The MAP News
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FEATURE Learning the importance of mangrove ecosystem in Koh Kong CAMBODIA - Taking place in Bak-Klong Beach in Koh Kong province, the Mangrove Youth Camp was a unique three-day event that brought so much awareness on the benefits of the mangrove ecosystem and the challenges the Areng and Prey Lang communities are presently facing. “Kang Khmer” or Khmer Bike, a youth-led organisation, initiated the camp that also highlighted arts and culture, Lakhorn Sbek Toch (storytelling through shadow puppetry) and Long-Vek era costume-wearing. Participants of the camp were supposed to visit Koh Sralao village in Koh Kapi commune. However, some legal documents were not fulfilled and the organisers were not permitted to bring the campers inside the village. Despite the sudden changes, the Mangrove Camp remained as fun and education as expected. San Mala, organiser of the Mangrove Youth Camp, said the Mangrove Festival the group held last year earned about 6,000 USD for the Koh Sralao villagers. The locals also welcomed the young participants in their homes and shared their stories. According to Mot Kimry, the camp is centered on raising awareness on how the mangrove ecosystem affects the community and foster tourism in Koh Kong province. Many people who love the beach often choose to go to Kampot province and Sihanoukville, forgetting that Koh Kong offers as much beauty and splendor. “People love visiting beach on their holiday. But they don’t really know about mangroves. That’s the reason why we are holding the Mangrove Festival and the Mangrove Youth Camp.” READ MORE AFRICA In Madagascar, fishermen plant mangroves for the future MADAGASCAR - Hunched over the soil, Malagasy villagers work feverishly -- deft fingers planting stalks of mangrove to replace the swathes destroyed for firewood and building material. In just two decades, Madagascar lost about a fifth of its mangrove forest area, exposing its coastline to the ocean's ravages and shrinking the nursery grounds of crabs and shrimp -- two key exports. With sea levels forecast to rise further due to global warming, coastal villagers are rushing to try and undo the damage, with the help of conservation group WWF. "The ocean keeps rising and rising, and it takes everything with it," lamented 36-year-old crab fisherman Clement Joseph Rabenandrasana, who travelled several kilometres (miles) from his home in Beanjavilo to Amboanio on the island's west coast to volunteer in a two-day reforestation drive. READ MORE The power of Mangroves to combat climate change KENYA - Environmental conservationists in Coastal Kenya have taken new steps to preserve the endangered mangrove forests along the Indian Ocean, with the aim of preserving better environment and fight climatic change patterns. Through different projects aimed at conserving mangrove forests, communities around the coastal regions have benefitted from different programs funded by donors. Correspondent Joseph Jira has this report. LISTEN TO AUDIO The benefits – and costs – of coastal reforestation in Senegal SENEGAL - Because they absorb carbon at up to 10 times the rate of rainforests, mangroves are a powerful, and sometimes lucrative, tool in international efforts to mitigate climate change. In Senegal, severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as increasing urbanization, devastated thousands of acres of trees. Mangroves – one of the richest ecosystems in the world – were especially affected. Approximately 133,000 acres (54,000 hectares) of coastal forests disappeared in Senegal between 1980 and 2005, according to a study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. As of 2005, about 284,000 acres were left, mostly in the West African country’s lush and tropical southern Casamance region. Many of the ways people make a living from Senegal’s mangroves — some 2,000 species of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans live among the roots and mud of the coastal forest- also caused damage. READ MORE ASIA Empowering CBEMR ambassadors! THAILAND - MAP recently hosted a Facilitation Skills Workshop that was funded by a newly established Lush: Fresh Handmade Cosmetics grant, for MAP’s Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) Community Network Capacity Building program. This workshop, which took place directly adjacent to a beautiful mangrove estuary in the town of Krabi, spanned four days at the beginning of May, 2018. There were 13 participants from five villages within MAP’s CBEMR Network throughout four provinces in Southern Thailand: Trang, Krabi, Phang-Nga, and Ranong. MAP is developing this CBEMR Network, to emphasize building capacity for communities involved in CBEMR. READ MORE India fast losing mangrove cover, but at half of world average INDIA - India is ranked ninth in the area of mangrove forests it lost between 2000 and 2015, but the rate of loss is only half the global average, which means India has been able to conserve its mangrove forests much better than other countries, found an international study. Published earlier this month by the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), a think tank based in Massachusetts, USA, the study looked at satellite maps to find that of India’s 4,52,676 hectare (ha) of mangrove forests (10th largest mangrove cover in the world), the country lost 3,957 ha, or 0.87% of it, over these 15 years. Indian government estimates put the extent of mangrove forests at 4,92,100 ha (100 hectares is equal to one square kilometre). Globally, 1.67% of the mangrove forests was lost over these 15 years. While Indonesia led with a loss of 1,15,000 ha, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brazil and Thailand were other countries to lose maximum cover during the period of study. READ MORE China’s Global Infrastructure Initiative Could Bring Environmental Catastrophe CHINA - Humans are ravaging tropical forests by hunting, logging and building roads, and the threats are mounting by the day. China is planning a series of massive infrastructure projects across four continents, an initiative that conservation biologist William Laurance described as “environmentally, the riskiest venture ever undertaken.” In a commentary published in the journal Nature Sustainability, he and an international team of researchers urge China to weigh the possibly disastrous consequences of its Belt and Road Initiative. Laurance, a research professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, recently spoke with Nexus Media about the potential dangers, including the impact on climate change. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. READ MORE Cyclone shield: Breathing new life into Myanmar's mangroves MYANMAR - Since 1978, one million hectares of mangroves have been cut down in Myanmar. In the Ayerwaddy Delta in the south, mangrove forests have been significantly depleted - often cut down to make way for shrimp and rice farming, as well as charcoal production and collecting palm oil. Worldwide, 35 percent of the world's mangroves are now lost. Only 16 percent of the original cover is left in the vulnerable Delta Region where the mangroves are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation. "At the moment, mangrove conditions are severely degraded," says Win Meung, a seasoned ecologist who heads a mangrove regeneration project in Myanmar. "In the coastal areas, 60 percent of the villagers don't have a permanent job and try to find their money in the mangrove areas. They cut the trees and within one hour they can get the money [they need] for their livelihood." Mangroves play a vital role in the fight against climate change and extreme weather events such as cyclones.READ MORE Taking stock of carbon in mangroves INDONESIA - As scientists are increasingly exploring the high carbon stocks contained in mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows – known as ‘blue carbon’ – alarm bells sounding for these ecosystems’ rapid destruction have never been louder. “Indonesia has the highest mangrove cover on earth, but Indonesia is experiencing the highest mangrove deforestation rate in the world. This is very sad,” said Virni Budi Arifanti, researcher at Indonesia’s Forestry and Environment Research, Development and Innovation Agency (FOERDIA) and panelist in the “Mangroves and Blue Carbon” discussion forum at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Mangroves, she explained, contain the second highest carbon stocks after peatlands, storing three to four times as much carbon as tropical forests. READ MORE Ayeyarwady to embark on massive mangrove replanting program MYANMAR - Ayeyarwady Region plans to replant 28,000 acres of mangrove forests in a 10-year project as part of its plan to restore the coastal ecosystem in the territory, regional Forestry Department Director U Khin Maung Myint said on Wednesday. “In Myanmar’s forest restoration project, 2800 acres of mangroves will be planted yearly in Ayeyarwady, so during the ten-year project, 28,000 acres of mangroves will be planted,” he told a national meeting of the central committee of coastal resources administration and management at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Due to agriculture, breeding of fish and prawns, and charcoal production, mangrove forests in Ayeyarwady have been depleted and the coastal ecosystem damaged. After the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, protection and reforestation of mangroves are being carried out with high priority, and more than 28,000 acres of mangroves have been planted throughout the country. READ MORE Marsiling Park opens with new mangrove habitat, enhanced amenities for residents SINGAPORE - After almost two years of redevelopment works, a popular park at Marsiling now has a new name and improved facilities for residents. Marsiling Park, formerly known as Woodlands Town Garden, was opened on Sunday (April 29) after a 22-month overhaul that gave the park a new mangrove habitat and enhanced recreational amenities. Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong, who is also the adviser to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC Grassroots Organisations (GROs), graced the opening on Sunday morning with some 800 residents who attended a community event held in conjunction with the park's opening. The 13-hectare park near Marsiling MRT station now features an enhanced mangrove forest with more than 1000 saplings of mangrove species, such as Api Api and White Teruntum. Previously, the mangrove forest was blocked from public view by a dense layer of vegetation, which prevented the growth of new mangrove saplings. Mangrove species that were endangered locally, like the Berembang, were also reintroduced.READ MORE AMERICAS Florida’s Mangroves Face Death by Rising Sea Level USA - Florida’s mangroves have been forced into a hasty retreat by sea level rise and now face being drowned, imperiling coastal communities and the prized everglades wetlands, researchers have found. Mangroves in south-east Florida in an area studied by the researchers have been on a “death march” inland as they edge away from the swelling ocean, but have now hit a manmade levee and are likely to be submerged by water within 30 years, according to the Florida International University analysis. “There’s nowhere left for them to go,” said Dr. Randall Parkinson, a coastal geologist at FIU. “They are done. The sea will continue to rise and the question now is whether they will be replaced by open water. I think they will.READ MORE The Great Mangrove Cleanup gathers 3,000 pounds of trash VIRGIN ISLANDS - The Great Mangrove Cleanup, the first large-scale community cleanup of the St. Thomas East End Reserves, took place April 21. There were 126 volunteers, including teams from the University of the Virgin Islands, VI-EPSCoR (Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, Marine Rebuild Fund, All Hands and Hearts, Perfect Heart, Blue Flag, Camp Umoja and the Environmental Association of St. Thomas. Virgin Islands EcoTours provided four staff members and more than 30 kayaks. Custom Builders provided logistical support and supplied dump trucks to cart the trash to the Bovoni Landfill. Organizers estimate more than 3,000 pounds of trash were removed from mangrove shorelines READ MORE Rezoning request would bulldoze mangrove land for housing USA - Approximately 307 acres of environmentally sensitive land, owned under Eden Oak I LLC, is slated for an upcoming hearing before the Lee County Hearing Examiner for a rezoning request. The hearing was set to take place on May 18, but the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation reported on May 9 that the applicant had filed a written request for a continuance. An application dated December 2016 seeks to rezone the acreage from agricultural zoning to a residential planned development, "Eden Oak," using about 45 acres to accommodate 55 new single-family homes and a canal to the Caloosahatchee. The LLC is registered to Romas Kartavicius of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Neither the property owner nor his attorney, Wayne Arnold of Grady Minor and Associates, could be reached for comment. A Lee County Department of Community Development Zoning Section staff report recommends denial. READ MORE |
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Thursday, May 24, 2018
MAP News Issue 443, MAY 25, 2018
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MAP News Issue 442, May 12, 2018
The MAP News
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FEATURE WI & MAP's CBEMR Training in the Saloum Delta SENEGAL – Wetlands International and Mangrove Action Project recently completed a two week Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) field summit in Saloum Delta, Senegal. Week one was a mix of training and field trips. Topics included the reasons for planting failures, mangrove benefits focusing more on the obscure features such as water cleaning, relevant mangrove biology and ecology, species zoning, measuring spot heights, the importance of hydrology and how CBEMR uses all of these factors to facilitate natural regeneration. With removal of mangrove stressors and improvements of hydrology and topography a bio-diverse ecosystem can be re-established. The second phase of three days focused on more practical issues. For example, the reduction of demand for mangrove wood. At the end members were joined by Ibrahima Thiam, Regional Director for Wetlands International Africa who present certificates for participants and many thanks from the MAP trainers for the host NGO's help and logistics efforts. READ MORE AFRICA Coastal forest conservation in Kenya adds up KENYA - Enlist the help of hundreds of community volunteers, hire one project coordinator and two security guards, then sell carbon credits. The result: 117 hectares of protected mangrove forest on the south coast of Kenya, which provides a natural barrier against flooding from the Indian Ocean, creates both a nursery habitat for fish and water purification, and generates annual income for two villages to make vital improvements to infrastructure and social programs. Mangroves are among the most threatened of all ecosystems, with global rates of destruction exceeding those of terrestrial tropical forests They are also among the most efficient of all-natural carbon sinks and provide a wide range of other ecosystem benefits. But mangroves have been declining in quality and area throughout Kenya; their total extent decreased by 0.7 percent per year between 1985 and 2000. READ MORE ASIA Baros mangrove conservation forest INDONESIA – Since 2001, the youth of Baros in Bantul Regency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia have spearheaded the planting of mangroves to help protect their community from soil erosion, strong sea winds, and garbage. VIEW VIDEO Indonesia: the resistance of the sacred in Bali to the “green revolution” and the tourism industry INDONESIA - Of the more than 17 thousand islands that make up what is now known as Indonesia, Bali is a world tourism hotspot. The millions of people who visit each year come in search of its beaches, rice fields considered a world heritage site by UNESCO, and its famous Hindu temples. And it’s no coincidence Bali is referred to as the Island of the Gods: one of its main attractions is the set of sacred practices that form part of daily life. However, what many don’t hear about is the impact of tourism on the life of local communities. The age-old irrigation system of subaks is an expression of community relations in Bali. Legally recognized as a simple mechanism of irrigation, subaks are an ancient system of beliefs that guide the way people relate to each other and other spheres of life. Consequently, subaks are not only irrigation channels that provide water to flooded rice fields or for the cultivation of fruit and other foodstuffs. They also connect the elements that make water the religion of Bali: time, land, the air, the forests, the crops, dances, offerings, and temples. Subaks are part of the life experience of the communities and are managed by federations that are made up of leaders whose role is to observe them from an integrated perspective. READ MORE AMERICAS ‘Wildlife Insights’ – real-time data for conservation decision-making USA - Wildlife Insights is a global platform that will bring together near real-time data on wildlife populations to create the most comprehensive wildlife monitoring platform on the planet. Wildlife Insights will provide data and tools that can be used to rapidly advance conservation science, decision making, and action. Conservation International, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Google have partnered to build the platform, with support from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. Wildlife insights & IUCN collaboration. Wildlife Insights partners and IUCN are exploring a new collaboration that will link the Wildlife Insights platform to the IUCN Green List Standard for Protected and Conserved Areas. This collaboration marks a major step forward in evidence-based conservation. By providing an open-access platform for global wildlife data, we believe protected areas will be able to improve their effectiveness, ultimately resulting in stable/recovering wildlife populations and in improved ecosystem benefits and healthier protected areas. READ MORE OCEANA Go slow with NZ mangrove clearances, says expert NEW ZEALAND - Mangroves get a bad rap and even Dr Erik Horstman admits he dislikes them sometimes. The researcher from the University of Waikato's Coastal Marine Group says mangroves play important roles in North Island estuaries and New Zealand should be conservative about clearing mangroves because they will almost certainly help fight climate change, sea-level rise and coastal inundation. Moreover, recent research shows clearing mangroves does not return the area to its former condition quickly. "In contrast to the global trend of mangrove decline, New Zealand mangroves are rapidly expanding," Horstman and colleagues wrote in the New Zealand chapter of a new global book on the species called Threats to Mangrove Forests: Hazards, Vulnerability, and Management. READ MORE GLOBAL World Migratory Bird Day 2018 Unified Campaign Triggers Events for Birds Around the World GERMANY - “Unifying Our Voices for Bird Conservation” is the theme of World Migratory Bird Day 2018, which will be celebrated in over 60 countries around the world on 12 May 2018. World Migratory Bird Day is an annual, UN-backed global awareness-raising and environmental education campaign focused on migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them. “Migratory birds connect people, ecosystems and nations. They are symbols of peace and of an interconnected planet. Their epic journeys inspire people of all ages, across the globe. World Migratory Bird Day is an opportunity to celebrate the great natural wonder of bird migration – but also a reminder that those patterns, and ecosystems worldwide, are threatened by climate change. I urge Governments and people everywhere to take concerted conservation action that will help to ensure the birds’ survival -- and our own”, said United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in a statement to mark World Migratory Bird Day. READ MORE Mapping ecosystems through multifunctionality lens broadens options GERMANY — In an era of increasing competition for resources, with pressing needs both to nourish human populations and support ecosystems and biodiversity, the search for holistic solutions that minimize conflicts over land use is a hot topic for ecology and landscape management. Traditionally, ecology has focused on studying individual functions within ecosystems and consideration of how they relate to their drivers. But ecosystem functioning is actually “inherently multidimensional,” say the authors of a new study published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution. In recognition, the term “multifunctionality” has grown in popularity in recent years. It is usually referred to broadly as the ability of an ecosystem to deliver a number of different functions or services simultaneously As lead author Peter Manning explains, if we can take better measures of the multitude of interlocking things that ecosystems are providing, it can help us to make much more careful decisions about the ways we manage and interact with them. READ MORE LAST WORD In Memoriam: Celebrating Prof. Sam Hettiarachchi, a true Eco-DRR Champion Prof. Samantha Hettiarachchi, civil engineer, ecosystem proponent and Professor of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka was a graduate of Imperial Collage, London in Coastal and Harbour Science. In 1987 he greatly promoted increased investments in coastal vegetation for protecting coastal communities in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Prof. Hettiarachchi was one of the first scientists to model the relation between mangroves and wave attenuation. While leading the efforts to modernize the Disaster Risk Management in Sri Lanka by setting up the Ministry of Disaster Management and Disaster Management Centre he served the global community as the Chairman of the Working Group on Risk Assessment of the UNESCO/Indian Ocean Commission (Paris) and Inter-governmental group for the establishment of Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System (IOTWS). His expertise was reflected in UNESCO guidelines on coastal hazards, risk assessment and management. MAP celebrates Dr. Sam Hettiarachchi’ s significant contribution to the field of ecosystem protection for human resilience. Dr. Sam is also remembered as a humble and gentle man, who mentored many young students and professionals who will undoubtedly carry forward his dedication for advancing knowledge and humanity. |
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The community of adults and youth in Cayman Islands has come together recently to release a series of educational videos. Each is geared to...
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By Alfredo Quarto, Program & Policy Director Co-founder, MAP There is a rather urgent situation concerning the bio-invasion of the Son...
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By: Isabel Robinson, MAP Volunteer Intern Some months ago I decided to come to Thailand and do an internship in mangrove conservation, ...
MAP News Issue #596 = April 20, 2024
ENTRIES NOW OPEN! Mangrove Photography Awards 2024 10 Years Celebrating Mangroves GLOBAL - MAP has launched our 10th Mangrove Photograp...