Mangrove forests in coastal areas provide a wide range of vital ecosystem services for global and local communities, such as climate change mitigation (through high carbon sequestration), climate change adaptation (through protection from floods, tides and storms), biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods (through community fishery, aquaculture and forest products). However, over harvesting and land use change have resulted in widespread degradation of mangrove forests, leading to loss and reduction of the above vital ecosystem services. While mangrove planting has been promoted to restore vital ecosystem services, most of such efforts were largely monoculture plantation and were not effective in restoring the wide range of vital ecosystem services. The proposed research will review past experiences of mangrove planting and identify best practices for sustainable rehabilitation to integrate global and local benefits, taking case studies in the Philippines and Myanmar where both countries has suffered serious damages caused by typhoons and cyclones in recent years. Synthesizing findings from in-depth case studies of community based mangrove rehabilitation efforts of both countries, the project aims to make policy recommendations to further improve mangrove rehabilitation strategies.
Project • CRRP2017-03MY-Camacho