Death Waits for No Mangrove

Mangroves grow in the tropical and subtropical intertidal zones of sheltered bays and river mouths. These complex ecosystems are found between the latitudes of 32 degrees north and 38 degrees south, along the tropical coasts of Africa, Australia, Asia, and the Americas.

This has been a difficult question since MAP formed 13 years ago. At that time, we wanted to tell people to not eat shrimp, period. But we came to realize that there are indeed some sustainable, less-destructive shrimp production methods that could be supported. For instance, spot prawns found in the Pacific Northwest are caught in small traps or nets lowered into the coastal waters. These do little damage to the surroundings, and if kept within reason, the fishery for spot prawns could be sustainable, though it could never fill the current level of consumer demand artificially created by the shrimp aquaculture industry.

Effective enforcement of existing laws is very important, and lack of proper enforcement is one reason why so much mangrove destruction has occurred. Laws exist in the books, but in the majority of instances where mangroves are illicitly cleared, law enforcement is not being carried out. Often, the perpetrators pay bribes to key officials who conveniently turn their backs on the problem.

Good question, Philip. Making changes in government policies even in one's own country is difficult, but certainly more so when attempting to do so in another country. Avoid a direct, confrontational approach while raising international pressure on a certain policy or lack of enforcement of an existing regulation. Letter-writing campaigns can definitely help pressure countries sensitive to outside opinions where tourism and consumer awareness about certain export items might be seen as pressure points. With shrimp aquaculture, for instance, Mangrove Action Project raised awareness and some support when we blew the whistle on the fact that shrimp farming was destroying mangroves at a dizzying rate. Though the industry still is adversely affecting mangrove forest areas, we know that some shrimp farmers at least are more sensitive to being caught in the mangrove areas, and are actually striving to avoid them.

Yes, we have our biweekly, electronic newsletter, "The Mangrove Action Project News," which MAP sends out to over 3,000 email addresses in over 60 nations. It offers news updates and action alerts, informative reports, and related announcements for our general readership.

Payne, I think your mom has a good idea that really is in a sense scientific in its approach. One of the rules of sound scientific experimentation, in fact, is the ability of other experimenters to independently duplicate your experiment elsewhere to see if they can obtain the same results. Your mentioned experiment seems fitting as one that can be easily performed by others to verify a very important fact -- that a coastal fringe forest, such as mangroves, can act as a buffer against wind and waves.

Very relevant points, Ken, to discuss now, because we are at a sort of crossroads where we must choose the right path toward ecological recovery. In direct response to the tsunamis that killed over 250,000 people in Asia and East Africa, governments are now setting aside millions of dollars to implement massive mangrove restoration projects along the still vulnerable coastlines where mangroves have been lost or degraded by unsustainable developments. This sounds like a good plan on the surface, but there is a history of prior large-scale, top-down-managed mangrove planting projects that have cost millions of dollars and thousands of person-hours, but were dismal failures in the end. Because the methodology and planning were inadequate, the mangroves planted -- usually in mud flats or along open stretches of beach (and even sometimes in sea-grass beds!) -- failed in short order, discouraging all those who took part.

We have no immediate plans there, but are keenly interested in what solution will be tried in rebuilding the region. I am doubtful that any real solution will be taken, unless the old Mississippi River is allowed to run somewhat wild again, so it can deposit its sediments to rebuild the natural wetlands.

Yes, there is good probability for MAP's close collaborative partnerships with several NGOs and local community representatives. We have had an active presence in forming working projects in Brazil that will be aimed at conserving and restoring the mangroves there, attempting to halt or limit the further expansion of shrimp farming, and forming stronger ties with local NGOs and communities to involve them in mangrove conservation, restoration, and resource-management decisions.

Rick, I too wonder at times how we can keep going in the face of so much loss of our planet's health and vitality. Yes, I get discouraged when I see a beautiful mangrove forest destroyed in Indonesia or Thailand, India or Bangladesh, Ecuador or Honduras, Kenya or Tanzania for shrimp farms that may last only a few years before they must be abandoned because of disease problems or pollution; discouraged when I see a unique mangrove habitat on Bimini Island -- Hemingway's "Island in the Stream" -- being cleared by a wealthy American developer to place his golf course, marina, and massive tourist condo-hotel haven on the island's last stand of mangroves because a corrupt Bahamian government has sold out its people and their heritage; discouraged as well when I see callously criminal industrial oil extraction by Shell or Chevron in Nigeria's once natural-resource-rich, mangrove-laden Niger Delta, which is killing both the coastal ecology and the people, where poverty and misery follow on the heels of unregulated exploitation.