Mangrove Forest Rehabilitation in Southeast Asia
TABUCHI Ryuichi
Tama Forest Science Garden, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1833-81,
Nijyuricho, Hachioji, Japan, Email: tabuchi@ffpri.affrc.go.jp
ABSTRACT
The lost mangrove in Southeast Asia was amounted to 7,445 km2 in the last few decades,
according to World Mangrove Atlas (ISME 1997). For examples, originally 4,000km2
mangroves in Philippines diminished to 1,600km2, and Thai lost more than half so that
5,500km2 mangroves in 1961 remained only 2,470km2 in 1986. Vietnam lost a lot in the war and
in following period. Total loss in SE Asia reached to 4 % of world mangroves and the crisis is
still going on.
The mangrove’s deep and sticky mud, dense curious above ground roots crawling and standing
upright, mosquitoes spring up, all have been bothering the entrance so far as approaching from
the land. However, this marginal ecosystem, at the same time, have long been offering easy
access to the local dwellers by small canoes when tide spring up, and offering several kinds of
resources not only for food, medicine, wood, but also supplying good material for energy. The
simple compositions reflecting the specific site preference and flat topographies at seashore,
offers wide and pure stand. Mangroves, besides, has recently been noticed its significance as the
site of carbon sequestration. Huge biomass both above and below ground and accumulated root
originated mangrove peat produced under the waterlogged.
The easy access, however, has allowed the rapid deterioration, destruction and disappearance of
mangroves at where and when economical demands to the forest exceeded beyond the capacity
of sustainability. Mangroves had been over harvested and converted into the other land. The
dredging of tin ore mined under mangroves caused severe damages particularly at the Malay
Peninsula. Conversion to fish ponds became prime suspects of mangrove destruction in recent
few decades although site productivity never last once this fragile ecosystem broken, thus large
wasted land spreading over ex-mangrove site in several countries.
The trial for mangrove renovation hence has been organized in several countries and regions in
some decades. The plantation techniques itself were established on the base of mangrove
ecology. However, we still met the destruction even at where mangrove forest was once
recovered by so called re-greening projects in case organizer couldn’t state the management
plan. It depends on how we can create the sustainable incentives in any manner e.g. producing
wood as charcoal material, as fishery site, or even as the site of eco tourism, with mangroves
keep being mangrove. We must study how to utilize mangrove wisely in the form of forest
again.