When the Levees Break: Mangrove Forests

The Beauty and Tradgedy of Mangrove Forests

"On the edge of the ocean, there is a very special forest, that lies above and below the water. A place where the most delicate creatures can safely refuge. Where the ocean's most mighty come when they are still too small to rule the sea. These are the mangrove forests."

You may ask yourself, why should I care about the mangroves? In fact, if you're anything like the majority of the world, there may not even be a mangrove forest within traveling distance, let alone within any sort of geopolitical lines, but there are in fact many reasons to care.

But before we can understand more about why we should save them let's learn a little more about how and what their function is from a world perspective.

There are 4 types of mangrove trees, which when compared to the dense forests of South America may seem to be unimportant, but in reality three quarters of all tropical fish are born in the relative safety and care of these brackish nurseries.

What allows these vulnerable fish to survive has to do both with the environmental setup of these forests, with plenty of different options of terrain for each species to exploit to their needs, yet also they can flourish within the nooks, crannies and pockets of safety made available to them by way of the trees themselves.

Besides the benefits that these forests confer upon our planet's watery denizens there are hundreds of above sea-level species that benefit from the forest's protection, including humans.

Not only has there been less devastation from hurricanes and tropical cyclones in countries that allow their mangroves to thrive, but the mangrove forests have been found to actually be an inexpensive alternative to some popular theories as to how to combat climate change.

While they make up only 0.7 percent of the world's forests, they have the potential to store about 2.5 times as much CO2 as humans produce globally each year.

- Scientific American

Deforestation causes devastation

In just the last decade 35% of the remaining mangrove population has been destroyed. This rate of loss is almost incomprehensible when compared to the amount of coverage that rainforest deforestation receives -- most of us know next to nothing about mangrove's existence, and let alone the effects of its loss in the world.

So, what does happen when we lose the mangroves?

Mangroves form dense barriers against storms and tsunamis, saving lives and protecting property. They also provide us with many other important benefits—more than many people may realize. For example, mangroves produce seafood, fruits, medicines, fiber, and wood. They stabilize shores by trapping sediments and building land. They improve water quality by filtering runoff and polluted waters. They protect the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the amount of greenhouse gas. All in all, researchers estimate, the world's mangrove forests provide human communities with many billions of dollars worth of free services.

- Smithsonian Institute

If you're looking at it from a more local perspective, an estimated 75% of the game fish and 90% of the commercial fish species in south Florida depend on the mangrove system. When you look at it at a global level you see carbon emissions rising, not only from the deforestation effort itself, but in the dislodging of millennia worth of carbon stocks that have accumulated in the shallow water sentiment. There is also the point that mangroves and coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship and each serves to protect the other, and the over all ecosystems, from the destruction of tropical storms, hurricanes and storm surges that otherwise would harm both. Also, globally, the diversity of the life, both on land and under the water, cannot be overstated. Everything from tigers to the smallest of crab thrive in the protection they provide, and in removing these forests hundreds of species will either be wiped out or further encroach on human habitats because they have no where else to go.

More over, if we lose the mangroves we lose a ecosystem of true beauty and inspiration. There is nothing that shows life at its greatest than a congregation of hundreds of different types of life taking up the same place in this world and not only surviving, but thriving off of their close community. That, in itself, should be enough for us to care and do what we each can to save the mangroves before it's too late.

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