MANGROVE ACTION PROJECT
ANNUAL REVIEW 2011
Mangrove Action Project
PO Box 1854
Port Angeles WA 98262, USA
360-452-5866
http://mangroveactionproject.org
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Director’s Report
Highlights of 2011
Ecological Mangrove Restoration in El Salvador
Marvelous Mangroves Curriculum
MAP-Asia
Ecological Mangrove Restoration
Coastal Community Resources Center
Knowledge Exchange and Networking
Mangrove Watch Workshop
Question Your Shrimp Consumer Markets Campaign
Summary of Financial Activities for 2011
Major Donors
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Executive Director’s Report
In 2011, MAP seized the opportunity to raise the bar on mangrove conservation and restoration even higher by publicizing the
latest information on the vital role that mangroves play in combating Climate Change, which is probably today’s greatest single
threat to life as we know it. There is growing evidence that mangroves can sequester – take from the atmosphere and store in
their roots and branches and in the soil below them – prodigious amounts of carbon. Many mangrove forests can sequester
more carbon per hectare than even tropical rainforest. In the wake of recent extreme weather, such as mid-western heat wave
and drought, we can increasingly make the case for mangrove conservation and restoration being as necessary as windmills and
electric cars in our response to Climate Change. MAP will continue to closely monitor this developments and make the case for
mangroves.
MAP has always valued the
biodiversity and immense
productivity of the mangrove
wetlands. We have witnessed
firsthand the cornucopia of
life contained in the
mangrove forest, which
reinforces our commitment to
conserving and restoring not
only the mangrove flora, but
also the entire ecosystem that
supports a mangrove
Mangrove forest on Phra Thong Island, Thailand, on the Andaman Sea
wetland. There are so many
essential ecological services performed by the mangroves, including nurseries for marine life; buffers against storms, waves and
erosion; stopover places for migratory birds; and a safe haven for unique and endangered species such as sea turtles, salt water
crocodiles, the rare Bengal tiger, fishing cats and the Mudskipper fish. Mangroves also protect offshore coral reefs and sea grass
beds from sedimentation, while supporting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of traditional local communities and
Indigenous Peoples. This is the reason an ecosystem approach must be promoted; MAP’s aim is to restore the full mangrove
ecosystem and bring back the complex web of life that it nurtures and supports.
But too often mangrove restoration projects miss the wetland for the trees, creating a plantation of one mangrove species
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which is a pale imitation of a natural mangrove forest, having lost many of a mangrove ecosystem’s most important attributes
of resilience and natural productivity. In contrast, MAP’s Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) methodology works with
nature to restore a true mangrove ecosystem with all its biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Villagers of Lang Da, Krabi, Thailand invest “sweat equity” into
restoring their local mangrove forests using EMR
Therefore, in 2011 MAP turned its focus more than ever on
Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR), taking on more
restoration projects in Asia and Latin America. In the process,
MAP field staff began to better assess and respond to the
human factors of mangrove restoration, which so frequently
hinder the process and prevent it from advancing. These
include such issues as land tenure and ownership, and
securing buy-in from landowners, communities and local
governments. Our dedication to addressing this challenge of
working fairly and effectively with all stakeholders has
convinced MAP staff that our EMR approach needs to include
the human side of the restoration equation if the technical
side is to succeed. Using our current restoration projects in
Thailand as a laboratory, MAP-Asia staff is learning valuable
lessons in how to anchor EMR in the local communities in
order to achieve our goals of ecological restoration and
environmental justice.
MAP’s education work expanded in several directions in 2011.
MAP firmly believes that to ensure mangroves are conserved in the future, we must reach out and convince the next generation
of their vital importance, for they will be the future stewards of their coastal resources. This can happen in a most effective
manner if our Marvelous Mangrove curriculum for elementary and middle school children can find its place in more schools in
the nations where mangroves exist. In 2011 our “Marvelous Mangrove Curriculum” gained firmer footholds in Honduras,
Guatemala, Colombia and China with additional teacher training workshops and adaptations of the Curriculum for more
effective and long-term local use.
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And MAP’s 11th edition of our popular Children’s Mangrove Art
Calendar contest involved over 2,500 primary school children from a
dozen mangrove nations, producing once again some amazing art
work rendered in unique local styles. Each year, MAP invites teachers
and their students from around the globe to participate in an
international art contest, with the winners’ artwork comprising the
Calendar. They learn through their participation about the incredible
beauty and biodiversity of the mangroves and the students attempt
to depict through their art what they have experienced on field trips
to mangroves and in their classroom studies. Children from a dozen
nations entered our 2011 contest by answering with a painting or
drawing a simple but intriguing question, “What do the mangroves
mean to my community and to me?”
Drawing from the 2011 Children’s Mangrove Art Calendar.
MAP also continued to expand its public outreach and advocacy work
Artist: Jasmine Dedios, Philippines, age 13
in 2011. MAP’s Seattle-based Question Your Shrimp Campaign gained
ground with over 500 new signatures from Seattle area residents on our Consumer Pledge to not eat tropical farmed shrimp,
which is one of the greatest root causes worldwide of mangrove destruction. In addition, 10 new restaurants signed our Chef’s
Pledge to not serve tropical farmed shrimp in their establishments, bringing the total to 24 chefs signing on. MAP’s shrimp
campaign work also continued on the global front with alliance building with groups in Anglo-America, Europe, Asia, Africa and
Latin America.
MAP remains a tireless advocate for local community and Indigenous Peoples’ tenure rights to land and resources. We have
been working with NGOs and coastal communities in the Global South for the right to conserve and sustainably manage their
mangrove forests, pointing out that they alone will be the best stewards of those same resources and ecosystems that they
depend upon for their lives and livelihoods. In Thailand MAP has been working with the people of Ban Lion, Ta Pae Yoi and Ban
Tale Nok villages to establish supplemental livelihoods based on mangrove stewardship, such as ecotourism and artisanal crafts.
In 2011, MAP continued to work for environmental justice, including community empowerment and the re-establishment and
preservation of the commons. MAP has linked mangrove ecosystem destruction to neoliberal globalization - the appropriation of
the ecosystem for the private gain of a wealthy few at the expense of the planet, with the locals suffering the most. For instance,
in El Salvador a rapidly expanding sugar cane industry is causing deforestation of the inland forests, resulting in heavy erosion
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and downstream clogging of estuary outlets, in turn causing the mangroves downstream to be flooded and drowned. In 2011,
MAP partnered with the NGOs EcoViva and Asociación Mangle to restore degraded mangroves along Jiquilisco Bay which were
threatened by this uncontrolled inland development.
In 2011 we recognized more than ever the relation of our work to Climate Change Adaptation
(CCA), and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). MAP has repeatedly issued warnings through its
communication networks about the importance of mangroves as bio-shields against the
increased risks from more frequent and more powerful hurricanes or cyclones and rising sea
levels provoked by Climate Change. This makes MAP‘s work to conserve and restore mangrove
wetlands ever more timely and relevant.
To this end, in 2011 MAP-Asia joined a coalition of several groups from Asia and Germany in a
four-year effort funded by the German government to conserve and restore mangroves and
related coastal resources in a region that has witnessed horrific loss of life due to cyclones and
the 2004 tsunami along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. This project begins in early 2012.
MAP will have the opportunity to restore several abandoned shrimp farms in Thailand on the
Andaman coast, while involving local communities, NGOs and government in the process, and
training local residents to help conserve and monitor the restored mangrove forests.
MAP Executive Director,
Alfredo Quarto
All of this and more was accomplished in 2011. Yet, much more could have been done if we
had had the additional resources urgently needed for project and staff support to meet our
increasing workload. Please consider making a generous donation to MAP today to help us better conserve and restore our
planet’s embattled mangroves. Help us address the key issues of the day, including climate change, disaster risk reduction, loss
of biodiversity, declining wild fisheries and loss of traditional livelihoods and cultures. Thank you for your support!
For the mangroves!
Alberto Quarto, Executive Director
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Highlights of MAP’s Work in 2011
Ecological Mangrove Restoration in El Salvador
In July 2011, EcoViva and MAP introduced Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) to El Salvador, organizing the first national
forum on EMR. This forum was followed by a four-day EMR workshop geared toward local community Wetland Rangers,
environmental organizations and government officials. The forum attracted national attention to the ecological problems facing
the mangrove forest of El Llorón on Jiquilisco Bay and similar areas being adversely affected by uncontrolled inland development.
Due in great part to the success of this training and discussion, officials at the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment have
asked EcoViva and our local partners at the Associación Mangle (Mangrove Association) to lead the charge in demonstrating an
ecological approach to mangrove restoration in El Salvador,
starting with El Llorón. The Fund for the Initiative of the
Americas (FIAES), the largest environmental fund and
grantmaker dedicated to coastal conservation and wetland
protection in El Salvador, and a collaborator on this EMR
training and forum, has identified EMR as the primary
method for its mangrove restoration funding going forward.
After this training session, EcoViva and its local partners
began to restore a healthy mangrove ecosystem in El Llorón.
This work will contribute to real conservation results that will
propel ecological restoration to the forefront of El Salvador’s
national mangrove conservation strategy.
MAP’s Asia Coordinator Jim Enright (right) working in the field in El
Salvador’s Jiquilisco Bay during the EMR training workshop
The El Salvador EMR training was so successful that
authorities at the National Ministry of the Environment of El
Salvador (MARN), including the Minister of the Environment
himself, decided to incorporate key components of EMR into
the permitting process for mangrove restoration, setting a
precedent for all coastal ecosystem restoration throughout
El Salvador.
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Marvelous Mangroves: MAP’s Mangrove Curriculum Spreads Worldwide.
“Marvelous Mangroves” is MAP’s hands-on curriculum on mangrove ecology and conservation for elementary and middle school
children, developed by MAP Education Director Martin Keeley. Through translation and adaptation of MAP’s curriculum,
students throughout the world and the communities where they live can come to recognize and understand the functions and
importance of mangroves as one of the world’s most vital and diverse ecosystems. MAP trains teachers around the world to
teach this curriculum so they can incorporate the study and appreciation of mangroves into their own country’s curriculum.
As of 2011, Marvelous Mangroves has been
introduced in seven countries worldwide,
with more than 700 teachers and over
100,000 students taking part in this
invaluable education program. In 2011 alone
workshops were carried out with teachers,
governmental education departments and
local NGOs in Guatemala, Honduras,
Colombia and China; over 200 teachers were
trained and these teachers in turn will train
other teachers and bring Marvelous
Mangroves to thousands of students.
MAP’s Global Education Director Martin Keeley (third from left) during a mini-
MAP's curriculum development program in
workshop with teachers in Zhanjiang, China
China received a welcome boost in 2011
when $25,000 was awarded by Disney Friends for Change towards the project. "We'd like to give a big thanks to all MAP's
friends and supporters for voting for the project," said MAP's Education Director, Martin Keeley. "The contribution will enable us
to complete the translation and adaptation of our Teachers' Guide into Mandarin, for it to be reviewed by environmental
educators and specialists in China to ensure its accuracy, and for a workshop to be held for 50 to 60 teachers." The workshop
will be held in the Spring of 2012 in the southeastern City of Zhanjiang, which is the central location of the country's foremost
government supported mangrove centre, the Zhanjiang National Mangrove Nature Reserve (ZNMNR). This is a huge step in
bringing Marvelous Mangroves to the youth of the most populous nation in the world.
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MAP Asia
Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR)
Map-Asia Coordinator Jim Enright (seated, 2nd from right), MAP-Asia Field
Coordinator Jaruwan Kaewmahanin (seated, far right); MAP graduate student
intern Dominic Wodehouse (seated, 2nd from left) and the participants of the
Cambodia EMR Workshop
EMR Workshop and the PMCR Project
In December 2011 MAP coordinated with its longstanding Cambodian partner, the Participatory
Management of Coastal Resources (PMCR) project of
the Ministry of Environment in Cambodia, to hold an
EMR Training workshop in Koh Kong, Cambodia. The
workshop introduced the concepts of EMR to
government staff and other stakeholders; conveyed
in detail the importance of mangroves to local
communities; and encouraged networking between
stakeholders, including local community members,
NGOs and government departments. This work could
not have been completed without the generous
support of the McKnight Foundation.
Demonstration Sites and Monitoring
Since 2009 MAP Asia has partnered with Wetlands International, with funding from Mangroves for the Future, the government
of Germany, and IUCN, to complete an EMR project in Talae Nok Village in Ranong Province, Thailand. This site is monitored
regularly to verify successful restoration and is used as a demonstration site for disseminating EMR. In the Krabi Estuary Ramsar
Site, MAP has worked with Wetlands International, with funding from the Asia Pacific Forum for Environment and Development
(APFED) to restore another site in Lang Da village. The Lang Da site has since hosted study groups and EMR and disaster
prevention training workshops (see Knowledge Exchange and Networking, below).
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Coastal Community Resources Center (CCRC) - Ban Lion Village, Phra Thong Island, Pang Nga Province,
Thailand
MAP-Asia has been working with the tsunami-affected villagers of Ban Lion and Ta Pae Yoi on Phra Thong Island for several years
to help them with community-based coastal resources management (CBCRM) and the development of alternative livelihoods,
such as artisanal crafts and community-based ecotourism. Lions Club International
donated two village houses to MAP for the purpose of establishing a CCRC, called the
Phra Thong Island Community Conservation Center. This Center is a focal point for
capacity building for conservation and sustainable livelihoods, and is currently being
used for environmental education, scientific research, eco-tourism, a Women’s TieDye Cooperative and as a visitor’s center. In October 2011 the CCRC accommodated
two youth seminars: the Youth International Volunteering Program and the North
Andaman Youth Seminar. The Center also provides classroom, meeting, office and
accommodation space for MAP staff and volunteers. In 2011 MAP helped with
Phra Thong Island Community
Conservation Center, Ban Lion, Thailand
improvements on the CCRC, including installing solar electricity panels; expanding
signage and exhibits on coastal ecology and biodiversity; kitchen improvements, and
a rainwater harvesting system.
Ecotourism Guide Training
In partnership with Andaman Discoveries, MAP has helped create homestay
alternative livelihood programs in both villages through which ecotourists can
lodge with villagers, while they experience the local mangrove forests and island
life first hand. In September 2011 MAP helped train local villagers to be bird
watching guides and to lead tours through the mangroves. This initiative provided
binoculars and guidebooks to the participants, which were generously donated
by the Student Travel Agency (STA) through their Planeterra Foundation. This
training was led by MAP Advisor Khun Donnapat Tamonsuwan, who has a wealth
of expertise in bird watching and education.
Local villagers training to be bird-watching guides
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Seagrass Monitoring
Seagrass beds provide habitat and food for many aquatic species including
dugongs, sea turtles, shrimp, fish and many others. Seagrass meadows are a
source of food and income for locals in Ban Lion Village because of the
edible mollusks and sea cucumbers that can be found in the meadows.
Community members have noticed a decline in the abundance of
commercial species and have showed interest in conserving the ecosystem
to ensure their food security. Barry Bendell PhD, a MAP Advisor, in
association with Seagrass Watch, monitors seagrass near Ban Lion and Ta
Pae Yoi on Phra Thong Island and is working on a project that is supported
by Rufford Small Grants Foundation – “Evaluation and Monitoring of Marine
Protected Areas in Seagrass Meadows at Phra Thong Island, Thailand. “
Barry Bendell training Ban Lion villagers in
seagrass monitoring
Women’s Tie-Dye Cooperative
There are currently four women involved in the Tie-Dye Cooperative that MAP
helped establish in Ban Lion. This Cooperative provides a good livelihood for
these women who create the all-natural dyes from plants found on Phra
Thong Island. In 2011, the group sold 34,000 Baht ($1,130) of merchandise
and generated incomes ranging from 3,000-20,000 Baht ($100 - $675) per
person. Some of the funds generated from these activities are gathered in a
community fund, which as of 2011 contains 14,000 Baht ($465). In 2011, MAP
provided the Cooperative with training in tie-dye techniques and provided a
new sewing machine. In addition, 34 volunteers from Andaman Discovery and
Naucrates helped produce 5000 Baht ($165) worth of tie dye merchandise on
behalf of the Cooperative.
Ecotourists in Ban Lion admire tie-dye crafts
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Knowledge Exchange and Networking
Mangrove Watch Workshop
Mangrove Watch is an Australian NGO that has developed techniques
for monitoring and evaluation of mangrove restoration sites. The
Mangrove Watch Workshop was hosted by MAP at our demonstration
site in Lang Da Village in Krabi, Thailand, in March 2011. MAP executed
a challenging but successful EMR project near Lang Da from 20072009, restoring an abandoned shrimp pond to mangroves. MAP
continues to monitor the regeneration of these mangroves, using this
site to host visitors interested in learning about EMR and seeing first
hand its results. Ongoing monitoring is an essential aspect of EMR,
and involves periodic measurement and assessment of the health and
density of the regenerating mangroves, as well as the status of the
recovering biodiversity.
Mangrove monitoring plots at the EMR demonstration site
The Workshop was attended by representatives from Mangrove
Watch and other international environmental NGOs; Thai and international scientists and mangrove ecologists; people from the
local Thai communities; and government representatives from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) in
Thailand and from the Ministry of the Environment in Cambodia. The agenda included a discussion of issues of mangrove
research and monitoring, and the different projects the various participants were involved in. The workshop led to the
establishment of a local Thai coordinating team for developing Mangrove Watch projects in Thailand in order to monitor the
health of Thailand’s mangrove forests.
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MAP’s Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign:
One of the leading causes of mangrove destruction is the meteoric growth
of the tropical shrimp farming industry in the developing world. Because the
average intensive shrimp farm yields for only 2 to 5 years before pollution
and rampant disease render its ponds unusable, the industry responds by
continually razing more mangrove forests to make way for new shrimp
rearing ponds. In addition, this shrimp product is tainted with antibiotics,
pesticides, and shrimp feed additives, many known to be carcinogens.
MAP’s Question Your Shrimp consumer awareness campaign is a grass roots
effort to significantly reduce consumer demand for this destructive and
unsustainable product. The Campaign aims to reduce consumption of
tropical farmed shrimp in the Seattle-King County area by 15%, enough to
impact the market in order to slow or stop tropical shrimp farming
expansion. Multi-media publicity guided by ongoing formative research is
changing consumer awareness and behavior, and working relationships with
restaurants and food retailers is educating them and assisting them in
changing their purchasing policies and in securing sources of sustainable
shrimp.
Consumers, restauranteurs, and seafood retailers are being asked to sign a Pledge to not consume, purchase, serve, or sell
tropical farmed shrimp. In 2011, over 500 new consumers signed our Pledge, and we added ten more restaurants to our list of
pledged restaurants, including the iconic world-class restaurant atop the Seattle Space Needle. Pledged food retailers now
include PCC Natural Markets, one of largest retail food cooperatives in the US, with thousands of customers in the Seattle area.
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SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES - 2011
OPERATING REVENUE 2011
Balance forward from 2010
Grants/Foundations
Individual Donors
Calendar Sales
Total Revenue
Total Revenue & Balance
Forward
OPERATING EXPENSES 2011
$ 75,677.00
$131,549.91
$ 35,042.39
$ 3,072.50
$169,664.80
Projects
Administration
Fundraising
Total Expenses
$169,849.52
$ 14,711.50
$ 19,615.34
$204,176.36
Total Net 2011
$ 41,165.44
$245,341.80
Operating Expenses 2011
Operating Revenue 2011
Administration
7%
Individual
donors
21%
Fund Raising
10%
Calendar
sales
2%
Grants/
Foundations
77%
Projects
83%
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2011 MAJOR DONORS
MAP would like to thank the following donors for their generous support:
Charities Aid Foundation
Cottonwood Foundation
Disney Friends for Change
Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund
Earthwatch Australia
Earthways Foundation
Firedoll Foundation
Fund for the Initiative of the Americas (FIAES)
George W Blair Jr. Foundation
Global Green Grants Fund
Greening the Beige Foundation
Margaret Stewart
McKnight Foundation
Munson Foundation
New England Biolabs
Norcross Wildlife Foundation
Rainforest Information Center
Roger de Freitus
Planeterra Foundation
SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund
Singing Field Foundation
Society for Ecological Restoration
TUI Nordic Tour Operators
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