Earth Today | Let the mangroves work

THEIR SHARP, briny smell hits you first and then you spot them: trees with roots arching out of the mud as though bracing for something. They are mangroves, one of the most powerful natural defences on the planet.

Yet, some people keep driving when they see them. Others see a development opportunity. Few recognise that they are working and even less persons know what they can do to support their sustainable management.

Mangrove forests have, in fact, been called “wastelands” for decades – a label that has cost the Caribbean dearly. Across the region, nearly 24 per cent of mangrove cover has been lost in just 25 years, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. At current rates, they could be gone within 60 years. We are dismantling our coastlines, one cleared hectare at a time.

Research by The Nature Conservancy values their coastal storm protection at between USD 23,000 and USD 45,000 per hectare. They store carbon at a rate up to 10 times greater than mature tropical forests. Their tangled root systems act as a sanctuary, sheltering the tiny fish and rich nutrients that ultimately sustain our fishing communities.

A 2020 study in Scientific Reports estimated that mangroves provide flood protection benefits exceeding USD 65 billion globally per year, with Caribbean islands receiving disproportionately high benefits relative to their size.

Those numbers make the case for restoration. According to The Nature Conservancy and IUCN’s Mangrove Restoration Potential Map, more than 800,000 hectares of lost or degraded mangroves globally show potential for recovery. In the Caribbean alone, where 12 per cent of the world’s mangrove forests are, the opportunity is significant. Rehabilitation is increasing, though not fast enough.

COMMUNITY-LED HYDROLOGICAL RESTORATION

The Stockholm Environment Institute’s Resilient Coasts project, active in eight Caribbean countries, is pioneering community-led hydrological restoration. Wetlands International warns that nearly 80 per cent of mass-planting efforts fail without first restoring the water conditions mangroves need to survive. Planting seedlings is not enough. The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, with support from Agence Française de Développement, is working to establish common mangrove protection standards across five Eastern Caribbean territories.

On the ground, the results speak for themselves. In Montecristi, Dominican Republic, restoring freshwater flow to a degraded mangrove system brought fish back to waters that 198 fishermen depend on. Beyond the catch, the project reduced flood exposure and helped stabilise the incomes of families in the community. In The Bahamas, more than 20,000 mangrove seedlings were planted and over 2,000 hectares mapped after Hurricane Dorian, offering a buffer to the communities depending on those coastlines against the next storm.

Both projects were funded by the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, one of several organisations channelling money into mangrove rehabilitation in the Caribbean region. The rehabilitation movement is already happening. What it needs now is scale.

Next time you pass those trees growing stubbornly at the water’s edge, roots in the mud and branches in the salt air, consider what they are holding back. Then ask what we are doing to hold them in place.

Contributed by Renée Smith, CBF Communications Officer.