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    Mangroves Ecosystem

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    Annushia Arumugam
    Mangroves are salt-tolerant forests found in tropical coastal regions that provide important ecological functions like nutrient cycling and coastal protection. They occupy around 200,000 square kilometers globally and support commercial fishing and livelihoods for coastal communities. However, mangroves are being cleared for agriculture and aquaculture, threatening their important role in carbon storage and coastal ecosystems. Proper management and conservation efforts, including involvement of local communities and education programs, are needed to preserve mangroves and their functions.

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    Mangroves Ecosystem

    Uploaded by

    Annushia Arumugam
    53 views3 pages
    Mangroves are salt-tolerant forests found in tropical coastal regions that provide important ecological functions like nutrient cycling and coastal protection. They occupy around 200,000 square kilometers globally and support commercial fishing and livelihoods for coastal communities. However, mangroves are being cleared for agriculture and aquaculture, threatening their important role in carbon storage and coastal ecosystems. Proper management and conservation efforts, including involvement of local communities and education programs, are needed to preserve mangroves and their functions.

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    Mangroves ecosystem

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    Mangroves are salt-tolerant forests found in tropical coastal regions that provide important ecological functions like nutrient cycling and coastal protection. They occupy around 200,000 square kilometers globally and support commercial fishing and livelihoods for coastal communities. However, mangroves are being cleared for agriculture and aquaculture, threatening their important role in carbon storage and coastal ecosystems. Proper management and conservation efforts, including involvement of local communities and education programs, are needed to preserve mangroves and their functions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    53 views3 pages

    Mangroves Ecosystem

    Uploaded by

    Annushia Arumugam
    Mangroves are salt-tolerant forests found in tropical coastal regions that provide important ecological functions like nutrient cycling and coastal protection. They occupy around 200,000 square kilometers globally and support commercial fishing and livelihoods for coastal communities. However, mangroves are being cleared for agriculture and aquaculture, threatening their important role in carbon storage and coastal ecosystems. Proper management and conservation efforts, including involvement of local communities and education programs, are needed to preserve mangroves and their functions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Mangroves are salt-tolerant vegetation that grows in intertidal regions of rivers and

    estuaries. They are referred to as ‘tidal forests’ and belong to the category of ‘tropical
    wetland rainforest ecosystem’. Mangrove forests occupy around 2,00,000 square
    kilometres across the globe in tropical regions of 30 countries. Equally important,
    mangrove forests are the world’s most productive and important ecosystem, but
    they’re being wiped out by unsustainable agriculture and other threats.

    The structural complexities of mangrove vegetation create unique environments


    which provide ecological niches for a wide variety of organisms. Mangroves serve as
    breeding, feeding and nursery grounds for most of the commercial fishes and
    crustaceans on which thousands of people depend for their livelihood. Mangroves
    also give protection to the coastline and minimise disasters due to cyclones and
    tsunami. Clearly, recent studies have shown that mangroves store more carbon
    dioxide than most other forests. Then, mangroves are an intermediate vegetation
    between land and sea that grow in oxygen deficient waterlogged soils which have
    Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S). They also perform important ecological functions such as
    nutrient cycling, hydrological regime, coastal protection, and fish-fauna production.
    Equally, mangroves act as shock absorbers. This is because they reduce high tides
    and waves and help to prevent soil erosion. They also provide livelihood
    opportunities to coastal communities.

    In order to conserve and preserve this ecosystem, the government had already done
    a lot of things in order to make a preservation and conservation of the ecosystem but
    still most of themare not considering it. Firstly the Environmental (Protection) Act, the
    Supreme Court should order to ban semi-intensive and intensive aquaculture in the
    coastal areas, and the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification with strict
    enforcement of the legislative measures, scientific management practices. This is
    because these are very much important for conservation and sustainable
    management of the precious mangrove forests. Besides that, suitable sites should
    be identified for planting mangrove species. Additionally, mangrove nursery banks
    which is a place for raising and tending seedlings until they are ready for permanent
    planting should be developed for propagation purposes Environmental monitoring in
    the existing mangrove areas should be taken up systematically and periodically.
    Furthermore, various threats to the mangrove resources and their root causes
    should be identified, then earnest measures should be taken to eliminate those
    causes as soon as possible.

    Apart from that, the participation of all the local community should be made
    compulsory for conservation, preservation and management. According to the
    floristic survey of mangroves along the coast should to be taken up to prepare
    biodiversity atlas for mangroves. Consequentl, potential areas should to be identified
    for implementing the management action plan for mangroves, especially in cyclone
    prone areas. Moreover, socioeconomic studies on the mangrove-dependent people
    need to be taken up to involve them in management of mangrove biodiversity.
    Importantly, coastal industries and private owners need to be persuaded to actively
    participate in protecting and developing mangrove biodiversity. As with, the forest
    department officials should be also trained well on taxonomy, biology and ecology of
    mangrove species. So that, they can manage well these ecosystems because
    conservation of mangrove ecosystems is more than just planting new trees. It
    consists of science, policy, and education.

    In addition, agroforestry along the periphery of mangroves in the wastelands can be


    taken up for providing alternate fodder to the cattle of nearby villages. Alternative
    livelihood and income generation options like dairy farming, bee keeping, palm
    candy production, coconut leaf or palm leaf thatching, dry fish marketing, vegetable
    shops and small provisional shops can be taken up by the mangrove-dependent
    communities. This method can help to conserve and preserve the mangrove
    ecosystem. In addition, public awareness of mangrove issues can be build up, by
    informing site-specific issues, and document mangrove ecosystem changes. Public
    awareness and education have a huge support as a technique for changing attitudes
    and building support for mangrove management. To be sure, the role of public
    education in mangrove ecosystem management is to promote awareness,
    understanding, educate others and new attitudes among both adults and children
    regarding values and appropriate uses for these coastal resources. The audience for
    this message is diverse in its education levels and socio-economic status, as well as
    in the part individuals and groups play in both consciously or unconsciously in
    determining present and future mangrove condition and use patterns. Hence, a
    broad-based approach to education is necessary, since people must make decisions
    at many levels in order for new or strengthened mangrove management policies to
    take effect. At the local level, education efforts can be organized such as talks by
    technical experts, oral histories of the role of a mangrove ecosystem in community
    life, attention raising-events, school programs with mangroves as a theme,
    mangrove tours especially in schools, distribution of materials on local resources,
    small projects regarding condition and abuse of mangrove ecosystems, and specific
    interventions in key decisions. All these programmes and efforts can raise
    consciousness and prepare a community to give serious consideration to
    management proposals. This approach can bring together the groups who benefit
    from and who are damaging the mangroves, build participation in a planning process
    to conserve the mangrove swamps and promote local vigilance and reporting of
    mangrove destruction.

    Hence, traditional rights of coastal communities to use the natural resources in their
    surrounding natural habitats for their livelihood should be recognised while
    formulating and implementing regulations and conservation measures on priority
    basis. As with mangrove forests play a major role with more valuable ecological
    services, scientific management of the same is the need of the hour not only for the
    wellbeing of the mankind but also for coastal biodiversity.

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