Damage to mangrove swamps

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Description: "Mangroves account for only 0.7 per cent of the Earth’s tropical forest area, but they are among the world’s most productive and important ecosystems. They provide a wealth of ecological and socio-economic benefits, such as serving as nursery habitat for fish species, offering protection against coastal surges associated with storms and tsunamis, and storing carbon. While many countries have established legal protection for mangroves, their value for sustainable ecosystem services face strong competition from converting the land to other more lucrative uses, particularly for agriculture. In the past decade, studies have shown that mangrove deforestation rates are higher than the deforestation of inland terrestrial forests. New research from the National University of Singapore (NUS) provided additional support for this, with results showing that mangroves deforestation rates in Myanmar, an important country for mangrove extent and biodiversity, greatly exceed previous estimates. The research, led by Associate Professor Edward Webb and Mr Jose Don De Alban from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, was published online in the journal Environmental Research Letters..."
Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
2020-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: A preliminary report from the Arakan Rivers Network (ARN)...1. Executive Summary: "On April 2nd 2008 the Indian government signed an agreement with the Burmese military junta for the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project. The project will connect the landlocked area of Northeast India with the sea via Western Burma (Myanmar) and open up trade routes to Southeast Asia. Engineering plans show that widespread damage will be done to the coast of Arakan State, Western Burma, which is a key area for mangrove forests, shrimp farms and fishing.2 Similar damage will be done to the Kaladan River and surrounding paddy fields, cutting off much needed supplies of food, on which over a million local civilians depend. Furthermore, the proposed highway is to be built straight through the mountainous forests of Chin State, which are home to many endangered species. On top of this, large-scale militarisation has already been reported in the project area, which has led to forced labour on military infrastructure, forced relocation, extortion, physical and sexual abuse and an exodus of thousands of Arakanese families into India. There seems to have been no effort made by the junta or the Indian companies involved to protect the wellbeing of local civilians who already live in extreme poverty and have been given no choice about the project."
Source/publisher: Arakan Rivers Network (ARN)
2009-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 960.12 KB
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