Shoreline Protectors, Unprotected
“More than 35% of the world’s mangroves are already gone. The figure is as high as 50% in countries such as India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, while in the Americas they are being cleared at a rate faster than tropical rainforests," says the World Wide Fund for Nature. Mangroves play an important role in protecting shorelines from calamities such as tsunamis and typhoons, and in preventing erosion. They are important areas for biodiverse life to be bred and nursed, such as fish, crustaceans, birds, reptiles, mammals, and many more; they are a renewable source of wood for fuel and housing, and of food and traditional medicines. In the light of the human-induced rising carbon levels and fast-paced climate change, these mangroves may easily be wiped out in the distant future. The following are only some of threats to mangrove communities:
- rise of sea levels
- rise of global temperatures
- increasing frequencies and intensities of typhoons
- changing ocean currents
- changes in the precipitation regime
A World Without Mangroves
Mangrove communities store a lot of carbon and greenhouse gases by trapping it in its soil for millenia. Mangrove deforestation must be stopped for these will only directly affect our current emergency of climate change. These biomes protects us and the mangrove loss has already alarmingly threatening to coastal areas and populations.