Sent 23 July 2021. Part of Little Blue Letter.

“When the mangrove forests were not yet destroyed. It was so easy to find the wood we needed to build our houses, and we didn’t have to go very far to find mud crabs for food. But over time, the mangroves became degraded, and the crabs and fish were much harder to catch. Today, it makes me happy to see that with community reforestation efforts, life in the mangroves is slowly coming back to how it used to be.”
 
~ Evariste, Deputy President of the community association of Andimakafito village, northwest Madagascar
Celebrating the mighty mangrove 🌱🌊🌍
Mangrove forests in the Bay of Assassins, Madagascar
Garth Cripps © Blue Ventures

As the only forests that can grow in saltwater, mangroves are already an exceptional tree. They provide habitats for all manner of marine life, including fish, shrimp, crabs and megafauna, they protect shorelines against storm surges and underpin livelihoods for millions of coastal people and small-scale fishers around the world.

But the magic doesn’t stop there – mangroves are the ultimate natural solution to the climate crisis. By locking away exceptional amounts of CO₂ in their roots and sediments, these supertrees play a vital role in reducing the impacts of climate breakdown.

Not only is this good news for nature, but it’s also good news for people too. Coastal communities that live amongst the mangroves and are committed to protecting them, have the opportunity to tap into the international carbon trading market and earn an income from the sale of ‘blue carbon’ credits.

Learn more about communities in southwest Madagascar that are doing just that in this short film from Blue Ventures 👇

Watch Tahiry Honko - How a community-led conservation project delivers benefits beyond mangroves

#OceanOptimism

  • In the Sunderbans mangrove forest, spanning Eastern India and Bangladesh, young people are leading their communities to protect the ecosystem by carrying out cleanups and replanting mangroves on the most degraded islets. These young people are learning to become local stewards of the forests and passing their knowledge on to the wider community.

  • The Google Earth Engine Mangrove Mapping Methodology (GEEMMM) – a new tool which has been developed by Blue Ventures – is enabling coastal managers to map and monitor mangrove extent and change. Crucially, the GEEMMM brings an improved level of localised accuracy, creating new opportunities for coastal communities developing mangrove conservation and blue carbon projects at the local level.

Gif of the week

Scale model showing how mangrove forests protect the coast from wave erosion
Mangroves limit the effects of turbulent tides, acting as a barrier between that protects coastal communities.

Join the conversation 

On the Box
Revisit Sir David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet: Oceans episode for an exploration into the deep blue. Encounter a tiny yet flamboyant cuttlefish in the reefs of Indonesia, magnificent Eden’s whales in the gulf of Thailand and curious young sharks finding refuge in the mangroves of the Bahamas.

Little Blue Letter was curated this week by Kerensa Keevill. Kerensa is Digital Communications Officer at Blue Ventures, a community-focused marine conservation organisation working across the coastal tropics.
 
Editing etc. by Glen Wright. Glen is a researcher studying marine governance, the high seas, and ocean energy. He is a drinker of tea, lover of the sea, and an Oxford comma user. Glen recently published Academia Obscura: The Hidden Silly Side of Higher Education.
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