Mangroves are nature's coast guard against climate change
What is a mangrove?
Mangroves are tropical trees and shrubs that flourish in coastal areas where freshwater meets the sea. Unlike ordinary trees, these hardy plants have adapted to survive in saltwater conditions that would kill most vegetation. Their extensive root systems serve as natural barriers, protecting coastlines from storm surges, flooding, and erosion.
Mangroves are carbon storage champions
Mangrove forests are among Earth’s most powerful natural climate solutions. These coastal ecosystems capture and store more carbon per area than any other forest type on the planet. This “blue carbon” is stored throughout the mangrove ecosystem in living plant material (trunks, branches, leaves, and roots), the rich soil beneath the mangroves, and the complex root systems that anchor the trees. However, when mangroves are damaged or destroyed, it’s like opening a carbon vault and releasing greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.
Empowering local action
While human activities pose the greatest threat to mangrove forests, local communities are key to their protection. Rare partners with coastal residents, including:
- Small-scale fishers who depend on healthy mangrove ecosystems
- Local government officials who shape conservation policies
- Community leaders who mobilize grassroots (or mangrove roots?) action
Our approach focuses on empowering coastal communities with legal rights to manage their mangrove, resources and training for sustainable fishing practices, support in developing local conservation plans, and connections to regional and national policymakers.
Blue carbon initiatives: funding community conservation
The term “blue carbon” describes the carbon dioxide captured and stored by coastal ecosystems like mangroves. Rare develops and accelerates innovative financial tools that blend private and public funding to help support community-led mangrove conservation and ensure local communities benefit financially for protecting.
SPOTLIGHT
Brazil’s ‘Mothers of the Mangroves’ protect an ecological and cultural heritage
Environmental magazine Mongabay profiled the Mothers of the Mangroves, an all-female collective with more than 800 fishers, shellfish collectors and artisans from 12 coastal extractive reserves in Pará state along Brazil’s Amazon Coast.
“We, the Mothers of the Mangroves, have a mission to show that the mangroves are not just a source of income, food and livelihood; it’s responsible for life on the planet,” Renilde Piedade da Silva, a community leader in the Mothers of the Mangroves network.
Mangroves in the media
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