Findings from Our Mangrove Restoration Activities over 30 Years

摘要

The Al Gurm Research Centre started to develop mangrove planting techniques in the Middle East in 1981. Since 1994, it has been conducting reforestation activities in Southeast Asian countries under the name of Action for Mangrove Reforestation (ACTMANG) as a non-governmental organization. So far, mangrove ecosystems have been restored on a few thousand hectares in Vietnam and Myanmar. I have learned many things from participating in these mangrove restoration activities in many areas, including arid coasts, over the past 30 years, and summarize my findings through those activities as follows: 1) There are two classes of factors in the deaths of young trees: physiological factors, such as lower air temperature and high salinity of seawater; and physical factors, such as adhesion of barnacles or algae, waves and tidal currents, browsing, fishing activities and oil spills; 2) There are two types of causes of forest degradation: natural factors, such as coastal erosion, typhoons and floods in arid regions; and human activity factors, such as shrimp pond construction, over-browsing by camels, causeway construction and dumping of dredged sediment; 3) Mangrove ecosystem services for local people include typhoon disaster reduction, pasturage for livestock, provision of building materials, firewood, green manure, edible fruit, fishing grounds, and resources for beekeeping and tourism; 4) Cases of our mangrove reforestation have included establishment of greenbelts serving as natural breakwaters against typhoons, restoration of abandoned shrimp ponds or paddy fields, reintroduction of extinct mangrove species, planting artificial habitat and community forestry.