Rahanna Juman,

Director (Ag)/ Wetlands Ecologist,

Institute of Marine Affairs

Our coastlines, especially the Gulf of Paria, were once lined with large trees supported by massive, entangled roots beaming with wildlife, where our grandfathers and fathers hunted crabs to put in the Sunday callaloo, and harvested oysters that were sold in spicy sauce around the Queen Parks Savannah. Back then we did not fully understand nor appreciate the importance of these coastal forests, so as much as 50 per cent were cleared to build houses, businesses and ports. What are you talking about, you may ask? It’s our mangrove forests.

Mangrove forests are spectacular and prolific ecosystems that are located on the boundary between land and sea. Mangrove trees are salt-tolerant trees, also called halophytes, that are adapted to life in harsh coastal conditions. They contain a complex salt filtration system and complex root system to cope with saltwater immersion and wave action, and are adapted to the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud.

In recent times, we have come to learn more about the value of mangrove forests. Mangroves provide critical ecosystems services, contributing an estimated US$42 billion to global fisheries, storing 25.5 million tons of carbon per year, and providing flood protection to over 15 million people annually (Walker et al 2022). These forests act as an important environmental barrier between shores and lands, protecting the inhabiting ecological and social communities from the adverse impacts of extreme events, such as hurricanes and storms worldwide.

[caption id="attachment_972957" align="alignnone" width="768"] Mangrove roots stretch from the tree top to the water in the Caroni Bird Sanctuary during a tour on August 19. - Darren Bahaw[/caption]

Mangroves have a significant effect on the extent of inundation and damages caused by coastal flooding. It is estimated that if all the mangroves in the world were lost, 18 million more people would be flooded every year on average, an increase of almost 40 per cent, and the annual damage to property would increase by US$82 billion.

A 2019 World Bank study sets the annual value of Jamaica’s mangrove forests for flood risk reduction to the nation’s built capital at more than US$2,500 per hectare per year. In Trinidad, floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters and there is strong evidence that, in a warming world, destructive floods will become more common and intense, adversely affecting the lives of even more people.

In addition to providing protection against coastal flooding, mangrove forests have the highest area rates of carbon capture and storage compared with any other ecosystem, terrestrial or marine, contributing disproportionately as a carbon sink, if left undisturbed. On average, mangroves have a mean whole-ecosystem carbon stock of ~950 t C ha−1 which is around 2.5–5 times higher than the mean ecosystem carbon stock found in temperate, boreal and upland tropical forests (200–400 t C ha−1) (Alongi, 2012).

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