Mangroves vanishing: Is COP 23 listening?

Despite being the fastest disappearing forest ecosystems world wide, the vanishing of mangrove forest ecosystems has not received much public attention, nor in climate talks.

According to a 2014 report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), mangroves are being destroyed at a rate that is between three and five times greater than the average deforestation rates. Scientists warn that by 2100 this once vast ecosystem could functionally disappear.

The continuous destruction of mangroves has cost billions in economic damage and has denied millions of people the ecosystem services they need to survive.

In an in-depth report supported by the European Journalism Center, journalist Jacopo Pasotti and photographer Elisabetta Zavoli cover the dramatic loss of mangrove forests in Indonesia due to shrimp cultivation.

Policy makers and experts meeting at Cop 23 in Bonn, should be aware that emissions resulting from mangrove losses make up nearly one-fifth of global emissions from deforestation, resulting in economic damages of between US$6 billion and $42 billion annually. In short, industrialized countries’ appetite for inexpensive shrimps and seafood has led the path to mangrove deforestation.

Read here about the report on shrimp cultivation and mangrove loss from Indonesia.