Loss of mangrove forests equals extinction for wildlife

July 1, 2:57 PMWildlife Conservation ExaminerCathy Taibbi

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Greater Flameback. Photo

Chrysocolaptes lucidus. Western Ghats.

Sirsi, Karnataka, India 2006

Photo by Suresh V S" <sureshsv AT freeshell.org>

Humans depend on mangrove forests, wildlife, too.

Mangroves are threatened by coastal development, pollution, overexploitation, mariculture, and changes in sea level and salinity.

In short, we’re wiping them out.

We’ve already destroyed almost 40% of the world’s mangroves and every single remaining mangrove forest, and all the plants and animals that need them, is threatened.

Why should we care?

Mangrove forests are the nurseries of the Earth. Fish, shellfish, turtles, crocodilians and other aquatic creatures, many of which are important food or sport species for humans, live, breed, hatch, grow up or pass through mangroves during their life cycles. Many then disperse to land or sea and grow into vital resources for humans and other creatures.

Besides a vast number of commercially valuable species, various lizards, snakes, frogs would be expected to rely on mangroves.

Yet the importance of mangroves is far greater even than this. Species most people would never suspect require mangroves in order to exist. Species like cockatoos, monkeys, bats, sloths, woodpeckers and songbirds like the Prothonotary warbler. So, even if you live nowhere near the ocean, losing mangroves can impact your little corner of the world.

For humans and the Earth itself, the mangroves are vital. Mangrove forests build land by trapping sediment and organic debris in an intricate web of roots, protecting it from being washed away into the ocean and thereby creating more places for new plants to take root. In this way they extend shorelines, build new forests and lessen storm impact.

In short, we need them.

Almost half of all vertebrate species around the world that live in or depend upon mangrove ecosystems are threatened with extinction, according to a press release dated today (July 1 2009) from the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

The journal BioScience released this study, by David A. Luther of the University of Maryland and Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, in the July/August issue and the results are alarming. The conclusions “emphasize the vulnerability of animals that are dependent on a habitat rapidly being lost or degraded through coastal development, overexploitation, pollution, and changes in sea level and salinity.”

The report states, “Mangroves, which are salt-tolerant woody plants concentrated along coastal margins, generally in warm regions, have long been known to support many species of animals. Hundreds of vertebrates are sometimes found in mangroves, but Luther and Greenberg concentrated on the 69 terrestrial vertebrate species and subspecies that seem restricted to mangroves: 48 birds, 14 reptiles, 6 mammals, and 1 amphibian. These include several species with striking adaptations, such as specialized glands to excrete salt . . .

. . . Between the early 1980s and 2001, between 19 and 35 percent of the world's mangrove forest area was lost. At this rate of loss -- about 2 percent each year -- mangroves could be extinct in 100 years. Only 27 of the terrestrial vertebrates that are dependent on mangroves have been assessed by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), and 13 of those are classified as threatened on the IUCN Red List, Luther and Greenberg report. They urge research aimed at predicting how continuing changes to mangrove forests are likely to affect the species found there: such information could guide attempts to conserve these specialized ecosystems.”

Still, farmers, housing developers, the vacation industry and  other exploiters continue to eye mangrove forests as yet one more way to make a profit.

All the rich biodiversity, the future generations of food fish and songbirds and critically endangered creatures that use these mangroves as last-resort sanctuaries, wiped out. Our buffer against ocean tides and storms, gone. Our planet’s nursery for new land and new life, purposefully destroyed . . . to draw tourists . . . to add yet another oceanfront resort or golf course or road.

To make someone richer.

In the long run what is more important? A weekend vacation or the long-term health of our children, our planet and every creature that lives here?

To learn more about the importance of mangroves please visit here.