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Sunday, December 27, 2015

MAP News issue 380, Dec 27, 2015

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The MAP News
380th Edition                                Dec 27, 2015


FEATURE STORY

This year, give a gift to the future!
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USA  - With over two decades at work at the roots of the sea, you might wonder if we are any closer to saving the mangroves. Mangroves have continued their decline, but the current rate is now half of what it was when MAP was established. While more efforts are being made to restore and conserve mangroves than ever before, we still need to do more. This is where you can help!  The time has come to pass when our actions must speak louder than words! Your continuing support has helped us maintain an active and persistent presence along the coastal belts of mangrove nations. MAP started almost 23 years ago, and has since built up an active global network, while raising public awareness about the importance of mangroves. We have long been the mangroves’ advocate, and have worked tirelessly to conserve and restore these forest wetlands. Future generations may reap the bounty of our actions and thus thank you for your timely support.
During this season of giving, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to support MAP’s work to conserve and restore mangrove forests around the world. Your donation today will go straight into helping the decline of mangrove forests. READ MORE
 
AFRICA
 
Mangrove deforestation in Madagascar: What are the options?
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MADAGASCAR - The island nation of Madagascar has long captured the world’s curiosity and is renowned for its unparalleled biodiversity, magnificent landscapes and unique culture. In the northwestern coastal Ambaro-Ambanja bays region, you will encounter mountains transitioning into lowlands littered with lush agro-forest mosaics producing vanilla, cacao, coffee and a cornucopia of fruits – output that would be impossible on the arid lands found further south.  These lush landscapes reach right to the coast where they meet postcard perfect white sand beaches and turquoise waters, but also vast, dense mangrove swamps. It was during my first trip here in February 2012 that I initially experienced the diversity of these vast and fascinating coastal ecosystems, but also their rapid decline.  Clambering down a steep bank, transitioning from agro-forest to mangrove, I recall taking my first steps into what remained of a mangrove forest that had been clear-cut; sinking deeply into the muddy soil as I was confronted by a sweeping panorama of stumps. Madagascar contains about 2% of the world’s mangroves, Africa’s fourth largest extent behind Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique. These marine (or “blue”) forests are critical to the coastal communities who live in and around them, providing food, cooking fuel, and construction materials for boats and houses, as well as medicine. READ MORE
 
ASIA
 
Global Supermarkets Selling Shrimp Peeled by Slaves
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Thailand - Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States. After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. Always, someone was watching. No names were ever used, only numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo Win was No. 31. Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world's biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country's $7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press investigation has found shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia. READ MORE
 
Thai Union, Whole Foods and Walmart shrimp supply tied to forced, child labor
USA - An investigation conducted by the Associated Press released on 14 December has linked Thai Union Group to forced labor in Thailand once more. AP investigators tailed a series of trucks in November that were transporting shrimp from the Gig Peeling Factory in Samut Sakhon to a number of major Thai exporting companies, one of which included a subisdiary of Thai Union. The shrimp peeling and processing plants were using forced and child labor to prepare the massive volumes of shrimp, according to the report. Utilizing U.S. customs data and Thai industry reports, investigators were able to trace the shrimp to various locations in the United States, Europe and Asia, the report writers said. Major global supermarkets and foodservice chains including Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General, Petco, Red Lobster and Olive Garden were among the supposed recipients of the shrimp, the AP found. The shrimp also allegedly made its way into the supply chains of popular U.S. brands such as Beaver Street’s Sea Best, Chicken of the Sea and Fancy Feast, noted AP reporters; retailers including Safeway, Piggly Wiggly and Albertsons are known to sell such brands. All 50 states in the United States potentially have retailers selling shrimp products linked to forced and child labor, according to AP reporters. READ MORE
 
AMERICAS
 
Editors Note : While MAP does not advocate the “simple solution” to complex issues, it applauds the innovative efforts of those to who put time and money into finding viable solutions to coastal reforestation. We advocate scientific consideration before adopting applications that may have long range ramifications. We include this story to  illustrate a novel approach by those who share the desire of mangrove restoration.
Aerial planting of mangrove seeds proving to be effective method
Capture
USA - Taking to the sky and pelting deteriorating wetlands with mangrove seeds has proven to be a quicker and cheaper way to get the plants established than the traditional method of taking long boat trips and planting by hand. Tierra Resources, a New Orleans-based group working to find new ways to fund coastal restoration through carbon credit funding, announced that three, 1-acre plots have shown the aerial planting technique works. Tierra Resources did a three-year pilot project in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes testing the theory that planting mangroves by air could be a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. The work was done in partnership with ConocoPhillips, which owns 640,000 acres of wetlands in coastal Louisiana. Up until now, if mangroves were to be planted in an area, small plants needed to be boated out in pots along with the people who would get the plants in the ground. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive work that can be close to impossible for some areas of the more remote coastline. “A lot of areas in the coast, it can take half a day just to get there,” said Sarah Mack, president and CEO of Tierra Resources. “There’s a lot more area we can cover by airplane.” READ MORE
 
Global 'blue carbon' partnership launched to highlight role of coastal ecosystems in tackling climate change
USA - A new initiative to boost awareness of the important role coastal 'blue carbon' ecosystems play in tackling climate change was launched by the Australian government yesterday at the Paris climate summit. The International Partnership for Blue Carbon aims to increase understanding of the impact carbon stored in marine and coastal habitats could have on climate change, and accelerate action to preserve coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses. "Blue carbon… could play a significant role in reducing emissions, while also supporting biodiversity conservation, fisheries habitat protection, and disaster risk reduction," said Greg Hunt, Australia's environment minister, in a statement. "Research has already demonstrated that coastal ecosystems... can be much more effective than forests at sequestering carbon." READ MORE
 
Adaptation-Based Mitigation Offers Ambitious Solution for Climate Resilience
El SALVADORE - The Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador is a good illustration of this. Located along the Pacific coast in what’s known as the Central American Dry Corridor, Bajo Lempa features everything from hillsides covered in coffee plantations, to flood-prone coastal plains where family farms border industrial sugarcane operations, to mangrove forests that compete with shrimp production. Increasing population and agricultural pressures have led to widespread deforestation, soil erosion, and pollution from agrochemicals. Landlessness and poverty - key grievances in El Salvador’s 1980s civil war – still linger in the form of a fragmented land tenure system. And climate change has exacerbated many of these issues due to reduced or erratic rainfall, and more frequent and intense tropical storms.   All of these factors are complex enough in their own right, but they present an even more daunting challenge when aggregated into a single landscape. And yet a landscape approach, focused on adaptation-based mitigation, is precisely the kind of intervention that Gerardo Segura, World Bank Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, thinks could help places like Bajo Lempa regain many of their valuable ecosystem services while sustaining economic growth. READ MORE
 
OCEANA
 
Greenpeace Report: Dodgy Prawns
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AUSTRALIA - What most Australians are not aware of when they slurp a quick prawn laksa in their lunch break or tuck into a pile of prawns at Christmas is the horrific price paid in human suffering and environmental destruction in some of the main countries that supply our prawns. The market price of imported prawns, once a luxury item, has plummeted and Australians now eat about as many tonnes (about 50,000) of prawns every year, as we do of the ubiquitous pantry staple, tinned tuna. But our hunger for cheap imported prawns comes at a cost. What most Australians are not aware of when they slurp a quick prawn laksa in their lunch-break or tuck into a pile of prawns at Christmas, is the horrific price paid in human suffering and environmental destruction in some of the main countries that supply our prawns. At the extreme end of the scale, farmed prawn  production in some countries that supply the  Australian market is characterised by destruction of crucial habitat, introduction of invasive species,  pollution, chemical and pharmaceutical use,  reliance on destructive fishing for feed, and  human rights and labour abuses including slavery  and even murder. READ MORE


LAST WORD(S)
Dear Jim,
Thanks for your mail.
 
I have already informed you that we received the MAP calendar in our earlier e-mail on dated 8th Dec, 2015. Please note that we have received 8 of MAP 2016 calendar. We are planning to organize an award ceremony on date 19th December, 2015 to distribute the certificates to successful students. On this occasion, we have also plan to organise a discussion on subject “Why mangroves are important to my community” by involving various stakeholders. We will send you detail report after the completion of the programme.
 
We have not been impacted by the flood in Tamilnadu , as we are based in Odisha state.
 
Happy Holidays and cheerful Christmas!
 
Regards,
 
Bijaya Kumar Kabi
APOWA, Odisha, India


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Saturday, December 12, 2015

MAP Visits W. Africa



By Alfredo Quarto
Exec. Dir. Mangrove Action Project

Last September, Ibrahima THIAM, Regional Director the International Union for Conservation of Nature invited Mangrove Action Project (MAP) executive director Alfredo Quarto to attend a special workshop in Dakar, Senegal organized by Wetlands International in partnership with (IUCN) from 05-06 October 2015. The workshop involved the Regional Mangrove Program under the aegis of the Marine Conservation in Western Africa whose purpose was to contribute to the conservation of mangrove ecosystems through the development of a vast and ambitious program involving international practitioners and decision makers with expertise in mangrove conservation and restoration.

Alfredo was invited to present on MAP’s projects and efforts, where he emphasized two important tools that MAP hoped to share with others at the workshop, namely MAP’s Marvelous Mangrove Curriculum and our Community-Base Ecological Mangrove Restoration workshops.  We were in dialogie with Mr. Thiam about the potential use of these two programs in W. Africa, beginning with a possible joint program in Guinea Bissau, where abandoned rice field that had originally been established in mangrove areas might be restored back to mangroves. Since WI, Africa is involved in something called "green schools", where teachers introduce school kids to ecology issues, MAP hopes that our Curriculum could be a great boost for their efforts.

Towards this end, Alfredo joined a fact-finding team visiting abandoned rice fields in Guinea Bissau/ Currently WI, Africa is considering 18 abandoned rice fields as likely candidates for mangrove restoration, which might involve MAP in both an active and advisory capacity.


A Report on Preliminary Efforts to Restore Abandoned Rice Fields Back to Mangroves

Following the workshop in Senegal, Alfredo travelled south to Guinea Bissau, where he joined a fact-finding team, including representatives from Wetlands International, Africa and the Netherlands. The attached assessment is by Pieter van Eijk, WI Programme Head Climate Adaptation and Risk Reduction:

What do you do when mangroves fail to naturally recolonise abandoned rice fields in one of the most precious mangrove deltas of the world? Pieter van Eijk reports on a recent mission to Western Africa that paves the way for large-scale mangrove recovery through a so-called ‘ecological restoration’ approach.

While small on a map, Guinea Bissau is one of the most sizeable mangrove countries in the world. Boasting no less than 300.000 hectares, on the African continent only Nigeria supports a larger area of mangrove forest. Providing fish, fuelwood and other resources, the mangroves are a lifeline to virtually all inhabitants of Guinea Bissau. Its coasts support the second largest concentration of migratory water birds in Africa while providing a safe home to sea-dwelling hippos and no less than 5 marine turtle species.
 


In the North of the country, Cacheu Mangrove park and its buffer zone, much of the mangroves have been converted for rice production, under a shifting cultivation system locally referred to as Mpampam. Upon their abandonment, many rice fields never turned back to mangrove forests, despite many local efforts to restore the area through active replanting. Thousands of hectares lay barren as wastelands with little ecological and socio-economic value.


Photo: Ricefields, abandoned fields and mangroves in Cacheu. By Leo Zwarts (Altenburg & Wymenga)

Why did the mangroves fail to recolonise the abandoned rice fields? And what can be done to support natural regeneration of the area, while minimising restoration trough active planting efforts? Can we turn these wastelands into wetland wonders?

With these questions in mind I arrive in hot and humid Guinea Bissau. I will work on a plan for recovery of the delta´s mangroves and its natural values together with a team from Wetlands International, project partners and external expert Alfredo Quarto from the Mangrove Action project..

Mondriaan landscape

A few weeks before our mission we looked at an analysis of satellite images by consultancy agency Altenburg & Wymenga. The maps paint a clear picture of decades of destruction of the mangroves of Cacheu; we see a mosaic of blocks of intact mangroves, alternating with bare patches of soil, that seem devoid of life. Grids of small dykes and drainage canals separate the blocks. From outer space Cacheu looks like a Mondriaan painting. In some blocks mangroves have revived, but in many places they fail to return. The solution seems simple: by removing some of the dykes that block the tidal flows and by bringing back some former creeks into the system it should be easy to bring back the tides and create a thriving mangrove forest.


Google Earthimage showing active and abandoned ricefields. Some of these have recovered, while others remain idle. 
 
As always reality is harsh: as our speedboat buzzes through the mangrove creeks we notice that most dams have been breached through natural erosion. The current hydrology seems to favour mangrove growth in most places. This means that something else must prevent the seedlings from establishing. Wading through a former rice field we notice that the soil turned from a muddy substance into a hardened crust.  Have years of desiccation during droughts and intense agricultural use, prevented the vulnerable roots of mangroves sailings from penetrating the soil?  Or do large scale changes in river flows and local level drainage cause salinity levels that are too high for mangroves to withstand?

Even scarier thoughts cross our mind: given its geological history Cacheu might well be home to so-called acid-sulphate soils. Drainage and subsequent exposure to oxygen, triggers chemical processes that turn these soils highly acid. We do not know what’s going on.

Ecological rehabilitation
These observations demonstrate the complexity of mangrove restoration. Too often the ‘mangrove community’ turns to active planting, without considering the conditions required for healthy mangrove growth. As a result the majority of mangrove recovery projects across the world has failed.  Trees die, or grow in a stunted manner, yielding very low ecological and economic values.

Successful mangrove recovery requires us to ‘read’ the system. To understand how we can put hydrology, soil quality and sediment dynamics back in place. In our project we will do exactly this: find out how we can restore the mangroves through ‘ecological rehabilitation’, an approach that focuses on restoring enabling conditions to natural mangrove recovery.

Using the assessment of satellite images as a starting point, we will map hydrology, salinity, acidity and a number of other parameters across the delta, and try to understand how we can turn the buttons of the system. For example by flushing the soil and restoring water flows. Or by breaking up the hardened top soil. Working with the government and local communities themselves we want to bring back the mangrove treasure trove on which they so much depend. And secure the foraging and breeding grounds of the diverse wildlife. Not just in Cacheu, but across the region.

By Pieter van Eijk, Programme Head Climate Adaptation and Risk Reduction

Thursday, December 10, 2015

MAP News Issue 379 - Dec. 12, 2015

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PREVIEW VERSION
The MAP News
379th Edition                                Dec 12, 2015

FEATURE STORY

Mining dam burst in Brazil causing catastrophic consequences to environment and people
Bento1
BRAZIL - Already classified as the worst environmental disaster in Brazil, a mining dam of iron ore rejects burst on November 5th, 2015 at Mariana, Minas Gerais state. The responsible for the mining activities is Samarco, a joint venture of Vale from Brazil and Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton. People lost their homes, their family, their life and we lost biodiversity. 30 days later, nothing much was done by Samarco to remediate the tragedy. The village called Bento Rodrigues with 600 people was dragged and covered by the mud "tsunami" of 55 millions of cubic meters of rejects (55 billions of liters or 14.5 billions of gallons) released after the iron ore mine dam collapse. Most of the buildings are lost, more than 500 people lost their homes, several lives were taken. 13 people died, including two kids, and 8 are still missing. A painful tragedy that no words can describe. READ MORE

AFRICA

MAP visits Africa to participate in conservation and restoration
Africa1
SENEGAL - Last September, Ibrahima THIAM, Regional Director the International Union for Conservation of Nature invited Mangrove Action Project (MAP) executive director Alfredo Quarto to attend a special workshop in Dakar, Senegal organized by Wetlands International in partnership with (IUCN) from 05-06 October 2015. The workshop involved the Regional Mangrove Program under the aegis of the Marine Conservation in Western Africa whose purpose was to contribute to the conservation of mangrove ecosystems through the development of a vast and ambitious program involving international practitioners and decision makers with expertise in mangrove conservation and restoration. Alfredo was invited to present on MAP’s projects and efforts, where he emphasized two important tools that MAP hoped to share with others at the workshop, namely MAP’s Marvelous Mangrove Curriculum and our Community-Base Ecological Mangrove Restoration workshops.  We were in dialogie with Mr. Thiam about the potential use of these two programs in W. Africa, beginning with a possible joint program in Guinea Bissau, where abandoned rice field that had originally been established in mangrove areas might be restored back to mangroves. Since WI, Africa is involved in something called "green schools", where teachers introduce school kids to ecology issues, MAP hopes that our Curriculum could be a great boost for their efforts. READ MORE

Volunteers needed in Gambia
GAMBIA – The GEPADG is a non-profit NGO based in Gunjur in Gambia who have many years of experience in working with international volunteers. They work to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions to poverty in The Gambia through reversing the current destruction of forests, mangroves and coastal ecosystems. They are always working on different projects and volunteers can choose which areas they are most interested in. Areas include: turtle monitoring; tree planting exercises; mangrove regeneration; environmental health and sanitation; village  general cleansing; beach sweeping; workshops/conferences; Beekeeping; Women vegetable gardening; community forestry scheme; bird watching and bush walk/patrolling, Sales and marketing, Office and Computer work and community health. Volunteers also work at the local clinics and pharmacies, Biodiversity Conservation, Eco-tourism activities and tourist guided tours within the nature reserve. This normally happens between October and November each year and tree planting exercises and Mangrove regeneration projects occur between June and August. Turtle monitoring is between June and November each year. The rest of the activities are ongoing. READ MORE
 
ASIA

Coal plant threatens world's largest mangrove forest - and Bangladesh's future
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BANGLADESH - As COP21 reaches its endgame, there are plans to build 2,440 coal-fired power plants around the world, write Mowdud Rahman & Greig Aitken. Their completion would send global temperatures, and sea levels, soaring. Yet Bangladesh, the world's most 'climate vulnerable' large country, has plans for a 1.3GW coal power plant on the fringes of its World Heritage coastal wetlands. If operations should ever start at Rampal, it's estimated that it will be burning 4.72 million tons of coal per year - that's not only bad news for the climate but will also require a major spike in cargo shipping right through very vulnerable ecosytems. The most stark warning has come from Climate Action Tracker which, in The Coal Gap briefing paper, identifies a staggering 2,440 coal-fired power plants planned globally, both in emerging economies as a suggested means of meeting rapidly increasing electricity demand and also in many states across the EU to replace existing capacity. READ MORE

MAP-Asia hosted partners from Asia at the final project seminar
THAILAND – Between 2-6 November 2015, was a great opportunity for the Mangrove Action Project (MAP)-Asia to organize the final partners’ meeting and host twelve international participants who were involved in the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funded project in Trang and Krabi provinces, southern Thailand.    There were representatives from EMACE Foundation and Nagenahiru Foundation from Sri Lanka, The Center for Research on New Economic Order (CReNIEO) from India, The Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT) from Cambodia and the project holder Global Nature Fund (GNF) from Germany.  MAP has been a part of the four year project “Mangrove restoration in Asia – local action and cross-border knowledge transfer for climate, forest and biodiversity conservation” which was coordinated by the Global Nature Fund.  Under this project MAP focused on mangrove restoration utilizing the Community-based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) method. The mangrove restoration was implemented in five communities in Trang, Krabi and Phang Nga provinces. READ MORE

AMERICAS

Climate Change and Insufficient Solutions
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HONDURAS - The World Climate Change Convention's main objective is to reduce emissions of "greenhouse gases" (GHGs) to mitigate the effects of climate change (CC). In Bonn, Germany, (Oct.19 to 23, 2015) the technical committee of the 193 member states of the United Nations met to agree on mitigation of CC and produce a document riddled with disagreements, which are the basis of discussion for COP 21, taking place in Paris. Heads of state must make commitments to reduce greenhouse gases and therefore the temperature of the Earth in 20 C, by 2030. Large corporations impose their interests to governments and their authority to these peoples: "Any agreement GHG reduction should be voluntary"; while asking developing countries that agreements are binding, and address the problem of reducing GHG "fair but differentiated" way, the biggest polluter should pay more and should apply a mechanism for loss and damage ". In summary, the former do not want to leave their system of making money (mining, petroleum, transportation, construction, monocultures, agrochemicals ...) and instead proposed "market" nature, while the latter shows interest in obtaining financing for "conservation". Here, the environment is a commodity and not a common heritage of humanity. LEA MAS EN ESPANOL

Government Implements Ban On Offshore Drilling
BELIZE - 5 years, that's how long the conservationists have been pressing the Barrow Government to institute a permanent Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling. But, it was not so simple because oil exploration contracts were already signed with different private companies, and so if the Government simply instituted a moratorium, they would be effectively be terminating these contracts - and thereby opening up the country to lawsuits for breech of contract. So, late this year when all the oil exploration contracts expired, the Government chose not to renew any of them, especially in the environmentally sensitive areas, such as the marine reserves. Since then, the Oceana Belize and other conservationists have been lobbying in the halls of power for the Barrow Government to issue a permanent ban. And that's the news tonight. This effectively results in a total of 448 square miles being banned. In addition, Cabinet agreed to a ban offshore exploration within one kilometer on either side of the Belizean Barrier Reef System, resulting in an additional 868 square miles falling under the offshore exploration ban. The total area covered by the ban is 842,714 acres or 1,316 square miles. READ MORE

Brazil's slow-motion environmental catastrophe unfolds
BRAZIL – Unaccounted for as a slow-motion environmental catastrophe continues to unfold following the collapse of two mining dams in Brazil’s mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais. Eight days after the town of Bento Rodrigues was swept away by 50m cubic metres of toxic mud, a slow-moving tide of toxic iron-ore residue is oozing downriver, polluting the water supply of hundreds of thousands of residents as it makes its way to the ocean. Brazil’s national water agency, ANA, has warned that the presence of arsenic, zinc, copper and mercury now present in the Rio Doce make the water untreatable for human consumption. Already the lack of oxygen and high temperatures caused by the pollutants has killed off much of the aquatic life along a 500km stretch of the river. “It is a tragedy of enormous proportions,” Marilene Ramos, president of Ibama, the federal environmental agency, said. “We have thousands of hectares of protected areas destroyed and the total extinction of all the biodiversity along this stretch of the river.” READ MORE

FDA rejects record number of shrimp products due to antibiotics
USA – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected a further 129 seafood entry lines during the month of November, adding to its record level of shrimp refusals to come out of 2015 so far. According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, the FDA has turned down a total of 386 entry lines for shrimp so far this year mostly due to antibiotic concerns, a record for the agency. Vietnamese shrimp products account for 38 of the 386 shrimp lines refused. Of the 129 seafood refusals delivered by the FDA in November, 7 percent were shrimp products with antibiotic association. Most of these latest refusals involved shrimp manufactured from Bac Lieu Fisheries, based in Vietnam. VIEW SOURCE

EUROPE

Looking for mangroves resilience and sustainability
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FRANCE - EcoSummit 2016 29 Aug.-1 Sept. in France with a session on "Looking for mangroves resilience and sustainability" may be of interest to our readers. Submission deadline is Jan 29, 2016.  Every mangrove region has a unique history, ecosystem and human culture. Some mangrove areas have been totally lost or severely degraded, while others remain relatively pristine, free from human over exploitation. Each situation needs to be properly apprehended to question mangrove resilience and address local management and conservation needs. This requires interdisciplinary gap-bridging studies involving many disciplines and issues, such as ecology, eco-engineering, ecosystem services, climate change, disaster risk reduction, restoration, integrated coastal zone management and at different spatial and temporal scales of analysis. This session welcomes contributions on the understanding of ecosystem resilience for ensuring mangrove sustainability. READ MORE

LAST WORD(S)
Just to let you know my article on mangroves and their importance to climate change will be posted on the BluePlanet blog. You can preview it here on our blog.
Mangroves, An Invaluable Ally Against Climate Change
USA - Mangroves are the rainforests by the sea, found at the boundary where land meets ocean. They serve a wide range of ecological functions, providing economically valuable products and services. Mangroves, once estimated to cover an area of over 36 million hectares, dominated large stretches of tropical coastline. However, due to ongoing development pressures, mangroves are degraded and their area substantially diminished relative to their historic range., less than 15 million ha remain. Mangrove forests are vital for healthy coastal ecosystems. The shallow inter-tidal reaches that characterize mangrove wetlands offer refuge and nursery grounds for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimps, and mollusks, and are prime nesting and migratory sites for hundreds of bird species. Additionally, manatees, crab-eating monkeys, monitor lizards, Bengal tigers, sea turtles, and mudskipper fish utilize the mangrove wetlands. READ MORE
by Alfredo Quarto
Executive Director
Mangrove Action project.

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MAP News Issue 593, March 9, 2024

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