Sri Lanka Takes Big Step to Protect Mangrove Forests

Photo credit: BBC News

Sri Lanka – a nation that has lost around 76% of its mangrove forests – has taken an important step to protect and preserve them.

The government-sponsored plan includes job training, replanting and microloans to preserve this at-risk habitat that has been majorly lost and destroyed in the past 100 years – and conservationists hope other nations will fall in line.

Commenting on the agreement, Sri Lanka President Maithreepala Sirisena told BBC News, “It is the responsibility and the necessity of all government institutions, private institutions, non-government organizations, researchers, intelligentsia and civil community to be united to protect the mangrove ecosystem.”

Mangrove forest consist of salt-tolerant evergreens along the coastlines of tropical and subtropical nations.

“No nation in history has ever protected all of its mangrove forests and Sri Lanka is going to be the first one to do so. This is through a combination of laws, sustainable alternative incomes and mangrove nurseries. It is also very significant considering the importance of mangroves as a means of sequestering carbon,” said Seacology executive director Duane Silverstein.

“It is not only that mangroves sequester an order of magnitude more carbon than other types of forest, but it is sequestered for so much longer. In the case of mangroves, it is forecast that this lasts millennia.”

After the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the nation noticed communities with healthy forests were better protected from the waves that wreaked havoc on the countries coastline.

The healthy forests can also help sustain fisheries that provide a livelihood and nutrients to coastal residents.

Read more from the BBC News.