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Climate Change Threat to Pacific
Ocean Mangroves
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Coping Strategies for Coastal Zone
Managers Outlined in New UNEP-Backed Report
NAIROBI/APIA/HONOLULU – (UNEP).— Action is needed to
conserve mangroves in the Pacific amid concern that
rising sea levels, linked with climate change, are
set to drown large areas of these precious and
economically important ecosystems.
Studies, announced today by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), indicate that some
islands in the region could see over half of the
mangroves steadily lost by the end of the century,
with the worst hit being American Samoa, Fiji,
Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The
study, which has assessed the vulnerability of the
16 Pacific Island countries and territories that
have native mangroves, finds that overall as much as
13 per cent of the mangrove area may be lost.
It
makes a series of recommendations to coastal
planners. These include reducing pollution from
land-based sources in order to make existing
mangroves more healthy and resilient, alongside
restoring lost or degraded mangroves wetlands.
Setting back coastal infrastructure and development
to allow mangroves to spread inland may also be
possible along some sections of Pacific island
coastlines, says the report.
Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director, said:
“There are many compelling reasons for fighting
climate change -- the threats to mangroves in the
Pacific, and by inference across other low-lying
parts of the tropics, underline yet another reason
to act.” “Industrialized nations must meet their
commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, the
international emission-reduction treaty, as a first
step to the even deeper cuts needed to stabilize the
atmosphere”, he added.
“But
there is also an urgent need to help vulnerable
communities adapt to the sea-level rise which is
already under way. This report provides sensible and
sound advice on management regimes needed to boost
the health and resilience of coastal zones and
coastal ecosystems like mangroves in the face of
current and future threats”, said Mr. Steiner.
The
new report, “Pacific Island Mangroves in a Changing
Climate and Rising Seas”, has been compiled by the
Regional Seas Programme of UNEP, the Secretariat of
the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
based in Apia, Samoa, the Western Pacific Regional
Fishery Management Council in Honolulu, Hawaii, and
well over a dozen additional agencies and
organizations from the Pacific islands region.
Kitty Simonds, Executive Director of the Western
Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council,
explained: “Mangrove wetlands’ functional links
with other coastal ecosystems and their important
contribution to nearshore fisheries production make
it critical for Pacific island Governments and local
communities to act now to ensure the sustainable
provision of mangrove ecosystem services. The
Council has recently begun to replace its existing
suite of Fishery Management Plans with integrated
ecosystem-based plans for each island archipelago.
The results and recommendations stemming from this
study are contributing to the development of these
new place-based Fishery Ecosystem Plans.”
The
true economic value of ecosystems like mangroves is
now starting to emerge as a result of landmark
reports such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
the work of some 1,300 scientists and experts.
Others assessments include the recently published
“In the Front Line: Shoreline Protection and other
Ecosystem Services from Mangroves and Coral Reefs”
compiled by organizations including UNEP’s World
Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).
They
underline that, in common with other terrestrial and
marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves
provide an array of valuable goods and services upon
which local people and industries like tourism
depend.
Mangroves are important nurseries for fish, act to
filter coastal pollution and are important sources
of timber and construction materials for local
communities. Pacific islanders also harvest dyes
from mangroves to treat textiles, nets and fish
traps.
The
health of mangroves also affects the health of other
economically and biologically important ecosystems,
including coral reefs and seagrass beds.
Mangroves provide important shoreline protection.
Wave energy may be reduced by 75 per cent during a
wave’s passage through 200 metres of mangrove
forest.
According to some estimates, the goods and services
generated by mangroves may be worth an average of
$900,000 per square kilometre, depending on their
location and uses.
Studies in Thailand put the figure at up to $3.5
million per square kilometre and in American Samoa
at just over $100,000 per square kilometre. An
estimated 75 per cent of commercially caught prawns
in Queensland, Australia, depend on mangroves.
A
400-square kilometre managed mangrove forest in
Matang, Malaysia, supports a fishery worth $100
million a year.
Forestry products from the Matang mangroves are
worth $10 million annually, it is estimated.
Roughly half the world’s mangrove area has been
lost since 1900 as a result of clearances for
developments like shrimp farms. 35 per cent of this
loss has occurred in the past two decades.
Eric Gilman of the University of Tasmania and the
report’s lead author said: “The report not only
spells out the threats, but also identifies national
and regional priority needs for technical and
institutional capacity building.”
“The report also offers the elements of
site-specific strategies that managers of coastal
zones can implement to minimize and offset
anticipated mangrove losses from climate change
affects. These focus on community-based approaches
and integrated coastal zone management as well as
increased public awareness and outreach”, he added.
Vainuupo
Jungblut, Associate Ramsar Officer at SPREP and one
of the report’s authors, said: “One of the major
challenges the Pacific islands region faces is
climate change and sea-level rise, and adjusting to
the responses of coastal ecosystems to these forces.
The challenge for the region is to implement
appropriate and affordable adaptation measures with
limited resources. This report will assist Pacific
island land-use managers to assess vulnerability as
well as identify appropriate adaptation techniques.”
Hanneke Van Lavieren of UNEP’s Regional Seas
Programme and another author said: “The 2002 World
Summit on Sustainable Development set an ambitious
target--to achieve a significant reduction in the
current rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010-- as
one contribution to fighting poverty and delivering
prosperity. We hope this new report and its
recommendations on mangroves and climate change can
play its part towards achieving the biodiversity
goal in the Pacific.”
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