Local strategies crucial to save Asia's mangroves

Local strategies crucial to save Asia's mangroves

Clarence Fernandez, Reuters/Kuala Lumpur

Tsunami-stricken Asian nations that are planting mangrove
thickets to protect against future disasters must give coastal
communities a financial stake in the campaign if it is to
succeed, experts said on Tuesday.

Asian nations hit by the earthquake and tsunami disaster that
killed about 188,000 people last December have launched programs
to plant mangroves along their coasts as a natural buffer against
similar waves in the future.

But the strategy will fail unless governments can convince
local communities of the financial benefits they stand to gain
from the mangroves, such as firewood, medicinal herbs and bigger
fish catches, among others, the experts said.

"We need to think about wealth creation for people living in
coastal areas so they are able to link up with a broader
society," Chris Gordon, an environmental expert at the University
of Ghana, told a meeting in the Malaysian capital.

Mangroves are a family of evergreen trees and shrubs that grow
on stilt-like roots in dense thickets, providing both a barrier
to extreme weather and a rich ecosystem for marine life.

Following the December disaster, several Asian nations took a
new look at their struggling mangroves. Malaysia has called for
mangroves to be protected from coastal development.

Indonesia has earmarked 600,000 hectares of mangrove for
revitalization. In the northern province of Aceh on Sumatra,
where the tsunami killed more than 110,000 people, it plans to
replant at least 30,000 hectares with the trees.

Many of the schemes have a limited effect because they are
poorly designed and managed, said Faizal Parish, of the Global
Environment Center, a Malaysian non-government organization.

"Something needs to be done quickly, but from our perspective
it would be more effective to have a clearer strategy plan."

Mangrove trees take five years to mature, he added, so it is
crucial to convince local communities to nurture them until then.

One way to achieve this was through credit programs that lend
villagers small sums of money to buy and rear livestock such as
chickens or ducks, Parish said. But instead of paying interest on
the loans, they could be asked to plant mangrove trees.

Parish said Indonesian villagers had planted 300,000 trees on
the island of Java during the past five years, as part of a
program of this kind run by his group.

The loans are waived if the bulk of planted saplings survive
five years, he added, which gives borrowers an incentive to make
sure the trees are not cut down.

Parish said his group planned to replicate the Java project in
India and Sri Lanka, the countries worst hit by the tsunami after
Indonesia. He estimated that Asian nations would spend between
US$30 million and $40 million to plant mangroves.

Success in such efforts depended on exchange of information
between specialists and locals, a mangrove expert said.

"I think this kind of arrangement can be done if the local
mentality can be prepared for it," said Marc Steyaert, former
director of the marine sciences division of UNESCO, the United
Nations' scientific and educational arm.

"Traditional people have a lot of wise memories of the past
that they have learned from local conditions."