans for the port have been discussed for close to a decade, and local organizations have been trying to stop it for just as long with little success. To prove the detrimental impact that the port — and by default, the destruction of the mangroves — would have on the economy, the researchers analyzed the value of the mangroves through three distinct lenses: monetary (the economic value to fisheries, other natural resources, etc.); sociocultural (the value to surrounding communities); and ecological (storing carbon, biodiversity, etc.). READ MORE

Conserving mangroves, a lifeline for the world
Mangroves_Salty-Waters
COLUMBIA - The roots of a mangrove tree are like veins. They rise up and plunge down into the salty waters of Cispatá Bay in Córdoba, Colombia, along the coast of the Caribbean Sea, sprawling in every direction. A series of channels have formed an arterial highway connecting to the Sinú River, providing single-lane access into and out of the mangroves where fishermen and loggers begin their day’s work. “Right now we have a lot of people working on opening channels to keep the water flowing,” says Luis Roberto Canchila Avila, president of Asoamanglebal, the first mangrove association in San Bernardo del Viento in Córdoba. “Because we are in summer, there are parts where the water flow is different and fish die as they are left without oxygen.” It’s a delicate balance: too much river water or too little salt water, and the mangroves could be destroyed. READ MORE

EUROPE

UK NGOs and unions call for new law to curb multinationals’ global abuses
hsbc-agm-protest
U.K. - On the day that the UK Supreme Court rules on whether 1,800 Zambian villagers can continue their claim against mining giant Vedanta, more than 20 organisations gathered to launch call for legal reform to make UK multinationals accountable for human rights abuses and environmental damage linked to their global operations and supply chains. Campaigners are calling on the UK government to close legal loopholes that allow British multinationals to evade responsibility for human rights abuses and environmental damage linked to their international subsidiaries and supply chains. 21 human rights, environmental and development NGOs, the UK’s biggest union and the TUC are calling for legislation to require firms to take action to prevent abusive practices and environmental damage, and to make it easier to hold them to account in court when they fail to act. READ MORE


Transforming conservation - a rights-based approach

NETHERLANDS - In recent weeks, there has been significant press coverage of human rights abuses connected with the work of international conservation charities, including WWF. This summary outlines recommendations emerging from nearly 30 years work in preventing human rights abuses in protected-area conservation programmes. These allegations are consistent with evidence of human rights violations against indigenous peoples and local communities that Forest Peoples Programme and partners have encountered and documented over the course of nearly 30 years of work. While there have been moments when progress in this area seems to have been made changes to practice on the ground have been limited or quickly reversed, despite repeated calls by human rights organisations over decades. Without such change, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, warns that conservation will continue to “ignore the growing body of evidence that forests thrive when Indigenous Peoples remain on their customary lands and have legally recognised rights to manage and protect them.” - Download the full report here.



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Restoring The Natural Mangrove Forest
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Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration in Rufiji Delta 
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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

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MAP Team Evaluates Mangrove Conservation Potential at Kulhuduffushi, Maldives



In March 2019, MAP's co-founder and program director, Alfredo Quarto, was invited by the Minister of Environment of the Maldives, Dr. Hassan to visit the Maldives. MAP was asked to help advise on whether or not a damaged mangrove area found on the island of Kulhuduffushi could be saved or whether it was best to simply reclaim the remaining area of mangroves that had been adversely affected by recent construction of an airport runway that had been constructed cutting across a once healthy mangrove lagoon. Though most of the mangroves were destroyed by the runway development itself, some remnant areas of mangroves survived, but were affected by loss of normal hydrology because the runway blocked the original access points to the sea and could lead to dangerous flooding conditions during the ensuing monsoons. As well, increased heat and dry conditions led to a large fish die-off in the existing damaged water body due to rapid decrease in oxygen, and this generated calls to fill in the remnant mangrove wetland to prevent foul odors and increased  mosquito breeding grounds.


With the official invitation to MAP to visit the Maldives, Alfredo received permission to bring a team of mangrove experts, including MAP's Asia Coordinator and CBEMR lead trainer, Jim Enright, as well as two mangrove scientists from the IUCN sponsored Mangrove Specialist Group, Drs. Joe Lee from Hong Kong and Dan Friese from Singapore. The government sponsored the visiting scientist, while MAP representatives were sponsored by the local NGO network, Save the Maldives, which found local donors to bring Jim and I over. So, a fur person team met in the capitol of Male' on April 19th, then headed next day to Kulhuduffushi to investigate the state of the remaining mangroves where we conducted two days of intensive study and data gathering aimed at making an initial report to the Minister. We were joined by members of the EPA and Ministry of Environment in this assessment endeavor, and our final recommendations and report to the Ministry is still a work in progress. 

What we can now say about our assessment is that the remaining mangroves do seem to be still in a good state of health, and this is quite promising. The following information concerning the Maldives might be of interest!

 

The Maldives (/ˈmɔːldvz/US/ˈmɔːldvz/ (About this soundlisten)Dhivehiދިވެހިރާއްޖެ Dhivehi Raajje), officially the Republic of Maldives, is a country in South Asia, located in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from the Asian continent. The chain of 26 atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. Comprising a territory spanning roughly 298 square kilometres (115 sq mi), the Maldives is one of the world's most geographically dispersed sovereign states as well as the smallest Asian country by land area and population, with around 427,756 inhabitants. Malé is the capital and the most populated city, traditionally called the "King's Island" for its central location.
The Maldives archipelago is located on the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean, which also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos Archipelago and Lakshadweep.[12] With an average ground-level elevation of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level,[13] it is the world's lowest country, with even its highest natural point being the lowest in the world, at 5.1 metres (17 ft).[13] Due to the consequent risks posed by rising sea levels, the government pledged in 2009 to make the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019.[14][needs update]

Thursday, April 11, 2019

MAP News Issue 466 - April 13, 2019

Mangrove Action Project

PREVIEW VERSION

The MAP News
466th Edition                                                     April 13, 2019

FEATURE

Mangroves deliver research surprise
mangrove-swamp-Reem-island-668247582-iStock_ali-suliman-635x423
GLOBAL - Rates of growth and loss in mangrove forests are higher than previous estimates, according to satellite measurements of the Rufiji, Zambezi, Ganges and Mekong deltas. And natural expansion and growth of new mangrove forests could partially compensate for declines caused by human activity. “What we see for these types of mangrove delta regions is that there is rapid expansion and growth — in about 20 years, forest canopies can reach a mature height of over 20 m,” says David Lagomasino from the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, both in the US. “In some places that fast growth can help to offset the losses, both in terms of extent of the forests and carbon density.” Mangrove forests make up a relatively minor part of the Earth’s total forested area, but their importance exceeds the scale of their footprint. They sequester proportionally more carbon than almost any other ecosystem — their maximum storage potential above and below ground is more than 1000 tonnes per hectare – and they provide food, shelter, fuel and coastal protection. Mangrove extent is decreasing due to urbanization and expanding agriculture and aquaculture but natural coastal processes like erosion and deposition also play a role. READ MORE

AFRICA

Major new inquiry into oil spills in Nigeria's Niger Delta launched
Nigerian Inquiry into Oil spills
NIGERIA - The Niger Delta is a diverse region with rich mangroves and fish-rich waterways. Many residents try to make their livelihoods from fishing and farming. A major new inquiry into oil companies operating in the Niger Delta has been launched by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. The probe will investigate "environmental and human damage" in Nigeria's vast oil fields. "This Commission will investigate the human and environmental impact of multinational oil company activity and is crucial to the prosperous future of the people of Bayelsa and their environment, Nigeria and hopefully to other oil-producing nations," he said. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer. The country's crude oil production -- estimated at over 300 million liters per day -- makes up 70 percent of the Nigerian government's revenue. This new commission, convened by Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson, says that it wants to make oil companies in the region more accountable. "The world has looked on for too long without taking the necessary collective action to put a stop to the damage being done by oil companies in Bayelsa. We must put the environment and the health and wellbeing of our communities first," Dickson said in a statement. READ MORE

Insecurity hindering Ogoni Clean-up 
Ogoni oil spill
NIGERIA - A senator, Magnus Abe (APC, Rivers), has blamed the slow pace of the proposed clean-up exercise in the oil-rich Ogoni land in Rivers State on insecurity. He said no meaningful clean-up exercise could take place in Ogoni land at the moment due to serious security challenges in the area. Ogoni area in Rivers State has over the years been destroyed by oil spills leading to the destruction of surrounding waters and farm lands. A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recommended the total clean up of the environment saying the extent of water and environmental pollution in the Rivers communities was alarming. The senator also said any clean up that goes on without first addressing the issue of the continued pollution of the environment “is a waste of everybody’s money because as the clean up is going on, the criminals will be spoiling the exercise.” READ MORE

ASIA

Can Mangroves Mitigate Catastrophic Consequences Of Cyclone-Induced Storm Surges?
Mangrove-Bangladesh-Photo-Credit-Pritthijit-Kundu-700x467
BANGLADESH - Susmita Dasgupta a Lead Environmental Economist in the Environment and Energy Team of the Development Research Group recently conducted research in collaboration with the Institute of Water Modeling in Bangladesh on the consequences of cyclone-Induced storm surges. Massive flooding from storm surges is a major threat to lives and property in low-lying coastal areas during cyclones. The impacts are particularly disastrous when storm surges strike densely populated coastal areas without storm-resilient infrastructure, as the recent storm Idai (March 2019) brutally demonstrated. This category 3 cyclone caused widespread damages and loss of life in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Madagascar, killing 432 people and severely affecting more than 2.5 million of the population. The study focused on seven coastal locations. The study showed varying levels of protection from mangroves for different tree species and forest widths and densities across the seven locations. Sonneratia apetala was the species that provided the greatest protection. Mangroves generally reduced surge height by 4cm to 16.5cm with mangrove belts of 50m to 2km width, and reduced water flow velocity by 29 to 92 percent with forest widths of 50m or 100m. The findings also highlighted that the range of protection is location-specific. Quantifying the protective capacity of mangroves from storm surges in coastal Bangladesh, their study emphasizes the important role mangroves can play in a multi-dimensional approach for protection against cyclonic surges. . READ MORE

Farmers irked over 1.5 Lakh of mangroves spread across 19 hectares to be cleared
Indian Farmers protest
INDIA - Farmers of Palghar and Dahanu districts of Maharashtra have expressed disappointment at the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF) giving clearance to the National High Speed Railway Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) to remove 1.5 lakh mangrove trees. They said that they will not let the bullet train body carry out the survey for land acquisition in Palghar. Moreover, the farmers’ and villagers’ group from Palghar Bhumi Putra Bachao Andolan, has fielded its own candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate. Earlier, the NHSRCL told the Bombay high court that it had received permission from the Union environment ministry to hack 1.5 lakh mangroves from Thane, Palghar and Navi Mumbai districts. “The environment ministry seems to be in a hurry to grant permissions for hacking mangroves, even when a case regarding the bullet train is being heard in the Gujarat court. We have fielded one candidate from our group who will be representing issues like irregular environment destruction and land acquisition in Mumbai and surrounding areas,” said Sameer Vartak, a member of the Bhumi Bachao Andolan. “We are against land acquisition and the cutting of mangroves in Palghar for the bullet train project, along with other cases of damage to the environment in projects such as the Metro 3, READ MORE

Sri Lankan Navy seizes 8 for cutting mangrove shrubs
Sri Lanka arrest
SRI-LANKA - A group of Naval personnel attached to the North Central Naval Command together with officials of Wildlife Conservation Department-Mannar attached to the Madu office, nabbed 8 persons who were cutting mangrove shrubs, during a raid carried out in Udeiadi lagoon area, Wankalai, yesterday(09). The Sri Lanka Navy stated that a few mangrove branches cut by the suspects, two knives and 2 axes used for cutting mangrove were taken into naval custody. The suspects are residents of Mannar area in the ages of 43, 38, 31, 29, 27 and 19. Officers of the Wildlife Conservation Department conducts further investigation on arrested suspects and mangrove poles. This mangrove ecosystem which is an authentic resource activate against the soil erosion is destroyed only by very few people and SL Navy keeps a watchful eye on such groups to foil their attempts and to enforce the law against them. Further, the Navy has launched several projects successfully to replant the mangrove around the lagoon areas of the island. Especially, at present, these mangrove replanting projects are being actively maintained in Northern, North Central, North Western, and Southeastern Naval areas. The main objective of these projects is to conserve and protect the coastal belt around Sri Lanka. 

Environmentalists accuse salt firm of brazenly illegally destroying forest, people's livelihoods
Indonesians protest destruction
INDONESIA - A coalition of church and environment advocacy groups have called for action to be taken against a salt company they accuse of illegally destroying more than 240 hectares of mangrove forest in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province. The Franciscan commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) filed a complaint on March 27 with police in Kupang, the provincial capital, against PT Daya Inti Kencana. They said the firm was operating without a license and violating laws regulating coastal area and forestry management that protect mangrove forests. The company's activities had resulted in the illegal eviction of indigenous peoples and the clearing of 242 hectares of mangrove in Malaka district to facilitate its salt production, according to the activists. This area was important source of income for the indigenous people living in the area, the coalition said. If found acting illegally those responsible could face 10 years in prison and a US$700,000 fine. Father Alsis Goa Wonga, director of the JPIC, said every development project should be oriented to improve the welfare of communities, and should not neglect ecological, cultural and social conditions, as well as existing laws. "What is happening in Malaka is a result of ignoring all this," he told ucanews.com. READ MORE

Police arrest two for cutting mangrove trees
Pakistan arrest
PAKISTAN - Police claimed to have arrested two members of a gang involved in the illegal cutting of mangrove trees in Karachi on Sunday. Carrying out action against loggers, police arrested two who were allegedly belonging to a gang involved in timber smuggling. The arrests were made in Ibrahim Hyderi area of the metropolis. Law enforcers have also recovered more than 200 tons of mangrove tree wood loaded on a truck during the raid. According to Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Malir, the accused persons, Kamran and Mazhar, were arrested from Chashma roundabout. He said that the persons were involved in the illegal cutting of tree and selling of the wood into timber market. A case was registered against the accused persons under the Forest Act, he added. Earlier in October last year, the officials of Forest Department in Chitral had foiled a bid to smuggle two truckloads of timber and arrested two persons. READ MORE

Commodification of Living Space for Coastal Communities
KIARALogo
INDONESIA - As a maritime country, Indonesia has an abundance of marine and fisheries resources that can be found in coastal areas, small islands and deep water region. Not only the potential of capture fisheries, Indonesia also has abundant coastal and other marine resources, including the area of 2.6 million hectares of mangrove forest; tropical forest area on small islands of 4.1 million hectares, area of 1,110,900 hectares of seaweed cultivation, and salt ponds covering more than 25 thousand hectares. All of these resources should have a positive impact on the lives of coastal communities in Indonesia (traditional fisherfolks, fisherwomen, aquaculture, salt farmers, preservers of coastal ecosystems, and coastal indigenous communities) both economically and socially. Not only that, with this wealth of marine and fishery resources, coastal communities should be the main actors in development. However, to this day, we find the fact that more than 7.87 million people or 25.14 percent of the total national poor population are those who depend his live on the marine sector. In other words, those who have been living in coastal areas and small islands are the poor people. Then, where is the root of the problem? The answer is that the arrangement of space in coastal areas and small islands that doesn’t provide a fair space for coastal communities. READ MORE

AMERICAS

Seawalls and the tyranny of small decisions
Seawalls and Tyranny
USA - “They start at 6 a.m., if you can believe it,” my friend told me with a hint of frustration. This was his neighborhood, and we were both gawking at a huge pile-driver sitting atop the dune across from the Turtle Shack in Flagler Beach. The machine is being used to sink pillars 30 feet down as foundation for the new concrete seawall being constructed by the Florida Department of Transportation. I hadn’t visited Flagler Beach in more than a year, and sitting there with my friend, looking at the scale of the construction underway, it was clear that the city and its beaches will never be the same again. These seawalls are being installed along both North and South A1A in the name of protecting local businesses and property. But will they? Most people would agree that being business-friendly in Flagler Beach also means acknowledging that local shops and restaurants are unlikely to thrive if the local beach disappears. And with sea level rise and stronger hurricanes as a result of climate change, the destruction and loss of beaches not only in Flagler, but around Florida, is already becoming a stark reality. A shocking study conducted by researchers at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, reported in the prestigious journal Science, used data from NOAA to show that nearly 15 percent of the entire United States’ shoreline is covered in concrete. READ MORE

EUROPE

An easy, cost-effective way to address climate change? Massive reforestation.
Reforestation
UK - As the implications of climate change become starker and the world faces up to a biodiversity crisis that threatens humanity’s existence, a group of campaigners from across the world are saying there is one clear way to get us out of this mess, but that governments are ignoring it In an open letter published in the British newspaper, The Guardian, the group tells governments that the best and cheapest way to avert a climate catastrophe is to heal nature by restoring and replanting degraded forests and by better conserving the natural world. “Defending the living world and defending the climate are, in many cases, one and the same. This potential has so far been largely overlooked,” say the 23 signatories to the letter. “We call on governments to support natural climate solutions with an urgent program of research, funding, and political commitment,” they added. Vast amounts of carbon can be removed from the air and stored by restoring ecosystems razed by palm oil plantations, cattle ranching and timber, and fish production, the letter says. The 23 signatories include the teenage school climate strike activist Greta Thunburg, authors Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, and Philip Pullman, U.S. climate scientist Michael Mann, and environmental campaigner Bill McKibben. “The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse,” say the signatories. READ MORE

OCEANA

The Great Barrier Reef's Secret Climate Change Weapon Is This Switzerland-Sized Meadow of Seagrass
Sea Grass Bed
AUSTRALIA - Tourists frequently flock to Lizard Island, off the northeastern coast of Australia, to marvel the Great Barrier Reef. Among the dugongs, sea turtles, and jewel-toned corals, though, there’s another organism that doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it deserves: seagrass. a team of Australian scientists has discovered that seagrasses of the Great Barrier Reef are absorbing climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a surprisingly high rate rate. This reef-bound carbon sink is one of many so-called “Blue Carbon” sinks. These are aquatic and marine environments which effectively store carbon, helping to mitigate climate change. Other such carbon sinks include marshes and mangrove forests. Beds of the seagrass Halophila draw down about the same amount of carbon at depth as they do in shallower regions—a result the team was not expecting, per the study. Deepwater seagrass habitats held about nine times the amount of organic carbon as the bare sediment around them. Extrapolating their measurements to the entire estimated deep-water Halophila habitat, they arrived at roughly 30 million tons of stored carbon. READ MORE


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MAP News Issue 593, March 9, 2024

MAP News Issue #593 - March 9, 2024 Nigeria has Commenced Large-Scale Mangrove Restoraion in Ogoniland Eastern Niger Delta NIGERIA - The...