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Deforestation in the Ayeyarwady Delta and the conservaiton implications of an internationally-engaged Myanmar
... As such, the removal of mangroves likely impacts coastal carbon processes as trapping is reduced, and leaf litter and soils are eroded [27][28][29][30][31][32]. While less well understood, the impacts of mangrove deforestation on marine carbon cycling may be significant, as deforestation and the loss of coastal carbon stocks have been extensive in large deltas with high particle fluxes [26,[33][34][35][36][37]. Overall, because deltas sequester nearly 50% of the TerrOC buried in the marine environment, modifications to large rivers likely have a substantial impact on the global carbon cycle [18,38]. ...
... shown in meters of water depth (adapted from [45]). Unlike many Asian river deltas, the A-T rivers have remained relatively undeveloped due to an extended period of political and economic isolation in Myanmar and a current lack of mainstem damming [11,33,47]. Nonetheless, in the last 50 years, anthropogenic impacts have increased with the expansion of industries such as agriculture and mining [11,48]. ...
... Smoothed bathymetric contours (gray lines) are shown in meters of water depth (adapted from [45]). Unlike many Asian river deltas, the A-T rivers have remained relatively undeveloped due to an extended period of political and economic isolation in Myanmar and a current lack of mainstem damming [11,33,47]. Nonetheless, in the last 50 years, anthropogenic impacts have increased with the expansion of industries such as agriculture and mining [11,48]. ...
The continental margin is a major repository for organic carbon; however, anthropogenic alterations to global sediment and particulate terrestrial organic carbon (TerrOC) fluxes have reduced delivery by rivers and offshore burial in recent decades. Despite the absence of mainstem damming, land use change in the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin River catchments in Myanmar has accelerated over the last 50 years. As a result, deforestation and landscape erosion have likely altered fluvial fluxes to the Northern Andaman Sea shelf; however, the magnitude and preservation of geochemical signals associated with development are unknown. Utilizing elemental and bulk stable and radioisotope analysis, this study investigates spatial and temporal trends in sediment sources and TerrOC concentrations to identify the potential impacts of recent (<100 years) offshore development. While our results demonstrate an along-shelf trend in provenance and TerrOC concentrations, temporal (downcore) trends are not observed. We attribute this observation to frequent, large-scale seabed resuspension and suggest that extensive mixing on the inner shelf creates a low-pass filter that effectively attenuates such signatures. This is in contrast to other large Asian deltas, where signals of human landscape disturbance are clearly preserved offshore. We predict that planned mainstem damming in Myanmar will result in larger alterations in sediment and TerrOC supply that may become apparent offshore in the near future.
... Refs. [40,70,72,73,76,127,128]). A vulnerability assessment of major rivers in the Asian-Pacific monsoon region highlighted increased vulnerability in Southeast Asian basins, particularly in governance, economy, environment, and hazards [129]. ...
... Additionally, the increased ecosystem vulnerability scores for the Ayeyarwady Delta reflect the degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services due to human-induced pressures in the Southeast Asian deltas [130,131]. The GDRI deconstruction identified deforestation and forest degradation as significant challenges, consistent with the findings of mangrove deforestation and the expansion of irrigated areas as disaster risk drivers in the Ayeyarwady Delta [73,127]. Our results identify spatial patterns of increasing multiple flood risk in the delta, confirmed by regional [70] and also indicated by global studies (e.g. ...
... Especially the considerable loss of mangroves is severely limiting the ecosystem's ability to dissipate wave energy and stabilise the coastline [33]. This effect was observed in the Ayeyarwady Delta following the impact of cyclone Nargis [74,127,136,137]. These negative effects are further intensified by insecure housing and living conditions, with weak residential buildings identified as the primary cause of widespread destruction in a post-Nargis assessment [138]. ...
Despite the rising global flood risk, the impacts of flooding remain systematically underestimated, leading to significant consequences for particularly vulnerable river deltas. Most studies focus either on single hazards or social vulnerability while overlooking the interconnected dynamics of deltaic social-ecological systems. In response to the first priority of the Sendai Framework, which calls for an understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions, we apply the Global Delta Risk Index in the Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar. We combine 55 indicators of social- and ecosystem vulnerability with 100-year, 500-year, and 1,000-year scenarios of pluvial, fluvial, and coastal flood hazards and exposure at the sub-delta scale. Using townships as units of analysis allows for bridging the gap between global and local case studies, providing insights that are meaningful for risk-informed development of the delta as a whole system. We also examine the distinctive characteristics that define the delta systems that are particularly prone to flooding. Our results reveal patterns and drivers of flood risk and vulnerability that affect at least 65 % of the delta’s population and 60 % of its ecosystem, with self-reinforcing dynamics, but also those that contribute to the mutual resilience of both systems. We argue that the principles of integrated flood management should be applied to leverage scarce resources to simultaneously reduce risk, secure livelihoods and preserve ecosystem services.
... This subsidence exacerbates the effects of rising sea level, making the region more susceptible to flooding and coastal inundation. Additionally, the Delta is experiencing a significant loss of biodiversity, which threatens the ecological balance and the services that these ecosystems provide [4,5]. The heightened vulnerability to storm surges poses a further greater threat to natural habitats and human settlements, as severe storms can cause extensive damage to infrastructure and agricultural lands [6,7]. 2 Shoreline erosion is another pressing issue, with approximately 60% of the shoreline undergoing chronic erosion along the western flank of the Irrawaddy Delta [8], leading to persistent loss of land and displacement of communities. ...
... The GEE platform, renowned for its robust cloud-based geospatial analysis capabilities, enabled the efficient processing of large volumes of satellite imagery, offering comprehensive and timely insights for informed decision-making. 5 LULC data were obtained from Zhang et al. [54], integrating Landsat time series with high-quality training data from the Global Spatial Temporal Spectra Library on GEE. ...
... The continued decline of mangrove forests between 2000 and 2010 (33.05 km 2 ) highlights the need for conservation efforts [67]. In agreement with Webb et al., [5] and Yang et al., [68] data showed that agricultural expansion has been the primary cause of mangrove loss in the Delta over the past 50 years, with aquaculture and salt farming also contributing significantly. The shift to a market-oriented economy and privatization has further accelerated deforestation efforts. ...
Significant changes in Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) have widespread implications for the environment, economy, and society; influencing future sustainability and development of a region. This study aimed to assess LULC changes for a 30 year period (1990 – 2020) and project future LULC from 2030 to 2100 for the Irrawaddy Delta using remote sensing and simulations with the artificial neural networks-cellular automata method. The findings showed significant LULC changes in the Delta, particularly for the mangrove forests and cropland (rice paddies). Mangrove coverage was 1,471 km² in 1990 but decreased to 1,282 km² in 2020, and simulations predict a further reduction to 1,277 km² in 2100. Cropland areas increased from 10,550 km² to 10,618 km² in 2020, with simulations projecting a slight decrease to 10,586 km² by 2100. Human activities and cyclonic events, especially in the southern part of the region, have led to barren land and impervious areas replacing dense mangrove and forested areas. These changes threaten the ecological integrity of the Delta and impact local livelihoods and biodiversity. The study underscores the need for sustainable land management practices and policies to mitigate the adverse effects of LULC changes and ensure the resilience of the Irrawaddy Delta against ongoing environmental challenges.
... A household survey of rice farmers in the Ayeyarwady Delta [106] found an overall low adaptive capacity, limited technical and institutional support and networks, as well as insufficient input resources such as seeds and fertilizers. Recent increases of especially irrigated areas in an internationalizing framework, at least as of 2021, may hint at shifting power, land, and capital control from local elites towards national actors and investors mainly from China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam [36,108]. While the identified transition to irrigation within the agricultural system is among the most remarkable LULCC dynamics in the Ayeyarwady Delta, agricultural expansion and intensification seems to be themselves at risk rather than becoming active disaster risk drivers (at least for the studied period, ignoring the initial part of restructuring the natural delta system in British times). ...
... None of them has a patch size greater than 103 km 2 , a reduction of 83% compared to 1990. This trend is confirmed by the results of Webb et al. [36], who found a maximal mangrove patch of 300 km 2 for the year 2011. This corresponds to the overall trend already noted by Heymann and Löffler 1997 [34], with a loss of mangroves by almost 50% by the late 1990s, i.e., the beginning of the investigation presented here. ...
... Again, in overall agreement with the findings of Webb et al. [36] and Yang et al. [110], this analysis shows, first, that conversion to agricultural land was responsible for most of the mangrove loss in the past 50 years, and, second, that the rapidly expanding aquaculture and salt farming areas have been considerably co-responsible for deforestation in the delta. While this change is accompanied by extraction for fuelwood, charcoal, and non-timber forest products [65,111], the increase in deforestation since the introduction of the market-oriented economy and advancing privatization may suggest that deforestation in the Ayeyarwady Delta is increasingly driven by national efforts to intensify food production and the internationalization of agro-business. ...
Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) dynamics significantly impact deltas, which are among the world’s most valuable but also vulnerable habitats. Non-risk-oriented LULCCs can act as disaster risk drivers by increasing levels of exposure or vulnerability or by reducing capacity. Making thematically detailed long-term LULCC data available is crucial to improving understanding of those dynamics interlinked at different spatiotemporal scales. For the Ayeyarwady Delta, one of the least studied mega-deltas, such comprehensive information is still lacking. This study used 50 Landsat and Sentinel-1A images spanning five decades from 1974 to 2021 in five-year intervals. A hybrid ensemble model consisting of six machine-learning classifiers was employed to generate land-cover maps from the images, achieving accuracies of about 90%. The major identified potential risk-relevant LULCC dynamics include urban growth towards low-lying areas, mangrove deforestation, and the expansion of irrigated agricultural areas and cultivated aquatic surfaces. The novel area-wide LULCC products achieved through the analyses provide a basis to support future risk-sensitive development decisions and can be used for regionally adapted disaster risk management plans and models. Developed with freely available data and open-source software, they hold great potential to increase research activity in the Ayeyarwady Delta and will be shared upon request.
... The remarkable amount of mangrove density decreases; many drivers justify this change such as leading aquaculture industries, agriculture practices, forestry, oil palm plantation, rice cultivation, urban sprawling, and irrational industrial establishment (Webb et al. 2014;Lai et al. 2015). These factors are basically responsible for land cover change along with mangrove exhaustion. ...
... In recent years, Myanmar has promoted rice cultivation, but at the cost of Southeast Asia's mangrove forests. Numerous studies reported about natives of the Ayeyarwady Delta affecting the mangrove ecosystem for paddy cultivation (Webb 2014), but the present situation deepens in whole Myanmar for expansion of rice agriculture. Such examples act as a driving force for the fastest rate of mangrove deforestation of any country in Southeast Asia. ...
... The government of various countries is enhancing rice production through technical assistance and conventional village level expansion targets to improve their food security (Okamoto 2007;Matsuda 2009). The nation benefited financially from rice cultivation, aquaculture, and oil palm culture (Webb 2014;Richards and Friess 2016). ...
The history of human civilization has witnessed a strong and rapid transformation pattern in the coastal environment. It harbors a prominent transition zone of land and sea that plays a significant part in the socioeconomic and environmental aspects. Due to tremendous pressure from anthropogenic perturbations manifested by coastal squeeze, it’s protection and conservation become substantial. 5.04% of the mangrove land has been converted to aquaculture land between 1988 and 2013. Present mangrove loss is 35% which is supposed to reach 60% by 2030. Human activities increase the chances of exposure of coastal waters to effluents (organic and inorganic) released from the industrial and urban components which accelerate the metals and nutrient pollution, eutrophication, and oxygen depletion. This tends to alter ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical processes with serious impacts on the biota. Pichavaram shows an increase in nitrate from 5.9 mg/l in 1995 to 29.9 mg/l in 2006–2007. In Sundarbans it increases from 1.14 mg/l in 2001 to 3.69 mg/l in 2006 and in Godavari from 0.61 mg/l in 2001 to 2.25 mg/l in 2016. The phosphate values increase from 0.28 mg/l in 1995 to 6.6 mg/l in 2006 in Pichavaram mangroves. Manori creek, Mumbai, shows hike in phosphate in past 25 years. The value increases from 0.06 mg/l in 1982 to 2.19 mg/l in 2007. A consistent increase in heavy metal content has been observed in Sundarban, Pichavaram, and Goa mangroves. Thus, the resultant surge of heavy metals and nutrient pollutants indicates growth of fallow land, agricultural, and aquaculture activities and industrial pollution. This chapter has been constructed to discuss a holistic view of the major drivers of coastal mangrove ecosystem degradation by reviewing the case studies to highlight the past changes and present trends of human activities through industrialization and urbanization. We evaluate the impact of these human influences on the mangrove ecosystem, with an approach to emphasize the crucial role of mangroves, both in terms of quality and quantity, and the absolute need to conserve their future.
... flood mitigation, coastal protection, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration), cultural services 8 , and supporting services 9 . The Ayeyarwady Delta is the key rice and fish producing area of Myanmar; responsible for about 35% of rice production of the country (Webb et al., 2014). To support development in the region, road transport infrastructure was greatly increased during the 1990s and 2000s, which may have also increased mangrove degradation as access to the forest was enhanced. ...
... In the agriculture sector, the major stakeholders related to rice are the owners of rice fields, rice farmers, and the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation. Large areas within the government managed mangrove reserve forests' boundaries were converted from natural mangroves to rice fields (Webb et al. 2014). These areas are managed by the Forest Department. ...
... Fuelwood is also the energy used for drying fish on bamboo racks on the shore in the Pyapon township (and other settlements). Harvesting timber for charcoal and fuelwood for cooking and drying was the main cause of mangrove deforestation and degradation in the delta (Giri et al. 2010 andWebb et al. 2014), but the high level of degradation likely limits current levels of charcoal production. Fuelwood is a significant income source for local people even though most of the fuelwood is illegally collected (or logged) from the reserve forests and national park in the delta. ...
Mangroves provide essential ecosystem functions
and services that support coastal communities. Despite
their importance they have been degraded and
converted globally, resulting in loss of resilience of
coastlines and their communities. Myanmar, in particular,
has high levels of mangrove loss and has the
highest current rate of mangrove loss among mangrove
holding nations. With the aim to create impact
through a shift from degraded forests to better quality
forests and income improvement of local communities,
the Government launched in 2016 the Myanmar
Reforestation and Rehabilitation Program (MRRP
2017-2026). However, conservation and restoration
require significant investment, and in order to stimulate
investment, there is a need for levels of certainty
of the returns on investment.
In order to underpin the development of investment
strategies for mangrove conservation and restoration
in Myanmar, the World Bank, the Global Green Growth
Institute (GGGI), The University of Queensland (UQ),
and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental
Conservation (MONREC) have collaborated
on a study to assess the benefits that local communities
obtain from conservation and restoration of mangroves
in the Ayeyarwady Region. The study focusses
on provisioning ecosystem services, as well as a range
of regulating ecosystem services.
This study assesses the harvest of fuelwood, the harvest
(catching) of mud crabs, polyculture aquaculture
practices, the harvest of nipa palm leaves and sap,
and rice production, which are the primary products
obtained from mangrove lands in the Ayeyarwady
Region. The study also assesses the potential benefits
of carbon sequestration and coastal and riverbank
protection, which are key regulating ecosystem
services of mangroves in the region.
The valuation and investment analyses followed the
goals of the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of
Ecosystem Services (WAVES) global partnership
and the Green Growth Knowledge Platform 3Returns
Framework, both which aim to promote sustainable
development by mainstreaming natural capital in the
development of landscape planning and by supporting
decision-making for sustainable coastal management.
... Sudtongkong & Webb, 2008;Beymer-Farris & Bassett, 2012;Johnson & Forsyth, 2002;Beitl, 2014;Webb et al. 2014 Comanaged Working with state actors strengthens legitimacy and capability. ...
... The physical location of mangroves along coastlines commonly results in multiple agencies sharing responsibility for their governance (Rog & Cook, 2017), leading to a risk of policy conflicts (de Almeida et al., 2016). For example, environmental protection and national development mandates have been developed in isolation in Myanmar, resulting in conflicting management plans for mangrove holding areas (Webb et al., 2014). Furthermore, the poorly defined geographic location of mangroves (e.g., the intertidal zone) can induce confusion as to what is included in mangrove-related policy (Rog & Cook, 2017). ...
... Poor vertical alignment of mangrove conservation policy may be driven by differences in local, national, or international policy agendas (Aziz et al., 2016;Webb et al., 2014). For instance, Puerto Rico is governed by top-down policy from the United States; however, gaps in communications led to the prioritization of local rules with little influence from federal policies , 2006). ...
Management of mangrove ecosystems is complex, given that mangroves are both terrestrial and marine, often cross regional or national boundaries, and are valued by local stakeholders in different ways than they are valued on national and international scales. Thus, mangrove governance has had varying levels of success, analyzed through concepts such as principles of good governance and procedural justice in decision‐making. Although there is substantial research on case studies of mangrove management, global comparisons of mangrove governance are lacking. This research aims to fill this gap by comparing relationships among qualities of governance across mangrove social‐ecological systems worldwide. Through a systematic literature search and screening process, we identified 65 articles that discussed mangrove governance and conservation. Case studies in these articles, drawn from 39 countries, were categorized as top‐down, bottom‐up, or comanaged and thematically coded to assess the influence of eight principles of good governance in mangrove conservation success. Across all three governance systems, the principles of legitimacy, fairness, and integration were most important in determining conservation success or failure. These principles are closely related to the concept of procedural justice, highlighting the importance of stakeholder inclusion throughout all stages of mangrove management. Thus, we recommend clearly defined roles for all governance actors, transparent communication of policy development to stakeholders, fairness in both process and outcome, and careful consideration of sustainable access to conservation resources.
... Our research shows that from 1990 to 2000, the area of forests in Myanmar increased. Nevertheless, the forest areas declined between 2000 and 2010, a period marked by significant reports of inadequate forest management, overexploitation, and deforestation [53,54]. Moreover, the decrease in forest areas by 2020 is relative to the 2000 levels. ...
... Nevertheless, forest area declined between 2000 and 2010, a period marked by significant reports of inadequate forest management, overexploitation, and deforestation [53,54]. During the military dictatorship (1962-2011), Myanmar's political and economic isolation contributed to the preservation of much of its primary forest by 2010 [65,66]. ...
A comprehensive scientific assessment of the dynamic changes in land cover and landscape patterns in Myanmar, considering both human activities and natural factors such as climate change, is essential for a thorough understanding of the transformations in the country’s ecological environment. This assessment also provides data-driven insights into the complex interactions between humans, climate, and the environment. This study aims to examine the dynamic changes in land cover in Myanmar over a thirty-year period from a comprehensive perspective. This paper, based on the MLC30 land cover dataset for Myanmar from 1990 to 2020, employs land use dynamic degree and land use transition matrix to analyze the extent and process of land cover changes in Myanmar. Furthermore, using landscape pattern indicators, the paper explores the changes in the spatial structural characteristics of land cover in Myanmar at both the patch scale and the landscape scale. The results indicate the following: (a) Areas with significant land cover changes are primarily located in the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern regions bordering China, Laos, and Thailand, as well as the coastal areas, with the change intensity from 2000 to 2020 being notably higher than before 2000. (b) Myanmar’s cultivated land, artificial surfaces, and water bodies show an expanding trend, with cultivated land expansion mainly at the expense of forests, while the increase in artificial surfaces and water bodies is through the conversion of the existing cultivated land. (c) Myanmar’s landscape patterns remained stable from 1990 to 2000. However, after 2000, the land cover has shown a clear trend towards fragmentation and spatial distribution dispersion, especially for the dominant forest and cultivated land types. Despite Myanmar’s rapid economic development, the trend toward the fragmentation and irregularization of cultivated land patches indicates a lack of attention to cultivated land use and planning. The reduction and fragmentation of forest areas have led to a decline in ecological connectivity, posing risks of ecological environment deterioration. Consequently, Myanmar must prioritize scientific land use planning and the rational allocation of land resources to foster the sustainable development of agriculture and the protection of natural ecosystems.
... Since 2010, Myanmar's political system has become more democratic, and international political sanctions against the country have begun to ease, allowing a significant influx of commercial capital. Myanmar's forests are increasingly threatened by commercial development for oil, palm, rubber, minerals, and timber [13][14][15][16], all of which are crucial issues for biodiversity conservation in Myanmar [14,17]. ...
... In this study, we identified the main environmental factors influencing species distribution by analyzing the contribution rates of environmental factors output by the maximum entropy model. 13 Based on the response curves of the main environmental factors, we analyzed the suitable ranges of species for each environmental factor. The main environmental factors influencing the potential suitable distribution of different species are shown in Table 3-1. ...
Myanmar is located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, but lacks understanding of the bio-diversity hotspots and protected areas within its borders. Climate change affects the effective-ness of protected areas and the potential distribution range of species. Based on Myanmar's re-gional characteristics, endangered status, and representativeness, this paper selects species and identifies biodiversity hotspots using the MaxEnt model. We studied the biodiversity within the terrestrial protected area network in Myanmar, as well as the potential for cross-boundary range shifts among protected areas under different climate scenarios. Species populations outside My-anmar's protected area network may not be able to find suitable habitats in the future, further exacerbating climate-related extinction risks. Additionally, some protected areas in Myanmar may not be fully utilizing their biodiversity representation potential, and with scientific spatial planning, Myanmar's protected areas could support a large number of species. In the context of continued warming, identifying new protected areas that encompass the future and current climatic niches of protected areas can increase the capacity for sustained biodiversity conservation. We hope that this study provides insights for increasing the effectiveness of Myanmar's protect-ed area network and emphasizes the urgency of coordinated protection of protected areas and biodiversity hotspots.
... The Irrawaddy River has mean and maximum discharge rates of approximately 13,000 m 3 /s and 32,600 m 3 /s, respectively. The main sources of river water are snow and ice from the upper Tibetan Plateau and the contribution of precipitation to the basin [25]. The annual suspended matter transport is 325 ± 57 × 10 6 tons [19]. ...
... Figure 13 shows that, except for the mutual conversion between vegetation types, most of the vegetation has been transferred to cropland, which is consistent with the conditions in Myanmar, a large agricultural country. A study noted that the distribution of mangroves in the Irrawaddy Delta decreased from 1978 to 2011, mainly due to the expansion of agriculture in this important economic region [25]. According to the land classification results, in the downstream Irrawaddy Delta (i.e., 15 • N-20 • N), the forest area decreased by approximately 144 km 2 , and the grassland and shrub land decreased by approximately 829 km 2 . ...
Large rivers without hydrological data from remote sensing observations have recently become a hot research topic. The Irrawaddy River is among the major tropical rivers worldwide; however, published hydrological data on this river have rarely been obtained in recent years. In this paper, based on the existing measured the total suspended matter flux (FTSM) and discharge data for the Irrawaddy River, an inversion model of the total suspended matter concentration (CTSM) is constructed for the Irrawaddy River, and the CTSM and FTSM from 1990 to 2020 are estimated using the L1 products of Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS and Landsat-5 TM. The results show that over the last 30 years, the FTSM of the Irrawaddy River decreased at a rate of 3.9 Mt/yr, which is significant at the 99% confidence interval. An increase in the vegetation density of the Irrawaddy Delta has increased the land conservation capacity of the region and reduced the inflow of land-based total suspended matter (TSM). The FTSM of the Irrawaddy River was estimated by fusing satellite data and data measured at hydrological stations. The research method employed in this paper provides a new supplement to the existing hydrological data for large rivers.
... The restoration of mangroves is a critical endeavour aimed at revitalizing and preserving these unique and vital ecosystems (Webb et al 2014, Zöckler and Aung 2019, Su et al 2021. The restoration of mangroves not only helps to mitigate the impacts of climate change but also provides benefits to coastal communities and the environment, ensuring a healthier and more resilient future for all (Webb et al 2014, Su et al 2021. ...
... The restoration of mangroves is a critical endeavour aimed at revitalizing and preserving these unique and vital ecosystems (Webb et al 2014, Zöckler and Aung 2019, Su et al 2021. The restoration of mangroves not only helps to mitigate the impacts of climate change but also provides benefits to coastal communities and the environment, ensuring a healthier and more resilient future for all (Webb et al 2014, Su et al 2021. Therefore, it is crucial to improve restoration policies for global mangrove ecosystem conservation (Veettil et . ...
Mangroves are highly valued for their ecosystem services, providing a wide range of ecological, social, and economic benefits, including their role as carbon-rich ecosystems. Recent research suggests that preserving mangrove forests can offer a cost-effective strategy for mitigating CO2 emissions. However, extensive deforestation has placed mangrove ecosystems under severe global threats. Currently, the assessment of mangrove restoration outcomes, particularly regarding soil carbon stocks, is inadequate. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of restoration on soil organic carbon (SOC) in the Shwe Thaung Yan, Ayeyarwady coastal region of Myanmar. The study aimed to quantify and compare carbon stocks in different soil layers, examine the carbon sequestration potential of various mangrove species, and evaluate the effectiveness of mangrove restoration efforts. Soil samples were collected in 2015 (pre-restoration) and 2021 (post-restoration) at various soil depths and analyzed for SOC concentration, organic matter content, and bulk density using the Loss on Ignition (LOI) procedure. Significant changes in soil properties were observed between 2015 and post-restoration in 2021, with higher SOC and carbon concentrations observed in 2021. The average soil carbon stocks in 2021 (1954.43 ± 33.24 Mg C ha-1) were approximately 2.7 times higher than the estimated carbon stocks in 2015 (732.26 ± 6.99 Mg C ha-1). Furthermore, the study revealed variations in SOC accumulation among different soil depths, with higher carbon stocks found in the upper soil layers. This study highlights the positive impact of mangrove restoration on SOC accumulation and emphasizes the significance of considering soil carbon dynamics in restoration initiatives. The findings offer valuable insights for the conservation and management of mangrove ecosystems, especially concerning their potential for carbon sequestration and their contribution to mitigating climate change.
... Myanmar is one of the most forested countries in Southeast Asia (Leimgruber et al., 2005), supporting a large number of endemic species with important economic and cultural significance to the country (Aung, 2007;Murray et al., 2020). Despite the importance of Myanmar's ecosystems, they are facing increasing anthropogenic threats as the country continues to develop and its population grows (Veettil et al., 2018;Webb et al., 2014). A national Red List assessment of all terrestrial ecosystems in Myanmar was completed in 2020 to support conservation efforts (Murray et al., 2020). ...
... Studies on the mangrove ecosystems in Myanmar are often at a national level (De Alban et al., 2020;Estoque et al., 2018) or focused on the Ayeyarwady delta (Webb et al., 2014;Win et al., 2020), and the mangroves on the west coast of Myanmar along the Bay of Bengal are relatively less studied. Neighbouring mangrove ecosystems in the Sundarbans and Bangladesh to the north and along the Ayeyarwady delta to the south have experienced well-documented mangrove losses in the past few decades (De Alban et al., 2020;Sievers et al., 2020). ...
Ecosystem degradation is a key challenge that human society faces, as ecosystems provide services that are tied to human well‐being. Particularly, mangrove ecosystems provide important services to communities but are suffering heavy degradation, loss and potential collapse due to anthropogenic activities. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is a transparent and consistent framework for assessing ecosystems' risk of collapse and is increasingly used to inform legislation and ecosystem management globally.
Satellite data have become increasingly common in environmental monitoring due to their extensive spatial and temporal coverage. Here, recent advances in analyses using satellite‐derived data were implemented to reassess the conservation status of the ‘Rakhine mangrove forest on mud’, an important intertidal ecosystem in Myanmar, extending a previous national Red List assessment that assessed the ecosystem as Critically Endangered.
By incorporating additional data sources and analyses, the extended assessment produced more robust results and reduced the uncertainty in the previous assessment. Overall, the ecosystem was assessed as Critically Endangered (range: Vulnerable to Critically Endangered) as a result of historical mangrove extent loss. Recent losses and biotic disruptions were also observed, which would have led to the ecosystem being assessed as Vulnerable.
While the final outcome of the Red List assessment remained at Critically Endangered due to the historical state of the mangroves pre‐dating the temporal coverage from satellite data, the uncertainty of the ecosystem's status was reduced, and the reassessment highlighted the recent areal changes and mangrove degradation that has occurred.
The importance of conducting reassessments when new data become available is discussed, and a template for future mangrove Red List assessments that use satellite data as their primary source of information to improve the robustness of their results is presented.
... In addition, wetlands and mangroves in those regions are disappearing at alarming rates (De Alban et al., 2020). Deforestation and habitat loss have become major threats to the small remaining population of saltwater crocodiles in Myanmar, which is largely limited to a single protected area around Bogale (Webb et al., 2014). As a result, saltwater crocodiles within Myanmar are now only found in a protected area of the Ayeyarwady Deltaknown as Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary (MKWS). ...
... However, there are considerable losses of mangrove cover in Ayeyarwady and the adjacent Yangon Region due to pressures from human use, and damage from natural disasters in recent decades (De Alban et al., 2020;Aung, 2022). Illegal logging within protected areas, including the Meinmahla Kyun wildlife sanctuary (Wang, 2016), has resulted in sparse mangrove trees, indicating that deforestation extends beyond unprotected regions (Webb et al., 2014). Therefore, Dedaye and Ngapudaw mangroves should be prioritized for further protection status and conservation activities in the Ayeyarwady Region. ...
Landscape-level conservation strategies are needed to protect the saltwater crocodile population and habitats in Myanmar. Identifying the remaining habitats and movement corridors is essential due to population decline across coastal regions and insufficient habitat coverage, even within protected areas. This study predicts the distribution of habitats and creates low-resistance corridors that facilitate movement across the landscape. Occurrence dataset encompassing a 20-year period (1999-2019) was used incorporating records gathered from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility-GBIF, crocodile counting reports from the Meinmahla Kyun wildlife sanctuary of Myanmar, and recent spotlight and camera-trap surveys. Using landscape connectivity tools, structural compositions of habitat classes were determined, and habitat patches were delineated to simulate the least-cost corridor and dispersal pathways. Two patches in Rakhine, two in Ayeyarwady and Yangon, one in Mon, and two in Tanintharyi, were identified that include 1247 km 2 of core suitable habitat areas. The Ayeyarwady Delta exhibits a plethora of suitable habitats, while the Rakhine and Tanintharyi regions have higher marginal habitats that are largely unprotected. Only 12 % of the extent of occurrence of saltwater crocodiles are suitable habitats with a high potential for occupancy. Habitats are highly fragmented and four bottlenecks are identified to assist population connectivity in those fragmented patches. Despite notable challenges in ensuring connectivity to restore populations across the habitat patches, we highlighted connectivity as the foundation for establishing an ecological network of Myanmar's coastal habitats, leveraging the saltwater crocodile as an umbrella species for the region's coastal wetlands, and identifying key areas for enhanced protection.
... Southeast Asia contains the greatest proportion of mangrove area (34%) in the world (Thomas et al., 2017;Bunting et al., 2022), but aquaculture, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion threaten these mangroves (Worthington and Spalding, 2018;Richards and Friess, 2016;DeFries et al., 2010;Webb et al., 2014;Friess et al., 2016). To the best of our knowledge, there are little to no studies using LMSS L1T Tier 2 Collection 1 Level 1 Raw DN observations to both map and report on the extent of mangroves for Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia in the 1970s. ...
... Previous estimates of mangrove extent and change in Myanmar exhibit a large amount of variation, highlighting the need for better data for this region (Aung, 2007;Spalding et al., 2010;Thant et al., 2012;Webb et al., 2014;Giardino et al., 2016;Veettil et al., 2018;Alban et al., 2020). Some of these claims documented that extreme overexploitation began as early as the Second World War to satisfy the demands of the military with the worst forest overexploitation occurring over the period of 1949 to 1972. ...
Southeast Asia is home to some of the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse mangrove ecosystems. There is still much uncertainty with regards to the timing and magnitude of changes in mangrove cover over the past 50 years. While there are several regional to global maps of mangrove extent in Southeast Asia over the past two decades, data prior to the mid-1990s is limited due to the scarcity of Earth Observation (EO) data of sufficient quality and the historical limitations to publicly available EO. Due to this literature gap and research demand in Southeast Asia, we conducted a classification of mangrove extent using Landsat 1-2 MSS Tier 2 data from 1972 to 1977 for three Southeast Asian countries: Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. Mangrove extent land cover maps were generated using a Random Forest machine learning algorithm that effectively mapped a total of 15,420.51 km². Accuracy assessments indicated that the classification for the mangrove and non-mangrove class had a producer’s accuracy of 80% and 98% user’s accuracy of 90% and 96%, and an overall accuracy of 95%. We found a decline of 6,830 km² between the 1970s and 2020, showing that 44% of the mangrove area in these countries has been lost in the past 48 years. Most of this loss occurred between the 1970s and 1996; rates of deforestation declined dramatically after 1996. This study also elaborated on the nature of mangrove change within the context of the social and political ecology of each case study country. We urge the remote sensing community to empathetically consider the local need of those who depend on mangrove resources when discussing mangrove loss drivers.
... Across the study period, large proportions of Mangrove Forests transformed into Water Bodies (Figures 6 and S2I, and Table S7) followed by Open Forests, whereas some Mangrove Forests transformed to Plantations, Paddy Fields, and Aquaculture Areas (Figures 6 and S2J and Table S7). Although mangrove soils are not generally suitable for agriculture, agricultural expansion into mangrove forests to meet local food requirements is common in coastal regions of Myanmar [66]. Sizeable mangrove reforestation occurred in Plantations, especially between 1989 and 2011 (Figures 6 and S2D,F and Tables S4 and S5). ...
... Thus, the expansion of Paddy Fields was a considerable factor in the forest losses of Kyunsu township. Recent studies have shown that the expansion of Paddy Fields was the most important proximate driver of 47% (1996-2007, [67]), 68% (2007-2016, [67]), 88% (2000-2012, [74]), and 81% (1978-2011, [66]) of mangrove losses throughout Myanmar. ...
Kyunsu township comprises coastal regions and a multitude of small islands covered by vast tropical evergreen and mangrove forests, and a large water body in the Adman Sea of Myanmar. Due to population growth, residents have increasingly expanded their agricultural land areas into natural tropical evergreen and mangrove forests, leading to deforestation. Understanding the processes and consequences of landscape transformation for surrounding ecosystems is crucial for local policy making and for fostering sustainable crop production in this area. Landsat datasets from 1978, 1989, 2000, 2011, and 2020 were used in a time-series post-classification approach to investigate land use land cover (LULC) changes in the Kyunsu township of Southern Myanmar across the last 40 years. Our study also attempted to assess the effects of the transformation of LULC on carbon stocks. Between 1978 and 2020, major LULC changes occurred with the expansion of Paddy Fields (+90%), Plantations (+11%), Open Forests (+81%), Settlement Areas (+115%), Aquaculture Areas (+1594%), and Others (+188%) while the area covered with Closed Forests shrunk by 44% and with Mangrove Forests by 9%. Water Bodies expanded by 0.13%. Our analyses show that between 1978 and 2020 2453 ha of Paddy Fields expanded into Plantations, 1857 ha to Open Forests, and 1146 ha to Mangrove Forests. Additionally, 12,135 ha of Open Forests, 8474 ha of Closed Forests, and 2317 ha of Mangrove Forests became Plantations. Across the 40 year study period, a total of 40,523 ha of Closed Forests were transformed to Open Forests. Our findings show that transformation of agricultural landscapes in the study area significantly affected deforestation and forest degradation of tropical evergreen rain forests and mangrove forests which are vital sources of ecosystem services. These transformations led to estimated losses of carbon stocks between 1978 and 2020 ranged from 89,260–5,106,820 Mg (average of 1,723,250 Mg) in our study area. Our findings call for sustainable resource intensification to increase production efficiency in existing cultivated areas rather than crop land expansion into natural forests. In addition, our data highlight the need for rigorous policies to conserve and protect tropical natural evergreen and mangrove forest, as key local resources providing multiple ecosystem services.
... Through the mid-1900s, mangrove forests covered the majority of the delta. Between 1978 and 2011, ∼64% of mangrove forests were cleared, and ∼88% of that cleared land was converted to rice fields (Leimgruber et al., 2005;Webb et al., 2014). However, there has been little levee construction in the lower delta, since many farmers only grow one crop annually during the wet season (Sakai et al., 2021). ...
... The forest on the island is composed of a dense mixture of mangroves, predominantly Avicennia marina and Heritiera fomes, and mangrove associates, such as Nypa fruticans, with a typical canopy height of ∼4 m (Win et al., 2019). This island preserve is located in a predominantly agricultural region that was progressively deforested over the past 80 years (Webb et al., 2014). The agricultural study site was in a ∼45-year-old field (Figure 1c) that is used to grow one annual crop of a local variety of rice during the wet monsoon (Thant et al., 2020). ...
Plain Language Summary
Many tropical river deltas are densely populated agricultural centers, and these coastal landscapes are threatened by sea‐level rise. In these managed regions, farmers remove mangrove forests to expand fields and construct levees to control the annual inundation of fields. Unfortunately, levees prevent sediment delivery and can contribute to rapid sinking of the land surface. In the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar, there are relatively few leveed agricultural fields. Here, we assess the resilience to sinking of a deforested but unleveed rice field with respect to a nearby, natural mangrove‐forest preserve in the center of the Ayeyarwady Delta. Land‐surface elevation, sediment transport, and sediment accumulation were measured at both sites in 2018–2019. The land‐surface elevation and average flooding per tide were equivalent in the field and forest. There were similar sediment retention rates, suggesting that rice crops can help trap sediment in a manner similar to mangrove trees. Consequently, unleveed fields are less likely to sink than leveed fields, despite mangrove removal. However, mangrove forests can provide additional benefits and should be preserved where possible.
... In particular, the coastal wetlands in large river deltas, which provide key habitats for migratory birds, fish, and other biological resources, are extremely vulnerable to natural or anthropogenic disturbances , and are regarded as "natural recorders" of changes in estuarine environments (Bianchi & Allison, 2009). For example, mangrove forest cover in the Ayeyarwady delta of Myanmar declined by 64.2% at an average rate of 51 km 2 year −1 (3.1%) during 1978-2011 (Richards & Friess, 2016;Webb et al., 2014); coastal wetlands in the Mississippi River delta have experienced considerable losses of 5197 km 2 since the 1930s (Ryu et al., 2021); significant losses of coastal wetlands during 1984-2018 (slope = 10.0 ± 5.29 km 2 year −1 ) were also found in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) of China . ...
... Due to the great importance and vulnerability of coastal wetlands in large river deltas, the dynamic analysis of coastal wetland structure (e.g., patch size and number) are becoming a research hotspot (Bianchi & Allison, 2009;Gaglio et al., 2017;Richards & Friess, 2016;Ryu et al., 2021;Webb et al., 2014), especially in China's four major river deltas, where coastal wetlands have experienced substantial changes under the pressure of intensified human activities and climate change (Li et al., 2011;Liu et al., 2014;Tan et al., 2022;Xiao & Li, 2004;Zhou et al., 2019). In this study, we used a pixel-and phenology-based mapping tool, which has been validated at multiple scales in China (Liu et al., , 2023Wang, Xiao, Zou, Hou, et al., 2020), to generate the annual maps of coastal wetlands in China's four major river deltas, and analyzed the dynamics of their patch sizes and numbers during 1984-2020. ...
Coastal wetlands provide essential ecosystem goods and services but are extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise, extreme climate, and human activities, especially the coastal wetlands in large river deltas, which are regarded as "natural recorders" of changes in estuarine environments. In addition to the area (loss or gain) and quality (degradation or improvement) of coastal wetlands, the information on coastal wetland structure (e.g., patch size and number) are also major metrics for coastal restoration and biodiversity protection, but remain very limited in China's four major river deltas. In this study, we quantified the spatial-temporal dynamics of total area (TA) and patch number (PN) of coastal wetlands with different sizes in the four deltas and the protected areas (PAs) and assessed the effects of major driving factors during 1984-2020. We also investigated the effectiveness of PAs through the comparison of TA and PN of coastal wetlands before and after the years in which PAs were listed as Ramsar Sites. We found both TA and PN experienced substantial losses in the Liaohe River Delta and Yellow River Delta but recent recoveries in the Yangtze River Delta. The coastal wetlands had a relatively stable and variable trend in TA but had a continually increasing trend in PN in the Pearl River Delta. Furthermore, reduced coastal reclamation, ecological restoration projects, and rapid expansion of invasive plants had great impacts on the coastal wetland structure in various ways. We also found that PAs were effective in halting the decreasing trends in coastal wetland areas and slowing the expansion of reclamation, but the success of PAs is being counteracted by soaring exotic plant invasions. Our findings provide vital information for the government and the public to address increasing challenges of coastal restoration, management, and sustainability in large river deltas.
... The loss of mangroves in Myanmar is also associated with the major drivers identified in developing countries, including agriculture, coastal development, aquaculture, timber and charcoal production, and to improve the access to the ocean (Holmes et al., 2014) mainly in Rakhine and Ayeyarwady regions. Webb et al. (2014) listed agriculture expansion for rice production as the main driver for loss in mangrove area, particularly in the Ayeyarwady Delta area, but is also common in the other two coastal regions, more so in the Rakhine Region. Despite the differences in area calculations in the studies (May Ei (2020); Webb et al. (2014)), Myanmar's mangrove forests have been considerably depleted and degraded over the last few decades (Holmes et al., 2014). ...
... Webb et al. (2014) listed agriculture expansion for rice production as the main driver for loss in mangrove area, particularly in the Ayeyarwady Delta area, but is also common in the other two coastal regions, more so in the Rakhine Region. Despite the differences in area calculations in the studies (May Ei (2020); Webb et al. (2014)), Myanmar's mangrove forests have been considerably depleted and degraded over the last few decades (Holmes et al., 2014). The reasons for loss of mangroves can be due to proximate drivers (i.e., direct human activities) such as aquaculture or agriculture expansion and underlying drivers such as an institutional or socio-economic factor. ...
... The loss of mangroves in Myanmar is also associated with the major drivers identified in developing countries, including agriculture, coastal development, aquaculture, timber and charcoal production, and to improve the access to the ocean (Holmes et al., 2014) mainly in Rakhine and Ayeyarwady regions. Webb et al. (2014) listed agriculture expansion for rice production as the main driver for loss in mangrove area, particularly in the Ayeyarwady Delta area, but is also common in the other two coastal regions, more so in the Rakhine Region. Despite the differences in area calculations in the studies (May Ei (2020); Webb et al. (2014)), Myanmar's mangrove forests have been considerably depleted and degraded over the last few decades (Holmes et al., 2014). ...
... Webb et al. (2014) listed agriculture expansion for rice production as the main driver for loss in mangrove area, particularly in the Ayeyarwady Delta area, but is also common in the other two coastal regions, more so in the Rakhine Region. Despite the differences in area calculations in the studies (May Ei (2020); Webb et al. (2014)), Myanmar's mangrove forests have been considerably depleted and degraded over the last few decades (Holmes et al., 2014). The reasons for loss of mangroves can be due to proximate drivers (i.e., direct human activities) such as aquaculture or agriculture expansion and underlying drivers such as an institutional or socio-economic factor. ...
... The conversion of mangrove land to other land uses has been a long-standing phenomenon as evidenced by various spatial analyses cited in this study. As an example, the deforestation rates for the Delta from 1979 to 2011 were the consequence of the rapid expansion of rice agriculture (Webb et al., 2014). However, the crop production areas have remained relatively stable in all mangrove's coastal areas recently, particularly during the 2016 to 2019 period ( Figure 6). ...
Mangrove forests are vital for supporting local livelihoods and are an integral component of coastal ecosystems in Myanmar. However, they continue to degrade or even disappear across the country’s coastal regions even though rehabilitation processes have been initiated in several regions. Still, little research and systematic inquiry into the drivers of mangrove degradation in Myanmar is available. Against this background, this study identifies the primary forces affecting the mangrove ecosystem and the challenges for mangrove conservation in Myanmar by combining a systematic literature review (SLR) on mangrove change with the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) analytical framework. We find economic activities, predominantly in agriculture, as the main drivers, resulting in pressure to convert mangroves to other land uses and leading to the degradation of mangrove forests and loss of mangrove ecosystem services. However, the regional patterns of crop production, firewood, and charcoal consumption have remained stable during the recent past. Further ground data measurements are still necessary to identify the primary factors causing mangrove degradation in Myanmar. The most commonly identified research methods were remote sensing methodologies while socio-political approaches were rarely considered in the context of mangrove preservation in Myanmar but are strongly needed in the future. This is underlined by the DPSIR analysis which identified adequate policy responses as a crucial element for mangrove protection and restoration. While a few measures on mangrove reforestation were documented in the literature, their long-term success has not been adequately assessed, including the implications that climate change will have on natural and restored mangrove systems. In the future, more studies on the social and actor-related aspects of mangrove ecosystem management are needed and have to consider the sustainability nexus of ecological goals and socio-economic development, considering all levels.
... Second, between 1991 and 2016, an estimated 5.16 million acres (2.09 million hectares) of forested land were allocated to agribusiness companies and individual entrepreneurs (Thein et al., 2018). This contributed to agricultural expansion, which remains the leading driver of deforestation in Myanmar (Webb et al., 2014;Lim et al., 2017;Zhang et al., 2018). In the Tanintharyi region alone, concessions totaling 401, 814 ha were granted to 44 companies for oil palm plantations, often including unconverted forests (Nomura et al., 2019). ...
Contemporary environmental challenges are deeply entwined with land-related issues, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the historical dynamics between communities and land for practical solutions. Myanmar has encountered significant societal and political disruptions during the colonial era. This study traces the evolving governance of the people-land relationship spanning the final Burmese state, the Konbaung dynasty period, and the British colonial era. Employing Foucauldian governmentality theory and genealogical analysis, this study illuminates traditional governance predating the colonial era while highlighting the distorted shifts in the people-land nexus. The monarchical Burmese state was instrumental in crafting a traditional agrarian society rooted in the tenets of Buddhist statecraft. It upheld liberal governance principles and recognized individual land property rights, fostering agricultural population in both regulatory and practical contexts. However, the British, despite propagating liberal ideologies, established an authoritarian top-down government in the forested areas, using modern statistical methods and scientific mapping. This study highlights the historical dynamics of the people-land relationship in Myanmar, providing essential insights for addressing contemporary environmental challenges and formulating policies that address contemporary land-related issues with sustainable and more equitable solutions. Future land policies should prioritize individual property rights and acknowledge the intrinsic connection between local communities and forested lands for sustainable governance.
... These were common problems that many mangrove areas in Thailand and other countries face. [11,12,13,14,15] However, the selected officers said, "an encroachment problem was continually decreasing due to strict suppression of offenders and giving more conservation knowledge in all ways". ...
This study has 2 objectives: 1) to study environmental problems in all dimensions that occur in the area of Mu Ko Chumphon National Park and 2) to study the participation in protection measures, awareness, and conservation of mangrove forest resources of the people in the area of Mu Ko Chumphon National Park using field survey methods and interviews with 10 government officials and 30 people in the area. The results of the study found that the problem occurring in the mangrove forest area is encroachment on the mangrove forest area. There are in terms of making shrimp ponds, illegal logging, and including the issue of garbage floating along the mangrove trees. The conservation method is the cooperation of all parties. There are activities to plant mangrove forests every year and collect garbage to reduce any threat to the ecosystem. As a result, at present the mangrove forest area in Chumphon Islands National Park is continuously increasing.
... Many factors, such as governance and economic infrastructures, influence land-use conversion for commodities production. For example, market liberalisation fetches higher prices for commodities and could exacerbate mangrove deforestation by encouraging production 29 , although commodity-driven deforestation has declined by 77%, which is attributed to production intensification instead of expansion 2,30 . This statistic also implies that since defining additionality by baseline deforestation rate assumes linearity, socioeconomic risks could be considerably underestimated or overestimated for some areas. ...
Conserving Southeast Asia’s mangroves is a vital natural climate solution, and their protection could be supported by blue carbon credits. However, such financing strategies expose conservation efforts to socioeconomic and climate change permanence risks. Here, we evaluate the potential impacts of permanence risks on the ability of blue carbon financing to safeguard mangroves. Using opportunity costs associated with oil palm, rice and aquaculture land use conversion as indicators of socioeconomic risks, and predicted cyclones and sea-level rise as indicators of climate change risks, we find that 85% of mangroves are likely to experience some form of permanence risk. Diverse funding sources and risk mitigation measures need to be contextualised in a long time horizon to maintain conservation viability into the future. Understanding how these risks interact and affect mangrove conservation efforts over timescales relevant to carbon permanence is key to minimizing risks and ensuring positive socio-ecological outcomes.
... This study was conducted in the Ayeyarwady Region, a large intertidal delta where overexploitation of mangrove forests began during the Second World War (Oo 2002) and has driven catastrophic losses (De Alban et al 2020) such that mangrove area reduced from ca. 2600 km 2 in 1978 to less than 1000 km 2 in 2011 (Webb et al 2014). Mangrove losses were exacerbated by environmental catastrophes such as the Asian tsunami in 2004 (Giri et al 2008) and Cyclone Nargis in 2008(United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 2009, Feurer et al 2018. ...
Contemporary evaluations of outcomes in human-managed systems have been constrained by a lack of counterfactual analysis. Community forestry (CF), a widely adopted strategy to achieve both conservation and management in coupled human-environment systems, is no exception, and counterfactual analysis would greatly enhance CF research. We used a mixed method approach incorporating quantification of deforestation and forest regrowth rates, synthetic control analysis, and focus groups discussions to evaluate mangrove CF outcomes in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar, from to 1990–2021. CF resulted in an overall increase in net forest gain and reduction in net forest loss across sites. More than two-thirds of CF sites had superior outcomes relative to synthetic controls for at least one metric (deforestation or forest regrowth); however, CF tended to perform better for only one outcome while avoiding underperformance in the other. The annual rate of forest regrowth in CFs accelerated beginning three years prior to certification and peaked two years after certification, likely related to pre-certification engagement with the Forest Department or non-government organizations. Moreover, control sites near CFs experienced more rapid forest regrowth than controls further from CFs, suggesting spillover effects. The predominant challenge facing successful CF management was illegal extraction and overharvesting, and poor performing CFs experienced a complex array of challenges facing forest regrowth, likely related to the private nature of individual land claims within the CFs. Most supporting factors for CF were related to community management capacity, strongly indicating a need for extended close engagement with competent government and non-government actors to develop long-term management and governance capacities, which are sustainably funded. Our mixed-method approach can be replicated in other human-managed systems to evaluate the biophysical impacts of policies and gain insights into the underlying drivers of outcomes.
... They offer a wide array of ecosystem services such as protection of shorelines, mitigation of climate risks by carbon sequestration, maintenance of ecological stability, and support coastal livelihoods through increasing fish production (Aheto et al. 2016). Yet, Mangrove forests have been continuously depleted due to intensive human interventions such as aquaculture activities, conversion into agriculture fields and salterns, illegal logging for timber, settlements, and industrial developments (Friess et al. 2019;Webb et al. 2014). During the early years of twenty-first century, global Mangrove forests have experienced an average annual loss of 0.16% (Friess et al. 2019;Hamilton and Casey 2016). ...
As a result of the past failures in centralized management, community-based management approach was evolved as a better alternative in Mangrove management. However, effectiveness of community-based Mangrove management is remained as an important policy question with limited empirical evidence. This study aims to empirically investigate the effectiveness of community participation on Mangrove restoration using the village-level data collected from lagoon-based fishing villages in northern Sri Lanka during 2009–2020. In addition to the field data, this study adopts satellite imagery data of Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 to estimate the extent of Mangrove cover as an indicator of Mangrove restoration performance. The results show that community participation has a significant and positive impact on Mangrove restoration, suggesting the importance of strengthening community management practices for future Mangrove management.
... The Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers now rank third in the world in total sediment transport [47]. However, large-scale agricultural expansion and mangrove deforestation in the delta have disturbed the balance of the delta [48]. Human activities reduce the supply of coarse sediment into the coastal plain, leading to further erosion of the delta. ...
We obtained sixteen clear-sky remote sensing images of Landsat series data from 1973 to 2021 and extracted continental and island coastlines of the Salween River Delta based on the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and visual interpretation correction. We determined the overall evolution of coastlines with statistical and superposition analysis and applied the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) to summarize the spatial and temporal evolution process and characteristics in the past 50 years. Experimental results show that (1) the overall change of the coastline was more rapid on the island than on the continent, and on the Indian Ocean side than on the continental side, (2) the total area of the island increased by 91.16 km2 from 1973 to 2021, the area of Bilu Island increased by 50.38 km2, the length of the continental coastline decreased by 0.39 km, and the length of the coastline of the Bilu Island increased by 6.43 km, (3) the Linear Regression Rate (LRR) were: 4.69 m/yr for the total coastline, 1.06 and −2.07 m/yr, respectively, for the western and southern branches of the continental coastline, and 0.83 and 21.52 m/yr, respectively, for the continental and Indian Ocean sides of Bilu Island, and (4) the dominant process in the Salween River Delta was accretion, with an overall accretion area of about 10 km2, and an unstable accretion rate.
... The greatest concentration of mangrove loss has been in Southeast Asia where mangrove covers have declined by nearly 50% (Thomas et al., 2017). The reduction of mangrove forests is primarily attributed to human activities such as aquaculture, agricultural expansion, and urban development (Ottinger et al., 2016;Ferreira & Lacerda, 2016;Lai et al., 2015;Jia et al., 2014;Webb et al., 2014;Hamilton, 2013;Martinuzzi et al., 2009;Giri & Muhlhausen, 2008). ...
The mangroves in Santo Angel in the municipality of Calauag, Quezon Province in the Philippines, provide a wide array of ecological services that range from provisioning of resources and habitat to various floral and faunal species to regulating services including coastal protection. Coastal protection from mangroves is needed by the local community as Santo Angel is susceptible to typhoons and storm surges. However, the mangrove’s ability to provide coastal defense has considerably declined in the past decades due to overexploitation. Using the double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method, the willingness to pay (WTP) of the local community for a hypothetical mangrove rehabilitation project aligned towards coastal protection was determined. A total of 210 households were involved in the survey. The results show that 79% of the 210 households expressed WTP for the mangrove rehabilitation project. Furthermore, the mean willingness to pay (MWTP) for the mangrove rehabilitation project was computed at Php 15.44 (USD 0.29) per household per month or equivalent to Php 86, 525.76 (USD 1,659.41) per year for the total number of households in Santo Angel. Findings of the logistic regression analysis revealed that sex, age, membership in environmental organizations, and awareness on both the economic importance and the ecological services provided by mangroves positively affect the WTP of the respondents. In contrast, the bid amount and the respondent’s income negatively influence the WTP of the respondents for the mangrove rehabilitation project.
... Costanza et al. [5] proposed an ecosystem service value evaluation method that has been widely used in different countries [88][89][90][91][92], but the method has shortcomings when directly applied in China [93]. The first version of the equivalent factor method based on the unit area value proposed by Xie et al. [93] was used to evaluate the ecosystem service values of six land types. ...
In fragile and impoverished areas, identifying the interrelationship between livelihoods and ecosystem services can help protect the ecological environment and improve human well-being. This study selected the “One River and Two Tributaries” region (ORTTR) in Tibet with a fragile, sensitive ecological environment as the study area. With the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 as the research time points, a coupled evaluation model of residents’ livelihood and land ecosystem services was constructed to study the relationship between the two. Results showed that from 2000 to 2020, the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree between the two continued to increase because of the improvement in residents’ livelihood and ecosystem services. The level of coupling coordination gradually changed from a reluctant coordination stage to a moderate coordination stage. The coupling coordination degree showed more revealing results than the coupling degree in time scale. The relative development type between the two was mainly of the type lagging residents’ livelihood. By considering the physical geography and socio-economic characteristics and the relative development types, the counties and districts in the ORTTR are divided into ecological conservation areas, ecological restoration areas, and ecological reconstruction areas. The coupled model can evaluate the relationship between livelihoods and ecosystem services from a systematic integration perspective and provide scientific support for the improvement of regional human well-being.
... While the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin Rivers are currently relatively unimpacted by large mainstem dams, the recent effects of humans are marked (Chen et al., 2020). Mangrove deforestation is occurring at one of the fastest rates in the world in Myanmar with a 64.2% decrease in mangrove cover from 1978 to 2011 and the threat of complete mangrove depletion in the next 10 years (Webb et al., 2014;Grill et al., 2019). Terrestrial deforestation and mining are also increasing in the upper and middle reaches of the Ayeyarwady basin (Chen et al., 2020). ...
Large river deltas serve as globally important archives of terrestrial and shallow marine biogeochemical signatures and because of rapid sedimentation have the potential to impact global biogeochemical cycling. The Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar ranks as the world's third largest river delta in terms of sediment supply; however, modern increases in regional anthropogenic impacts risk severe alteration to sediment and TerrOC loads within this major system. By investigating modern sediment and terrestrial organic carbon (TerrOC) accumulation within the offshore Ayeyarwady Delta this study estimates baseline sediment and TerrOC budgets for this understudied mega-delta. Using ²¹⁰Pb geochronology of 27 sediment cores collected from the continental shelf, we estimate that 405 ⁺⁵² Mt of sediment, or ~70–80% of fluvial sediment discharged from the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin rivers (the main inputs to the delta), accumulates there annually. Sediment not retained on the shelf is likely partitioned between the Ayeyarwady floodplain, shoreline accretion, and minor deep-sea export. Estimates of TerrOC (based on δ¹³C mixing models) were coupled with modern sediment accumulation rates to determine an annual burial of 1.93 +1.09 Mt C on the shelf, with TerrOC burial fluxes being highest in the foreset beds of the subaqueous delta, coincident with the area of highest sediment accumulation rate. Based on estimates of the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin rivers' TerrOC delivery, an apparent ~100% of TerrOC input is preserved on the continental shelf. However, an across shelf trend of increasing TerrOC degradation with distance offshore is also observed, indicating that while the shelf has high apparent TerrOC sequestration, carbon remineralization is also occurring prior to deposition within the subaqueous delta. Based on these conflicting outcomes, we suggest that input of TerrOC from additional sources other than the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin rivers roughly balance the observed carbon remineralization. Main additional sources of TerrOC include the Sittang and several smaller rivers, and the Ayeyarwady delta plain below the river gauging station. As anthropogenic development within the Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin watersheds continues to increase, these sediment and TerrOC budgets provide a baseline from which future changes within the offshore Ayeyarwady Delta can be monitored.
... The Second World War led to rampant tree felling in the mangrove forests of this region to serve war demands. At present, the densely vegetated mangroves of the Ayeyarwady region have transformed into sparse open forest (Webb et al. 2014). Not only the mangroves, the entire country of Myanmar, which had thick forest patches witnessed massive deforestation in the last century and the recent past as well (Wang and Myint 2016). ...
The scientific community and the common mass have unequivocally realized the significance of blue carbon habitats in mitigating climate change and providing livelihood options to the marginalized section of coastal people. Even then, these ecosystems witnessed a rapid decline in the last few decades, and several natural and anthropogenic factors pose threats to these crucial habitats. Mangroves are mostly susceptible to land-use changes like conversion to agriculture or aquaculture plots, whereas seagrasses suffer from coastal discharges that enhance the sedimentation rate and turbidity of the water column. Salt marshes, on the other hand, have received much less attention that what it deserves. The present chapter discussed the country-wise variability in the type of threats and the significant observations. Thus, this chapter can act as a snapshot for the present understanding of threats to blue carbon ecosystems in the periphery of the Indian Ocean. The collated findings can be helpful for early career researchers striving to look for solutions and policy managers to prioritize management action plans.
... Historically, deforestation patterns across Myanmar are not uniform but concentrated in some regions and often on speci c forest types 9,13,14,23 . Different forest types have different economic and conservation values and are exposed to different levels of threat due to regional differences in the socio-economic, political factors driving deforestation 13,41 . For example, the Mixed Deciduous forests in Myanmar's Bago region used to be an important resource to support the hardwood industry in Myanmar, especially the globally renowned 'Burma Teak', but have been severely overexploited, resulting in signi cant forest degradation 42 . ...
Diverse forests with distinct forest types, harbor exceptional biodiversity and provide many ecosystem goods and services, making some forest types more economically valuable and prone to exploitation than others. The high rates of deforestation in Southeast Asia endanger the existence of such vulnerable forest types. Myanmar, the region’s largest forest frontier provides a last opportunity to conserve these vulnerable forest types. However, the exact distribution and spatial extent of Myanmar’s forest types has not been well characterized. To address this research gap, we developed a national scale Forest Type map of Myanmar at 20m resolution, using moderate resolution, multi-sensor satellite images (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and ALOS-PALSAR), extensive field data, and a machine learning model (RandomForest). We mapped nine major forest types and developed a Conservation Status Score to evaluate the conservation status of the mapped forest types. Swamp, Mangrove, Dry Deciduous, Lowland Evergreen and Thorn forests were ranked as the five least conserved forest types. We also identified the largest remaining patch for each of the five least conserved forest types and determined their protection status to inform future forest conservation policy. In most cases, these patches lay outside protected areas indicating areas that may be prioritized for future conservation.
... The conversion process is not only an issue in Sundarbans but also in other countries such as Myanmar. Webb et al. (2014) estimated in the Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar that 44% of this deltaic mangrove forest is lost between 1989 to 2000 mainly due to the expansion of rice cultivation for food security. In other countries like South China lost 48% of mangroves between 1950 and 2010 ( Jia et al., 2014) and 35% in Madagascar between 1975and 2005( Giri and Muhlhausen, 2008 have also been lost because of the requirement of agricultural land for paddy cultivation. ...
Mangrove forests in many parts of the world are declining at an alarming rate, which intensifies vulnerability in coastal ecosystems. An area like coastal West Bengal, including the Sundarban delta, where the world's largest mangrove populations have flourished, has a substantial negative impact of anthropogenic pressure since the early 15th-16th century. Frequent coastal hazards, sea-level rise, and ever-increasing anthropogenic pressure have complicated the growth and regeneration of mangroves. In this study, an attempt has been made to map the patches of mangrove available in the coastal region of West Bengal along with their spatio-temporal, zonal pattern of change and probable reasons for those changes. The study approaches have been achieved by the analysis of Landsat data using several buffer zones from the coastline during 1989-2018 through geospatial techniques. The result indicates that despite a reduction of mangrove populations in the pre-and post-colonial era, overall mangrove areas have a marginally positive growth of about 0.47% (68.06 sq. km) of the total area during the assessment period. Although the mangrove area along the shoreline is decreasing faster, many new mangrove patches have appeared towards the mainland. Simultaneously, mangrove areas are encroached in the northern periphery of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve to convert them into settlements, agriculture, and aquaculture. This study could help to protect mangrove populations and implement appropriate conservation measures.
This chapter provides an overview of the varied world of mangroves, including their taxonomy, growth circumstances, and different adaptations and genomics insights. Five different groups of mangroves are found in coastal areas where they have evolved roots and special adaptations like pneumatophores for air exchange. Part of their physiology that is crucial is their ability to filter saltwater; they are classified as either secretors or nonsecretors. Using fossil data, the historical evolution of mangroves is examined. They first appeared in the Late Cretaceous period. A total of 84 true mangroves in 16 families—red, black, and white varieties—are revealed by the taxonomy of mangrove species. Mangrove’s ecological responsibilities, potential for replanting, and effects on biodiversity are the subject of both national and international research. Here we discussed the explosion of mangrove research that has occurred since 1980, with a focus on genomics studies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, whole genome sequencing, and metabolomics. Lastly, the mechanisms of salt tolerance in mangroves, including adaptations, anatomical barriers, and the importance of salt-secretor species like Avicennia officinalis, are discussed.
The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake caused vertical ground movements (uplift and subsidence), which had a profound negative impact on the mangrove ecosystem of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Studies post-catastrophe largely delved into estimating the severity of degradation through changes in coastal vegetation cover. However, the implications of coastal uplift (sea level drop-SLD), and coastal subsidence (sea level rise- SLR) on the mangrove crab community remain largely unexplored. Therefore, to understand the impact of SLD and SLR on the diversity and zonation patterns of the mangrove crab community, we surveyed nine mangrove sites across the Andaman Islands representing various uplift (n = 4), subsidence (n = 4) and no-change scenarios (n = 1). We observed 57 distinct crab species in the control site (n = 57) followed by subsided sites (n =45–54) and uplift sites (n = 20–37). The crab zonation pattern varied between the subsided and uplift habitats, based on their spatial distribution within the intertidal zone. Both, the transgression (towards land) and progression (towards the sea) of the crab community were evident in SLR and SLD scenarios, respectively. The current study serves as an important baseline for the long-term monitoring of mangrove crabs, which would help better understand the ecological response of mangrove crabs to the change in sea levels.
The goal of this research is to provide high resolution local, regional, national and global estimates of annual mangrove forest area from 2000 through to 2012. To achieve this we synthesize the Global Forest Change database, the Terrestrial Ecosystems of the World database, and the Mangrove Forests of the World database to extract mangrove forest cover at high spatial and temporal resolutions. We then use the new database to monitor mangrove cover at the global, national and protected area scales. Countries showing relatively high amounts of mangrove loss include Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Guatemala. Indonesia remains by far the largest mangrove-holding nation, containing between 26 percent and 29 percent of the global mangrove inventory with a deforestation rate of between 0.26 percent and 0.66 percent annually. Global mangrove deforestation continues but at a much reduced rate of between 0.16 percent and 0.39 percent annually. Southeast Asia is a region of concern with mangrove deforestation rates between 3.58 percent and 8.08 percent during the analysis period, this in a region containing half of the entire global mangrove forest inventory. The global mangrove deforestation pattern from 2000 to 2012 is one of decreasing rates of deforestation, with many nations essentially stable, with the exception of the largest mangrove-holding region of Southeast Asia. We provide a standardized global spatial dataset that monitors mangrove deforestation globally at high spatiotemporal resolutions, covering 99 percent of all mangrove forests. These data can be used to drive the mangrove research agenda particularly as it pertains to improved monitoring of mangrove carbon stocks and the establishment of baseline local mangrove forest inventories required for payment for ecosystem service initiatives.
The Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River originates from the confluence of the N'mai and Mali Rivers in the glaciers of the southeastern Himalayas. It then flows to the southwest and combines with the Chindwin River in the middle of the Irrawaddy Basin.
Human-wildlife conflict is among the major constraint for wildlife management. It often can result in biodiversity decline and jeopardize the delicate balance of ecosystems. The human-saltwater crocodile conflict (hereafter referred to as HCC) is a major wildlife management issue in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI). Analyzing the long-term trends is vital for better understanding and management of HCC. We used diverse approaches like interviews with local community and victims, HCC register maintained by the Department of Environment and Forest (DoEF), and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to understand the patterns in the reported HCC events in ANI. During the past four decades (1983–2023), 36 fatal and non-fatal HCC were documented in the Andaman Islands. The HCC in ANI exhibited 75% increase after the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. A comparison of gender involved in HCC indicates that men are often (56%) become victim of HCC owing to their frequent involvement in outdoor activities like fishing, swimming, farming, cattle rearing, etc. The highest number (79%) of HCC and crocodile sightings were documented during the wet season (June-December). The majority of HCC (53%) were reported in the creeks. South Andaman accounts for the highest number of HCC (53%) compared to the rest of the Andaman Islands. High relative frequency of sightings of saltwater crocodile in the creeks of South Andaman like Manglutan nallah (21.47), Dhanikhari nallah (16.56), Collinpur nallah (14.72), and Guptapara nallah (11.04) were recorded between 2016 to 2023. The current scenario demands an urgent need for more fundamental research focusing on the changes in Saltwater crocodile habitats post 2004 tsunami, factors driving the HCC, and development and implementation of an updated management plan to ensure the co-existence of humans and crocodiles in the ANI.
The current study assessed the vulnerability of mangrove forests to human activities in the coastal areas of Ununio, Mbweni, and Pemba Mnazi in the United Republic of Tanzania. Land use changes in mangrove areas were identified during transacting walks on the fields before they were validated in Google Earth (GE) images. Major human activities affecting the study area were described as associated with their influence on mangrove forests. GE images of 2003, 2010, and 2018 were analyzed in ArcGIS for mangrove area change detection and the extent of change was determined. The major human activities at Ununio and Mbweni were salt works, settlements, and trampling whereas at Pemba Mnazi, they were mangroves clearing for charcoal, timber, poles, and building materials production. The analysis of the 2003 images indicated that Ununio, Mbweni, and Pemba Mnazi had 104 ha, 75ha, and 178 ha of mangroves, respectively. However, due to human encroachment, about 72%, 65.3%, and 63.4% ha of the mangroves at Ununio, Mbweni, and Pemba Mnazi, respectively, were cleared and converted to other land uses. The study concludes that mangroves are highly vulnerable to human activities in the study area, and recommends that effective conservation and management of mangrove habitats should be considered in association with local community participation.
Myanmar has the second largest area of mangrove forests in South East Asia while suffering high deforestation rates and forest degradation. However, monitoring results from existing studies in mangrove forests vary widely while specific estimates on carbon density for this forest type are deficient. Also, data from mangrove inventory plots used for the 2018 Myanmar forest reference level refer only to commercial timber and do not include other carbon pools. The results in this study based on four carbon pools allow for updating the emission factors in mangrove forests expressed in CO 2 from 125.43 ± 15.06 Mg ha –1 to 1 377.07 ± 67.04 Mg ha –1 for Ayeyarwady region (Pyapon, Pathein, Latputta districts) and 1 583.27± 75.18 Mg ha –1 for Tanintharyi region (Kawthaung, Dawei districts) and can be used in (sub)national or jurisdictional forest reference level for REDD+. In addition, the georeferenced biomass estimates are useful for the calibration of space-based models of biomass estimation.
Mangroves of the Bay of Bengal is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology) spanning parts of South and Southeast Asia. It includes coastal areas of eastern India, Bangladesh, and northern and central Myanmar, and contains one of the largest single mangrove ecosystems in the world: the Sundarbans.Mangroves dominate along the extensive coastal waterways of the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Ayeyarwady deltas in India-Bangladesh and Myanmar, respectively. They occur on mainly coastal alluvial sediments deposited by these and other river systems. Their mapped extent in 2020 was 10,250 km2, representing 7% of the global mangrove area. The Bay of Bengal province mangroves are threatened by high population pressure and intense natural resources use, including mangrove-associated fisheries and conversion to agriculture or aquaculture. Mangrove degradation and conversion have caused serious coastal erosion. Destructive cyclones exacerbated by climate change also cause coastal erosion and damage to mangroves, while reduced freshwater flows and salinity intrusion in the Sundarbans are threatening salt-sensitive mangrove tree species like Heritiera formes. This species is classified as Endangered (EN) by IUCN, while Bruguiera hainesii and Sonneratia griffithii are Critically Endangered (CR).Today the Bay of Bengal mangroves cover ≈8% less than our broad estimation for 1970. The rate of decline has slowed since 2015 and, if the present rate persists, an overall decrease of -12% is projected over the next 50 years. However, they are expected to be resilient to even extreme sea-level rise scenarios, due to high sediment supply and vertical accretion. We estimate that 5% of the Bay of Bengal mangroves are undergoing degradation. This value could rise to 15% over a 50-year period based on decay of vegetation indexes. Overall, the Bay of Bengal mangrove ecosystem is assessed as Least Concern (LC).
Mangrove forests are among the most diverse tropical forests, and they provide critical ecosystem services indispensable for human well-being. These ecosystem services play a critical role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction in vulnerable tropical coastal areas. Mangroves are particularly important for Asia, given the high population density in coastal areas, the rising threat of natural hazards, and climate-induced sea-level rise. Despite the growing importance of mangroves in international policy documents, mangrove cover continues to decline across the world, particularly in Asia, due to a variety of natural and anthropogenic drivers. Against this backdrop, this introductory chapter outlines the current state of mangroves in Asia, together with the influential drivers behind their degradation as well as efforts for restoration in recent years. Given the high uncertainty surrounding the future existence of mangroves in Asia and the delivery of the vital ecosystem services, the chapter highlights the need for assessing, mapping, and modeling mangrove ecosystem services and scenario-based quantification of such services across space and time. In particular, the chapter calls for assessing the future of mangroves funder plausible alternative development pathways and identifies their importance in evidence-led policy planning. This chapter further outlines the book’s subsequent chapters and expectations.KeywordsMangroveScenariosEcosystem servicesDecision-makingAsia-Pacific
Vegetated mid‐channel islands play an important though poorly understood role in the sediment dynamics and morphology of tide‐dominated deltas. Meinmahla Island is a mangrove‐forest preserve at the mouth of the Bogale distributary channel, in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar. In this relatively unaltered mid‐channel island, sediment dynamics can be directly connected to morphology. Field measurements from 2017–2019 provide insight into the pathways for sediment transport and resulting morphological evolution. Water depth, salinity and turbidity were monitored semi‐continuously, and velocity profilers with turbidity and salinity sensors were deployed seasonally in single‐entrance (dead‐end/blind) and multi‐entrance tidal channels of the island. The morphological evolution was evaluated using grain size, 210Pb geochronology, remote sensing and channel surveys. The data show that ebb‐dominant, single‐entrance channels along the island exterior import sediment year‐round to the land surface. However, these exterior channels do not deliver enough sediment to maintain the observed ca 0.8 cm/yr accretion rate, and most of the sediment import occurs via interior, multi‐entrance channels. Interior channels retain water masses that are physically distinct from the water in the Bogale distributary, and estuarine processes at the tidal‐channel mouths import sediment into the island. Sediment is sourced to the island from upriver in the wet season and from the Gulf of Mottoma in the dry season, as the location of the estuary shifts seasonally within the Bogale distributary. The salinity and biogeochemistry of the distributary water are affected by interactions with sediment and groundwater in the island interior. The largest interior channels have remained remarkably stable while the island has aggraded and prograded over decadal timescales. However, the studied multi‐entrance channel is responding to a drainage‐network change by narrowing and shoaling. Overall, mid‐channel islands trap sediment and associated nutrients at the river–ocean interface, and these resilient landscape features evolve in response to changes in drainage‐network connectivity.
A carcinicultura é uma atividade que apresenta tendência de crescimento nas regiões tropicais do mundo nas últimas décadas. Isso se deve a fatores como o valor de mercado do camarão, o aumento do mercado consumidor e à adaptação deste ao cultivo. Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar a produção científica sobre a carcinicultura com o recorte temporal entre os anos de 1970 a 2018. Assim, o artigo apresenta as métricas da produção e difusão do conhecimento científico sobre a temática a partir dos resultados indexados na base de dados Web of ScienceTM. Como resultados aponta-se que grande parte dos estudos que envolvem a carcinicultura analisam doenças e patógenos relacionados ao cultivo do camarão. Há estudos que relacionam que a gestão integrada da atividade à redução de doenças. Diversos fatores (salinidade, clima, temperatura, pluviosidade, qualidade da água, e efluentes) podem interferir na gestão e desenvolvimento da atividade. Estudos mais recentes demonstram que as pesquisas científicas relativas à atividade ainda demonstram uma preocupação latente com o vírus mancha branca. Em adição, estudos de viabilidade ambiental e econômica vêm sendo desenvolvidos em busca de garantir que a atividade melhore o desempenho, reduzindo os custos operacionais (econômicos) e impactos ambientais.
The Ayeyarwady River flows for 2170 km to the Andaman Sea from above 3000 m altitude in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis. The Ayeyarwady is one of the largest river systems in the world in terms of water and sediment discharge. The Ayeyarwady floodplains have supported agriculture through the Neolithic and successive urban civilizations since the late Iron Age. The drainage basin of the Ayeyarwady River is bounded by the Indo‐Burman Ranges to the west, southeastern Tibet to the north, and Yunnan highlands and the Shan Plateau to the east. The Ayeyarwady basin includes a large variety of montane, alpine, temperate, and subtropical forest ecosystems. Sedimentary provenance studies of geological units in the central Myanmar basins have shed a partial light on the sequence of regional denudation. Damming of rivers in the Ayeyarwady basin are planned to upsurge with potential negative consequences for water and sediment loads reaching downstream.
Mangrove forests are important in Iran. The results of this research could be an important basis for the
understanding of the situation facing the mangrove forest and improving the management and
conservation of mangrove forests. In this study, Promethee II, a multiple criteria decision-making
the method was used to identify and rank the causes of deforestation. Ranking of natural causes of
mangrove forest deforestation showed, Pests weight as the most important factor is 0/17 and after that,
the storm and acid rain weights are next in rank, 0.20 and 0.095 respectively. The results showed that
the weight of the human causes of deforestation is more than five times the weight of the natural
causes of deforestation. In the case of human causes of deforestation weight of the oil pollution as the
most important factor is 0.226. And after that, the industrial and municipal waste, the development of
ports and docks, no environmental assessment of projects, poor performance in the field of promotion,
lopping for fodder, aquaculture, and fuel weights are next in rank,0.19, 0.182, 0.136, 0.128, 0.082,
0.043 and 0.041 respectively. The results showed that the main deforestation causes of mangrove
forests in Iran are oil and industrial pollution and urban waste. Since mangrove forests are located in
the massive oil and gas reserves and projects, the extraction, conversion, and transport of resources
and urban development without considering environmental assessments have an adverse effect on the
mangrove ecosystems.
Mangrove, or bakau as it is known in Indonesia, is one of the vegetations commonly
found along the shallow coasts, estuaries, deltas and protected coastal areas and are
still influenced by rising tides. After the Aceh tsunami disaster, mangrove restoration
was intensively conducted in coastal areas all over Indonesia and was made into a
special conservation program by the government. Mangrove is distinguishable by its
big, wooden stilt roots, sharpening tip in the form of supporting leaves. The roots of
the mangrove tree are morphologically distinguishable into heart root which grows
into the ground and the stilt root which appear to grabs onto the surface of the ground.
Mangrove forests serve several important ecological roles: they act as filters which
turns saline water into fresh water, buffer from seawater intrusion, prevent erosion
and abrasion, hold sediments to form new habitats, feeding ground, nursery ground,
and spawning ground for a number of aquatic wildlife. Mangrove forest also possess
economical functions such as as source of income, industrial ingredients for the locals
and as source of new mangrove seedlings. Mangunhardjo Village, Urban Community
of Mangunhardjo, Mangkang Area, Kecamatan of Tugu, Semarang City, Indonesia
was an area dotted with brackish water pond. However, the area had been suffering
from the effects of climate change, being inundated by overflow of river and seawater
intrusion (rob). These disasters caused decline in the productivity of the ponds in the
area. In an effort to combat the adverse effect of environmental change in the area, the
locals of Mangunhardjo village decided to shift their livelihood by restoring the surrounding
mangrove forest. Mangrove conservation at Mangunhardjo Village was conducted
through activities of the program such as mangrove planting, mangrove-based
food production, and mangrove waste management by applications of bioactivator
bacteria for mangrove composting and production of mangrove-based natural dye for
batik fabric. Mangrove-based natural dye for batik fabric from Rhizopora mucronata
mangrove waste is a quite promising product and increases people’s income.
Despite their importance, the mangrove ecosystem is one of the highly vulnerable ecosystems in the Anthropocene era. Mangrove ecosystems lie in an intertidal zone of subtropics and tropics regions. They provide ecological and economic services to the coastal communities. Mangrove provides multifaceted advantages to the local ecosystem such as it reduces the severity of the hurricane, storm surge, cyclone, and tsunami, prepares a perfect bed for spawning marine fishes, and also plays a major role in carbon sequestration. Deterioration in global estimates of mangrove covers ~150,000 km² is the consequence of exponentially increasing urbanization and industrialization. These two major anthropogenic activities induce numerous problems such as an increment in the intensity of natural calamities, local inhabitant losing their livelihood, and many marine species standing on the verge of extinction. An integrated approach is required for the preservation and management of mangrove biotopes with an amalgamation of local inhabitants, researchers, and government. Conservation techniques include afforestation, legislation, policies, application of remote sensing and geoinformation system (GIS), and development of parks and reserves for protection. This chapter is a consolidated approach to study the sources and impact of anthropogenic threats on mangrove forests from a global and Indian perspective with holistic conservation strategies.
This article looks at the history of the relationship between development policies and deforestation in Thailand from the beginning of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. It first considers the lowland processes of horizontal expansion that carried on until the end of the Second World War, at which point the lowlands had become almost completely deforested. The article then turns to the highland forests, and discusses the development policies pursued there by the Thai government until the 1980s, when authorities outlawed logging and declared a closure of the frontier. Drawing on political ecology, the paper argues that forest policies of the Thai government have changed owing to shifts in the relative influence of different groups - the landed nobility, the industrialists, the military, and the environmentalists - in the national political arena. The group with the least political power, the ethnic minorities living in the highlands, is eventually blamed for the deforestation, in spite of the fact that it is the one that least contributed to it. Geography
Background The European Commission (EC) published a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan in 2003. FLEGT aims not simply to reduce illegal deforestation, but in promoting good forest governance, aims to contribute to poverty eradi-cation and sustainable management of natural resources.
We review accuracy estimation methods and compare the two most common methods: crossvalidation and bootstrap. Recent experimental results on arti cial data and theoretical results in restricted settings have shown that for selecting a good classi er from a set of classiers (model selection), ten-fold cross-validation may be better than the more expensive leaveone-out cross-validation. We report on a largescale experiment|over half a million runs of C4.5 and a Naive-Bayes algorithm|to estimate the e ects of di erent parameters on these algorithms on real-world datasets. For crossvalidation, we vary the number of folds and whether the folds are strati ed or not � for bootstrap, we vary the number of bootstrap samples. Our results indicate that for real-word datasets similar to ours, the best method to use for model selection is ten-fold strati ed cross validation, even if computation power allows using more folds. 1
Mangroves are salt tolerant plants that grow within the intertidal zone along tropical and subtropical coasts. They are important barriers for mitigating coastal disturbances, provide habitat for over 1300 animal species and are one of the most productive ecosystems. Mozambique's mangroves extend along 2700 km and cover one of the largest areas in Africa. The purpose of this study was to determine the countrywide mean tree height spatial distribution and biomass of Mozambique's mangrove forests using Landsat ETM+ and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data. The SRTM data were calibrated using the Landsat derived land-cover map and height calibration equations. Stand-specific canopy height-biomass allometric equations developed from field measurements and published height-biomass equations were used to calculate aboveground biomass of the mangrove forests on a landscape scale. The results showed that mangrove forests covered a total of 2909 km2 in Mozambique, a 27% smaller area than previously estimated. The SRTM calibration indicated that average tree heights changed with geographical settings. Even though the coast of Mozambique spans across 16 degrees latitude, we did not find a relationship between latitude and biomass. These results confirm that geological setting has a greater influence than latitude alone on mangrove production. The total mangrove dry aboveground biomass in Mozambique was 23.6 million tons and the total carbon was 11.8 million tons.
Tropical cyclone Nargis (category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, SSHS) made landfall on 2 May 2008, causing the worst natural disaster in Myanmar’s recorded history. Official death toll estimates exceed 138,000 fatalities making it the eighth deadliest cyclone ever recorded worldwide. Since the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which caused up to 500,000 fatalities, Nargis represents the deadliest tropical cyclone worldwide and one of the worst natural disasters, with the exceptions of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The Bay of Bengal has generated seven tropical cyclones with death tolls in excess of 100,000 striking India and Bangladesh. Damage estimates at over $10 billion made Nargis the most
destructive cyclone ever recorded in the Indian Ocean. Here we analyse the cause of the humanitarian disaster based on physical and societal observations.
High levels of species richness and endemism make Myanmar a regional priority for conservation. However, decades of economic and political sanctions have resulted in low conservation investment to effectively tackle threats to biodiversity. Recent sweeping political reforms have placed Myanmar on the fast track to economic development-the expectation is increased economic investments focused on the exploitation of the country's rich, and relatively intact, natural resources. Within a context of weak regulatory capacity and inadequate environmental safeguards, rapid economic development is likely to have far-reaching negative implications for already threatened biodiversity and natural-resource-dependent human communities. Climate change will further exacerbate prevailing threats given Myanmar's high exposure and vulnerability. The aim of this review is to examine the implications of increased economic growth and a changing climate within the larger context of biodiversity conservation in Myanmar. We summarize conservation challenges, assess direct climatological impacts on biodiversity and conclude with recommendations for long-term adaptation approaches for biodiversity conservation.
Reducing atmospheric carbon emissions from tropical deforestation is at present considered a cost-effective option for mitigating climate change. However, the forces associated with tropical forest loss are uncertain. Here we use satellite-based estimates of forest loss for 2000 to 2005 (ref. 2) to assess economic, agricultural and demographic correlates across 41 countries in the humid tropics. Two methods of analysis-linear regression and regression tree-show that forest loss is positively correlated with urban population growth and exports of agricultural products for this time period. Rural population growth is not associated with forest loss, indicating the importance of urban-based and international demands for agricultural products as drivers of deforestation. The strong trend in movement of people to cities in the tropics is, counter-intuitively, likely to be associated with greater pressures for clearing tropical forests. We therefore suggest that policies to reduce deforestation among local, rural populations will not address the main cause of deforestation in the future. Rather, efforts need to focus on reducing deforestation for industrial-scale, export-oriented agricultural production, concomitant with efforts to increase yields in non-forested lands to satisfy demands for agricultural products. Bibtex entry for this abstract Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences) Find Similar Abstracts: Use: Authors Title Abstract Text Return: Query Results Return items starting with number Query Form Database: Astronomy Physics arXiv e-prints
In remote sensing, traditional methodologies for image classification consider the spectral values of a pixel in different image bands. More recently, classification methods have used neighboring pixels to provide more information. In the present study, we used these more advanced techniques to discriminate between mangrove and non-mangrove regions in the Gulf of California of northwestern Mexico. A maximum likelihood algorithm was used to obtain a spectral distance map of the vegetation signature characteristic of mangrove areas. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was applied to this map to improve classification. Two classification thresholds were set to determine mangrove and non-mangrove areas, and two performance statistics (sensitivity and specificity) were calculated to express the uncertainty (errors of omission and commission) associated with the two maps. The surface area of the mangrove category obtained by maximum likelihood classification was slightly higher than that obtained from the land cover map generated by the ROC curve, but with the difference of these areas to have a high level of accuracy in the prediction of the model. This suggests a considerable degree of uncertainty in the spectral signatures of pixels that distinguish mangrove forest from other land cover categories.
"Landscape approaches" seek to provide tools and concepts for allocating and managing land to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives in areas where agriculture, mining, and other productive land uses compete with environmental and biodiversity goals. Here we synthesize the current consensus on landscape approaches. This is based on published literature and a consensus-building process to define good practice and is validated by a survey of practitioners. We find the landscape approach has been refined in response to increasing societal concerns about environment and development tradeoffs. Notably, there has been a shift from conservation-orientated perspectives toward increasing integration of poverty alleviation goals. We provide 10 summary principles to support implementation of a landscape approach as it is currently interpreted. These principles emphasize adaptive management, stakeholder involvement, and multiple objectives. Various constraints are recognized, with institutional and governance concerns identified as the most severe obstacles to implementation. We discuss how these principles differ from more traditional sectoral and project-based approaches. Although no panacea, we see few alternatives that are likely to address landscape challenges more effectively than an approach circumscribed by the principles outlined here.
The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso was a global deforestation hotspot in the early 2000s. Deforested land is used predominantly to produce meat for distal consumption either through cattle ranching or soya bean for livestock feed. Deforestation declined dramatically in the latter part of the decade through a combination of market forces, policies, enforcement and improved monitoring. This study assesses how representative the national-level drivers underlying Mato Grosso's export-oriented deforestation are in other tropical forest countries based on agricultural exports, commercial agriculture and urbanization. We also assess how pervasive the governance and technical monitoring capacity that enabled Mato Grosso's decline in deforestation is in other countries. We find that between 41 and 54 per cent of 2000-2005 deforestation in tropical forest countries (other than Brazil) occurred in countries with drivers similar to Brazil. Very few countries had national-level governance and capacity similar to Brazil. Results suggest that the ecological, hydrological and social consequences of land-use change for export-oriented agriculture as discussed in this Theme Issue were applicable in about one-third of all tropical forest countries in 2000-2005. However, the feasibility of replicating Mato Grosso's success with controlling deforestation is more limited. Production landscapes to support distal consumption similar to Mato Grosso are likely to become more prevalent and are unlikely to follow a land-use transition model with increasing forest cover.
The papers in this special issue address a major challenge facing our society: feeding a population that is simultaneously growing and increasing its per capita food consumption, while preventing widespread ecological and social impoverishment in the tropics. By focusing mostly on the Amazon's most dynamic agricultural frontier, Mato Grosso, they collectively clarify some key elements of achieving more sustainable agriculture. First, stakeholders in commodity-driven agricultural Amazonian frontiers respond rapidly to multiple forces, including global markets, international pressures for sustainably produced commodities and national-, state- and municipality-level policies. These forces can encourage or discourage deforestation rate changes within a short time-period. Second, agricultural frontiers are linked systems, land-use change is linked with regional climate, forest fires, water quality and stream discharge, which in turn are linked with the well-being of human populations. Thus, land-use practices at the farm level have ecological and social repercussions far removed from it. Third, policies need to consider the full socio-economic system to identify the efficacy and consequences of possible land management strategies. Monitoring to devise suitable management approaches depends not only on tracking land-use change, but also on monitoring the regional ecological and social consequences. Mato Grosso's achievements in reducing deforestation are impressive, yet they are also fragile. The ecological and social consequences and the successes and failures of management in this region can serve as an example of possible trajectories for other commodity-driven tropical agricultural frontiers.
An abstract is not available.
Because shrimp culture in the Mekong Delta develops rapidly, it has negatively impacted the environment, socio-economics and natural resources. In particular, mangrove forests have been altered by the shrimp culture. The area of mangrove forests in the region has been reduced and this is seen especially in Tra Vinh province. The results obtained from GIS (Geography Information System) and RS (Remote Sensing) show the status of mangrove forests in Tra Vinh province in 1965, 1995 (Northeastern part of Tra Vinh Province) and 2001. In 1965, the area of mangrove forests was 21,221 ha making up 56% of total land-use, while in 2001 it was 12,797 ha making up 37% of total land-use. Also based on GIS analysis, over the 36 years (1965-2001), the total coverage of mangrove forests have decreased by 50% since 1965. However, the speed of mangrove forest destruction in the period from 1965 to 1995 was much less than that in the period from 1995 to 2001. The average annual reduction in mangrove forest coverage in the first period (1965-1995) was 0.2% whereas it was 13.1% in the later period (1995-2001). For the long time, mangrove deforestation has been caused by war, collection of firewood and clearing for agriculture, and recently, shrimp farming has significantly contributed rate of mangrove destruction.
Across the world, ‘green grabbing’ – the appropriation of land and resources for environmental ends – is an emerging process of deep and growing significance. The vigorous debate on ‘land grabbing’ already highlights instances where ‘green’ credentials are called upon to justify appropriations of land for food or fuel – as where large tracts of land are acquired not just for ‘more efficient farming’ or ‘food security’, but also to ‘alleviate pressure on forests’. In other cases, however, environmental green agendas are the core drivers and goals of grabs – whether linked to biodiversity conservation, biocarbon sequestration, biofuels, ecosystem services, ecotourism or ‘offsets’ related to any and all of these. In some cases these involve the wholesale alienation of land, and in others the restructuring of rules and authority in the access, use and management of resources that may have profoundly alienating effects. Green grabbing builds on well-known histories of colonial and neo-colonial resource alienation in the name of the environment – whether for parks, forest reserves or to halt assumed destructive local practices. Yet it involves novel forms of valuation, commodification and markets for pieces and aspects of nature, and an extraordinary new range of actors and alliances – as pension funds and venture capitalists, commodity traders and consultants, GIS service providers and business entrepreneurs, ecotourism companies and the military, green activists and anxious consumers among others find once-unlikely common interests. This collection draws new theorisation together with cases from African, Asian and Latin American settings, and links critical studies of nature with critical agrarian studies, to ask: To what extent and in what ways do ‘green grabs’ constitute new forms of appropriation of nature? How and when do circulations of green capital become manifest in actual appropriations on the ground – through what political and discursive dynamics? What are the implications for ecologies, landscapes and livelihoods? And who is gaining and who is losing – how are agrarian social relations, rights and authority being restructured, and in whose interests?
Mangrove forests occur along ocean coastlines throughout the tropics, and support numerous ecosystem services, including fisheries production and nutrient cycling. However, the areal extent of mangrove forests has declined by 30-50% over the past half century as a result of coastal development, aquaculture expansion and over-harvesting. Carbon emissions resulting from mangrove loss are uncertain, owing in part to a lack of broad-scale data on the amount of carbon stored in these ecosystems, particularly below ground. Here, we quantified whole-ecosystem carbon storage by measuring tree and dead wood biomass, soil carbon content, and soil depth in 25 mangrove forests across a broad area of the Indo-Pacific region--spanning 30° of latitude and 73° of longitude--where mangrove area and diversity are greatest. These data indicate that mangroves are among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics, containing on average 1,023Mg carbon per hectare. Organic-rich soils ranged from 0.5m to more than 3m in depth and accounted for 49-98% of carbon storage in these systems. Combining our data with other published information, we estimate that mangrove deforestation generates emissions of 0.02-0.12Pg carbon per year--as much as around 10% of emissions from deforestation globally, despite accounting for just 0.7% of tropical forest area.
Myanmar is one of the most forested countries in mainland South-east Asia. These forests support a large number of important species and endemics and have great value for global efforts in biodiversity conservation. Landsat satellite imagery from the 1990s and 2000s was used to develop a countrywide forest map and estimate deforestation. The country has retained much of its forest cover, but forests have declined by 0.3% annually. Deforestation varied considerably among administrative units, with central and more populated states and divisions showing the highest losses. Ten deforestation hotspots had annual deforestation rates well above the countrywide average. Major reasons for forest losses in these hotspots stemmed from increased agricultural conversion, fuelwood consumption, charcoal production, commercial logging and plantation development. While Myanmar continues to be a stronghold for closed canopy forests, several areas have been experiencing serious deforestation. Most notable are the mangrove forests in the Ayeyarwady delta region and the remaining dry forests at the northern edge of the central dry zone.
Mangroves in Madagascar cover 327 000 ha to 340 300 ha. Several authors have studied these mangroves, but we do not yet have a complete knowledge of these ecosystems. The present study is an attempt to respond to this concern by analyzing dynamics and changes in the extent of the mangrove forest in the Mangoky delta (SW Madagascar) between 1951 and 2000. The comparison between base maps and Landsat TM images shows that the mangrove area remained relatively stable, even increasing slightly (+189 ha) between 1951 and 1979. From 1979 to 1994, its area decreased from 21 426 ha to 11 706 ha (−9720 ha). It then increased again (+84 ha) between 1994 and 2000. The balance was a decrease of 41.74% between 1951 and 2000. These figures may be compared with national (−15% in 56 years) and world (−35% for the last 20 years) statistics. Three main reasons are given to explain these changes: (1) the hydrological and sedimentological behavior of the Mangoky River; (2) the mechanism of plant succession, which depends on tides and on the characteristics of the substratum and (3) human activities and logging, which have increased since the 1980s in the Mangoky delta.
We highlight the complexity of land-use/cover change and propose a framework for a more general understanding of the issue, with emphasis on tropical regions. The review summarizes recent estimates on changes in cropland, agricul-tural intensification, tropical deforestation, pasture expansion, and urbanization and identifies the still unmeasured land-cover changes. Climate-driven land-cover mod-ifications interact with land-use changes. Land-use change is driven by synergetic factor combinations of resource scarcity leading to an increase in the pressure of production on resources, changing opportunities created by markets, outside policy intervention, loss of adaptive capacity, and changes in social organization and atti-tudes. The changes in ecosystem goods and services that result from land-use change feed back on the drivers of land-use change. A restricted set of dominant pathways of land-use change is identified. Land-use change can be understood using the con-cepts of complex adaptive systems and transitions. Integrated, place-based research on land-use/land-cover change requires a combination of the agent-based systems and nar-rative perspectives of understanding. We argue in this paper that a systematic analysis of local-scale land-use change studies, conducted over a range of timescales, helps to uncover general principles that provide an explanation and prediction of new land-use changes.
The global decline in estuarine and coastal ecosystems (ECEs) is affecting a number of critical benefits, or ecosystem services. We review the main ecological services across a variety of ECEs, including marshes, mangroves, nearshore coral reefs, seagrass beds, and sand beaches and dunes. Where possible, we indicate estimates of the key economic values arising from these services, and discuss how the natural variability of ECEs impacts their benefits, the synergistic relationships of ECEs across seascapes, and management implications. Although reliable valuation estimates are beginning to emerge for the key services of some ECEs, such as coral reefs, salt marshes, and mangroves, many of the important benefits of seagrass beds and sand dunes and beaches have not been assessed properly. Even for coral reefs, marshes, and mangroves, important ecological services have yet to be valued reliably, such as cross-ecosystem nutrient transfer (coral reefs), erosion control (marshes), and pollution control (mangroves). An important issue for valuing certain ECE services, such as coastal protection and habitat–fishery linkages, is that the ecological functions underlying these services vary spatially and temporally. Allowing for the connectivity between ECE habitats also may have important implications for assessing the ecological functions underlying key ecosystems services, such coastal protection, control of erosion, and habitat–fishery linkages. Finally, we conclude by suggesting an action plan for protecting and/or enhancing the immediate and longer-term values of ECE services. Because the connectivity of ECEs across land–sea gradients also influences the provision of certain ecosystem services, management of the entire seascape will be necessary to preserve such synergistic effects. Other key elements of an action plan include further ecological and economic collaborative research on valuing ECE services, improving institutional and legal frameworks for management, controlling and regulating destructive economic activities, and developing ecological restoration options.
Vegetated coastal ecosystems provide goods and services to billions of people. In the aftermath of a series of recent natural disasters, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and Cyclone Nargis, coastal vegetation has been widely promoted for the purpose of reducing the impact of large storm surges and tsunami. In this paper, we review the use of coastal vegetation as a “bioshield” against these extreme events. Our objective is to alter bioshield policy and reduce the long-term negative consequences for biodiversity and human capital. We begin with an overview of the scientific literature, in particular focusing on studies published since the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and discuss the science of wave attenuation by vegetation. We then explore case studies from the Indian subcontinent and evaluate the detrimental impacts bioshield plantations can have upon native ecosystems, drawing a distinction between coastal restoration and the introduction of exotic species in inappropriate locations. Finally, we place bioshield policies into a political context, and outline a new direction for coastal vegetation policy and research.
The meaning of land and land policies is diverse and contested across and within local and (inter)national settings. The phrase ‘land policy’, used to refer to all policies that have anything to do with land, may be convenient, but it masks the actual complexity of issues. Meanwhile, concern for ‘pro-poor’ land policy has coincided with the mainstream promotion of efficient administration of land policies, leading to the concept of ‘land governance’. Such concepts have enriched discussion on land issues, but they also complicate further an already complex terrain. In response, this paper offers possible analytical signposts, rather than an actual in-depth and elaborated analytical exploration of this terrain. It hopes to be a modest step forward and towards a better understanding of contemporary policy discourses and political contestations around land and land governance.
The global governance of extractive resources has largely been shaped by the energy-security agenda of industrialized countries. It is patchy and does not properly address the specific concerns of producer, consumer, and transit countries. Rising demand coincides with a looming peak of oil production and climate change. This requires urgent and resolute collective action, which is hampered by a disconnect between geological and political temporality and realities. Extractive industries, investors, civil society, international organizations, and consumer countries can jointly provide significant political and market incentives to avert the resource curse in resource-rich, but weak states. This calls for an appropriate institutionalization of voluntary multistakeholder initiatives with greater engagement on the part of emerging economies.
We highlight the complexity of land-use/cover change and propose a framework for a more general understanding of the issue, with emphasis on tropical regions. The review summarizes recent estimates on changes in cropland, agricultural intensification, tropical deforestation, pasture expansion, and urbanization and identifies the still unmeasured land-cover changes. Climate-driven land-cover modifications interact with land-use changes. Land-use change is driven by synergetic factor combinations of resource scarcity leading to an increase in the pressure of production on resources, changing opportunities created by markets, outside policy intervention, loss of adaptive capacity, and changes in social organization and attitudes. The changes in ecosystem goods and services that result from land-use change feed back on the drivers of land-use change. A restricted set of dominant pathways of land-use change is identified. Land-use change can be understood using the concepts of complex adaptive systems and transitions. Integrated, place-based research on land-use/land-cover change requires a combination of the agent-based systems and narrative perspectives of understanding. We argue in this paper that a systematic analysis of local-scale land-use change studies, conducted over a range of timescales, helps to uncover general principles that provide an explanation and prediction of new land-use changes.
The estuarine crocodile Crocodylus porosus was formerly abundant in coastal regions of Myanmar, but is now known principally from the lower Ayeyarwady Delta. We conducted a survey during January 1999 to assess quantitatively the status of crocodile populations in protected areas of the lower delta. Spotlight counts were conducted along 275.4 km of waterways. Sixty-one crocodiles (50 juveniles, 4 subadults, 2 adults and 5 eyeshines) were observed in the Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary (MKWS), and the total population was estimated to be less than 100. The Kadônkani and Pyindaye Reserved Forests (RF) apparently no longer support viable populations. Although crocodiles remain critically endangered in the region, a comparison with survey data from 1980 suggests localized recovery is occurring in MKWS. Population declines are attributed to a combination of commercial skin hunting, habitat loss, drowning in fishing nets and over-collection of living animals to supply crocodile farms. A programme of law enforcement, habitat protection and head-starting juveniles is necessary to ensure the continued survival of estuarine crocodiles in the Ayeyarwady Delta.
Mangroves in the Ayeyarwady Mega Delta of Myanmar are crucial for the ecology, society and economy of this country. At the beginning of May 2008, a severe cyclonic storm, Cyclone Nargis, struck the Ayeyarwady mangroves. Since that time, the present long-term study has been exploring the dynamics of post-cyclone mangrove vegetation. Every year since the 2008 cyclone, a census has been taken of 60 permanent plots (each measuring 10 m × 10 m) in six mangrove communities in order to predict trends in their long-term recovery. Each selected mangrove community was dominated by either Avicennia officinalis, Bruguiera sexangula, Excoecaria agallocha, Heritiera fomes, Rhizophora apiculata, or Sonneratia caseolaris. Mortality among the Rhizophoraceae group, including B. sexangula and R. apiculata adult individuals, was more than 90%, whereas for other species belonging to the non-Rhizophoraceae group, it was less than 20%. Based on the 5-year assessment, the mangroves showed considerable resilience after the catastrophic cyclone disturbance. However, the recovery potential of specific species varied. In particular, communities where R. apiculata dominated demonstrated slow recovery processes. The reasons for the vulnerability of this species of Rhizophora to cyclone disturbance is assumed to be the result of three indirect post-cyclone consequences: high mortality caused by limited sprouting ability after wind-induced disturbance; erosion that occurred in the stressful habitat on riverbank mud flats with frequent tidal inundation; and delayed phenology after the catastrophic disturbance. The attempt to generalise the recovery rate of mangroves based on the crown closure of the six dominant mangrove communities explored in this study showed a recovery rate of 61.06% during the 4 years after Cyclone Nargis. The demonstration of these patterns and processes among the most dominant mangrove species after the cyclone disturbance should therefore provide reliable information to forest managers, ecologists and local people, helping them make management decisions regarding measures for mangrove restoration.
Natural processes tend to vary over time and space, as well as between species. The ecosystem services these natural processes provide are therefore also highly variable. It is often assumed that ecosystem services are provided linearly (unvaryingly, at a steady rate), but natural processes are characterized by thresholds and limiting functions. In this paper, we describe the variability observed in wave attenuation provided by marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs and therefore also in coastal protection. We calculate the economic consequences of assuming coastal protection to be linear. We suggest that, in order to refine ecosystem-based management practices, it is essential that natural variability and cumulative effects be considered in the valuation of ecosystem services.
The article develops a dynamic model of habitat–fishery linkage in which the habitat is being converted. The basic model is applied to a case study of the impacts of mangrove deforestation on the artisanal marine demersal and shellfish fisheries in Thailand. The comparative static effects of a change in mangrove area on the long-run equilibrium level of effort and fish stocks, as well as on the resulting market harvesting supply of the fishery, are determined. By estimating parameters through pooled timE-series and cross-sectional data over the 1983–96 period for the five coastal zones along the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea, the welfare impacts of mangrove deforestation are estimated. Mangrove conversion is expected to be a function of the return to shrimp farming and the input costs to farming shrimp, plus exogenous economic factors. The resulting aggregate reduced-form level of mangrove clearing by all farmers in coastal areas is empirically estimated across the five coastal zones in Thailand over 1983–96. The policy implications of the findings are discussed with respect to Thailand and the modeling of habitat–fishery linkages.
Based on data for actual and approved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 1989–2011, this paper explores the major trends in FDI in Myanmar, focusing on changes over time in the source and sector of investment. It argues that over the last decade Myanmar’s inward FDI has become heavily concentrated in the extractive and power sectors, while investment in manufacturing, services and other secondary and tertiary sectors has been almost non-existent. This is mostly the result of a poor investment climate, including import and export regulations, a weak judicial system, currency controls and weak property rights. The paper shows that China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand have been the main investors in Myanmar, while Singapore, India and Western countries invested little in the 2000s. This divergence is driven partly by the differing investment patterns of the source countries, yet also reflects commercial and geopolitical realities, sanctions and concerns over energy security. The paper then examines whether and how FDI can lead to economic development in Myanmar, and closes by discussing the importance of recent political and economic reforms for rebalancing Myanmar’s FDI.
Thailand is the world’s largest producer of cultured shrimp. Despite problems with poor environmental conditions and outbreaks of disease that have led to the large-scale abandonment of culture areas along the coast, production has remained high. A primary factor has been the establishment of marine shrimp farming in Thailand’s rice growing Central Plain. This paper describes the development of inland shrimp farming in Thailand, and discusses the environmental concerns that have arisen. We then examine the evolution of the government’s response to inland shrimp farming and assess the capacity of the state to implement a proposed ban. We conclude by arguing that other countries with irrigated agriculture need to be proactive in prohibiting this activity before it is entrenched in ways that are difficult to reverse either ecologically or politically.
The current global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. The main process driving the land grab, or ‘foreignisation of space’, as highlighted in the media and the emerging literature is the production of food and biofuel for export in the aftermath of recent food and energy crises. However, there are several other processes driving the land rush. In this article I argue that an analytical framework that focuses on only one or two processes that drive the global land grab offers a narrow perspective on this complex process. It will be unable to take into account the full range and extent of agrarian and social changes that occur in light of the land grab and their strategic implications for poor people's livelihoods. An important starting point is to identify the broad processes driving the current land rush, and trace their structural and institutional origins. To do so, I identify and examine seven factors that are giving rise to radical changes in landownership and land use in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Finally, ‘codes of conduct’ as proposed by several quarters in the context of global land grab are unlikely to work in favour of the poor.
As China expands its development assistance in Southeast Asia, is Chinese aid beginning to emulate international norms and practices or sustaining its own distinct approach to development assistance? This essay argues that China's socialization into international norms varies with the thickness of the institutional environment. In Laos and Cambodia, China's enhanced collaboration with international consortia, improved transparency, and project diversity point to nascent socialization. China's aid to Myanmar, however, remains opaque and largely self-interested. At the regional level, Beijing is bolstering its influence over the norms and practices of regional developmental institutions.
The News Focus Story “As isolation ends, Myanmar faces new ecological risks” (C. Schmidt, 17 August, p. [796][1]) and a recent Letter ([ 1 ][2]) brought to light the environmental and biodiversity concerns in Myanmar. As the country opens up from decades of isolation, the world's corporations
BiodiversityMyanmar's environment is at a crossroads, its fate hinging on how recent reforms reshape the country. In his 17 months in office, President Thein Sein has legalized labor unions, rolled back censorship, and released hundreds of imprisoned dissidents. In April, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to run for parliament, winning handily after spending much of the last 20 years under house arrest. Encouraged by those developments, the United States and other countries have eased sanctions on the long-isolated country, opening the floodgates to foreign investment. Some observers fear that will be bad news for biodiversity: The government, they contend, won't try to keep developers on a short leash. Others are optimistic that Myanmar's leaders will embrace a sustainable path.
Myanmar is among the most biologically diverse countries in mainland Southeast Asia. Ill contrast to its neighbors, large areas of Myanmar's forest cover remain intact, providing a unique opportunity, to conserve biodiversity, within protected areas. High levels of deforestation, unrestricted bunting. and destructive agricultural practices have resulted in significant wildlife decline.,; and rapid loss of natural habitats. We analyzed the status of 20 of the 31 officially gazetted protected areas in Myanmar within a framework that classified activities incompatible with protected-area status into two broad categories, small and large Scale Small-scale incompatibilities driven by, economic necessity, and lack of alternatives for local populations within and adjacent to protected areas occurred more frequently than large-scale incompatibilities driven by larger economic interests. Extraction of nontimber forest products was reported in 85% of the protected areas and ranked highest among the 15 identified incompatibilities. Grazing, hunting, fuelwood extraction, find permanent settlements occurred in more than 50% of the parks surveyed. Forty percent of the protected areas had some infrastructure for reserve management (with significant gaps) but insufficient on-site personnel to adequately, perform management activities. Thirty-five percent bad approximately half their staff trained in basic field techniques, and 60% had a planning document that was yet to be implemented, Older protected areas were affected by, a greater number of incompatibilities than recently, established protected areas. Major recommendations include the critical need to address the issue of bunting; involving local communities ill the management of protected areas and buffer zones; building the technical capacity, of protected-area staff implementing a comprehensive land-use plan focused on stabilizing land use, and amending twisting wildlife laws to fulfill international treaty obligations.
This paper try to analyze unique data set for rice producing agricultural households in some selected areas of Bago and Yangon divisions to examine the households" profit efficiency and the relationship between farm and household attributes and profit inefficiency using a Cobb-Douglas production frontier function. The frequency distribution reveals that the mean technical inefficiency is 0.1627 with a minimum of 3 percent and maximum of 73 percent which indicates that, on average, about 16% of potential maximum output is lost owing to technical inefficiency in both studied areas. While 85% of the sample farms exhibit profit inefficiency of 20% or less, about 40% of the sample farms is found to exhibit technical inefficiency of 20% or less, indicating that among the sample farms technical inefficiency is much lower than profit inefficiency.
This paper argues that research into the dynamics of land control in the contemporary ‘land grab’ can benefit from engagement with the literature on booms in the production of crops like cocoa, coffee, fast-growing trees, oil palm, rubber and shrimp in Southeast Asia. This literature can help answer three key questions: who seeks to exercise control over land for the purpose of growing export-oriented crops under boom conditions; how would-be producers bring tobear regulatory power, market power, force, and legitimation to gain control over land; and how booms differentially affect areas with secure and insecure land control relations.
Aim We aimed to estimate the present extent of tsunami‐affected mangrove forests and determine the rates and causes of deforestation from 1975 to 2005.
Location Our study region covers the tsunami‐affected coastal areas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in Asia.
Methods We interpreted time‐series Landsat data using a hybrid supervised and unsupervised classification approach. Landsat data were geometrically corrected to an accuracy of plus‐or‐minus half a pixel, an accuracy necessary for change analysis. Each image was normalized for solar irradiance by converting digital number values to the top‐of‐the atmosphere reflectance. Ground truth data and existing maps and data bases were used to select training samples and also for iterative labelling. We used a post‐classification change detection approach. Results were validated with the help of local experts and/or high‐resolution commercial satellite data.
Results The region lost 12% of its mangrove forests from 1975 to 2005, to a present extent of c . 1,670,000 ha. Rates and causes of deforestation varied both spatially and temporally. Annual deforestation was highest in Burma ( c . 1%) and lowest in Sri Lanka (0.1%). In contrast, mangrove forests in India and Bangladesh remained unchanged or gained a small percentage. Net deforestation peaked at 137,000 ha during 1990–2000, increasing from 97,000 ha during 1975–90, and declining to 14,000 ha during 2000–05. The major causes of deforestation were agricultural expansion (81%), aquaculture (12%) and urban development (2%).
Main conclusions We assessed and monitored mangrove forests in the tsunami‐affected region of Asia using the historical archive of Landsat data. We also measured the rates of change and determined possible causes. The results of our study can be used to better understand the role of mangrove forests in saving lives and property from natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, and to identify possible areas for conservation, restoration and rehabilitation.
Oil palm is one of the world's most rapidly expanding equatorial crops. The two largest oil palm-producing countries—Indonesia and Malaysia—are located in Southeast Asia, a region with numerous endemic, forest-dwelling species. Oil palm producers have asserted that forests are not being cleared to grow oil palm. Our analysis of land-cover data compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggests that during the period 1990–2005, 55%–59% of oil palm expansion in Malaysia, and at least 56% of that in Indonesia occurred at the expense of forests. Using data on bird and butterfly diversity in Malaysia's forests and croplands, we argue that conversion of either primary or secondary (logged) forests to oil palm may result in significant biodiversity losses, whereas conversion of pre-existing cropland (rubber) to oil palm results in fewer losses. To safeguard the biodiversity in oil palm-producing countries, more fine-scale and spatially explicit data on land-use change need to be collected and analyzed to determine the extent and nature of any further conversion of forests to oil palm; secondary forests should be protected against conversion to oil palm; and any future expansion of oil palm agriculture should be restricted to pre-existing cropland or degraded habitats.
Rising economies including China, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Korea, India, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are subtly changing the rules of foreign aid with profound consequences for the role of multilateral institutions and conditionality. Fears abound that this new aid is bolstering rogue states, fuelling corruption, and increasing the debt burdens of poor countries. This article critically assesses these arguments before dissecting the attractions of emerging donors' aid against a background of established donors' failure to deliver on promises to increase aid, reduce conditionality, better coordinate and align aid efforts, and reform the aid architecture. It argues that a silent revolution is taking place whereby the emerging donors are not overtly attempting to overturn the rules of multilateral development assistance, nor to replace them. Rather, by quietly offering alternatives to aid-receiving countries, they are weakening the bargaining position of western donors. The resulting tensions underscore the urgency of reforming the multilateral aid system.