Mangrove Action Project Blog - news stories about mangrove conservation and restoration: MAP News Issue #585

MAP News Issue #585 - Nov 18, 2023

2024 Children's Art Calendar now available for orders!

USA - Mangrove Action Project’s youth education program has been inspiring children for decades by teaching the essential value that mangroves bring to their community. Our international children's art calendar inspired children across the globe to take pens and paint in hand and submit works of art with the hope of being included. Over 350 artworks were submitted from 45 countries with 13 winning pieces selected for the 2024 Children's Mangrove Art Calendar and another 80 selected for MAP's Art Contest Gallery located on our website.(We'll share a link to the gallery next month.) You can receive a copy of our children's international mangrove art calendar as a free gift by making a donation of $100 or more on our website. We think you'll appreciate these beautiful, monthly works of art almost as much as our budding artists enjoyed creating them. For questions about multiple calendar orders please contact us at: info@mangroveactionproject.org Thank you!

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Ecuador's crabbers and the muddy work of saving mangroves

ECUADOR - José Ordinola and Mauricio Cruz wade waist-deep into a small channel that flows from the Gulf of Guayaquil into the Arenillas Ecological Reserve mangrove swamp, a protected area on the southern Ecuadorian coast just a few miles north of the border with Peru. The tide has receded enough to allow them to cross into the forest and harvest the day’s catch. The crabbers, or cangrejeros, climb through the dense tangle of roots to locate small openings in the ground where red mangrove crabs rest in deep, muddy burrows. On any given day, there could be 30 crabbers working the mangrove roots in this area. Besides simply relying on the mangrove’s abundant shellfish, they also manage and care for the trees. “The mangrove for me is life,” says Cruz. “The mangrove protects the species from which we survive, not just us — but our families. That’s why we sustain it.”

Monstrous’ east African oil project will emit vast amounts of carbon

UGANDA - An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations. The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations. The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. .

Gambia mangrove REDD+ Project holds awareness forum for local authorities

GAMBIA - The management team of The Gambia Mangrove REDD+ Project held a mangrove restoration awareness forum for decision makers, local authorities and members of the media at Mansakonko Area Council Conference Hall. The day-forum was designed to effectively inform participants about the importance of mangrove planting and the existing project. The “Conservation and restoration of the mangrove ecosystem in The Gambia through the REDD+ mechanism” project aims at restoring and conserving mangroves in The Gambia. The project mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration and storage, enhances biodiversity and has positive rural livelihood effects, including enhanced oyster collection, fishing and fiscal revenues to the participating communities.

From mountains to mangroves: One expert's journey into marine conservation

USA - Growing up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Jill Hamilton always felt connected to nature — and knew she would pursue a career to protect it. But time spent on the coast with family drew her from the mountains to the ocean. Now at Conservation International, she works at the intersection of policy and ocean science — helping governments and decision-makers protect marine and coastal ecosystems. Hamilton works to advise governments and other global decision-makers, like the United Nations climate change secretariat, how mangrove and seagrass conservation and restoration can help address the impacts of climate change. Conservation News spoke with Hamilton about how she transformed a passion for the outdoors into a career in international policy — and her advice for others seeking to do the same.

Pakistan is planting lots of mangrove forests. So why are some upset?

PAKISTAN - Wildlife ranger Mohammad Jamali boats through mangrove forests of the Indus River Delta, the terminus of a curly waterway that begins thousands of miles upstream in the Himalayas. Birds flutter in and out. Insects dart around mangrove roots that poke like fingers out of the mud. It looks ancient, but this part of the forest is only 5 years old. "We planted this," says Jamali, 28-years-old. We — rangers of the wildlife department of the government of the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, and locals of nearby fishing communities. This forest in southern Pakistan is part of one of the world's largest mangrove restoration projects, covering much of the vast delta, an area nearly the size of Rhode Island. These trees, which exist in slivers between sea and land, are powerhouses of sucking up the carbon dioxide that is dangerously heating up the planet.

On some Australian islands, sea level rise may be helping mangroves thrive

AUSTRALIA - Some mangrove forests off Australia have flourished in the last several decades, a new study reports. And, counterintuitively, rising sea levels may be responsible. Off Australia’s northern coast, the skeletal remains of ancient coral reefs form the bedrock of numerous wooded islands. These low-lying tropical oases are home to diverse animals and plants, including mangrove forests that pepper their coasts and serve as vital habitat and carbon storers. A recent survey of one cluster of those islands — the first in 50 years — shows that swelling seas might have led to a massive mangrove expansion, researchers report November 1 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In other parts of the world, rising seas have put mangroves at risk (SN: 6/4/20). But at the Howick Islands in the Great Barrier Reef, the story is different because of its unique geologic history.

surprisng results around mangrove restoration

Study shows surprising results around coastal restoration, mangroves and sediment

NEW ZEALAND - "Don't blame the mangroves," is a key take-away of an international collaboration looking into vegetation removal, sedimentation, and coastal restoration. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows coastal restoration on a smaller local scale isn't going to cut through the mud without larger scale catchment change. Contributing author, oceanographer Professor Karin Bryan from the University of Waikato says, "Going into the work we thought we knew what was going to happen, but the modeling showed surprisingly different outcomes—mangroves do not trap and cause sedimentation build up as we'd anticipated." The researchers used computational models based on New Zealand estuaries to assess sedimentation inputs, and the frictional effects of mangroves on the sedimentation.

A Tale of Two Forests

PAPUA-NEW GUINEA - Dulcie and Koivi Egu tend to hundreds of little black bags, each with a single mangrove tree sprouting from the top. The father-daughter duo started their nursery not long ago near Bootless Bay, outside Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Port Moresby. It’s part of a larger project to help regenerate the area’s lost shoreline mangrove trees. Meanwhile, hours away in the mountainside village of Simbukanam, Lawrence Micah is working with local communities to formalize land ownership maps that can be used to prevent loggers from encroaching onto their forested land, and to hold them accountable in court if they do. Though both efforts face uniquely different challenges, they are both trying to save the forests upon which their communities depend. The nation’s human diversity is only matched by its ecology: The island of New Guinea boasts the third-largest tract of tropical rainforest in the world, and 30% of its flora and fauna are endemic.