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Anthropogenic Drivers of Mangrove Loss: Geographic Patterns and Implications for Livelihoods

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Mangrove Ecosystems: A Global Biogeographic Perspective

Abstract

National and global mangrove monitoring efforts provide an invaluable picture of changes to these dynamic and valuable ecosystems, the global threats they face, and the outcomes of recovery efforts. However, multiple forces drive global mangrove losses, whose nature and dynamics can vary dramatically across regional and local contexts. If we are to truly understand the human dimensions of these systems, we need to understand the fundamental drivers of mangrove losses and how they interact at local levels. The fate of interdisciplinary mangrove science as well as current and future mangrove conservation efforts rests on this knowledge. In this chapter, we review case studies of mangrove ecosystems to compare the fundamental drivers of regional mangrove losses. We highlight two significant drivers of mangrove losses: (a) mangrove-dependent subsistence economies and related poverty traps; and (b) the global trade in shrimp. Drawing on the cases of Southeast Asia/China and Ecuador, two distinct geographic regions that experienced rapid mangrove losses in the recent few decades, we examine specific drivers in those regional contexts. We conclude with implications of our findings for mangrove vulnerability and prospects for resilience. We argue for the benefits of a coupled system (specifically, a coupled socio-ecological system) approach to understand the bi-directional linkages between mangrove ecological dynamics on the one hand, and the constellation of anthropogenic drivers of mangrove change, on the other.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Table 9.6 and Fig. 9.1 reedited from Richards and Friess (2016). The original figure was cited with the permission of the journal.

  2. 2.

    (Author’s translation). The original text of the Forestry Law Titulo 1, Capitulo 1, Art. 1 published in Registro Oficial No. 418 (September 10, 2004) states: “Los manglares, aun aquellos existentes en propiedades particulares, se consideran bienes de Estado y están fuera del comercio, no son susceptibles de posesión o cualquier otro medio de apropiación y solamente podrán ser explotados mediante concesión otorgada, de conformidad con esta Ley y su reglamento.”

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on this manuscript. Uchida acknowledges that this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number #1518471.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

    Rinku Roy Chowdhury

  2. University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA

    Emi Uchida

  3. Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Luzhen Chen

  4. Escuela Superior Politécnica y del Litoral, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Victor Osorio

  5. Universidad de Almeria, Almeria, Spain

    Victor Osorio

  6. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Landon Yoder

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  1. Rinku Roy Chowdhury
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  2. Emi Uchida
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  3. Luzhen Chen
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  4. Victor Osorio
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  5. Landon Yoder
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Correspondence to Rinku Roy Chowdhury .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Victor H. Rivera-Monroy

  2. School of Environment, Griffith University, Southport, Queensland, Australia

    Shing Yip Lee

  3. Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Erik Kristensen

  4. Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Robert R. Twilley

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Chowdhury, R.R., Uchida, E., Chen, L., Osorio, V., Yoder, L. (2017). Anthropogenic Drivers of Mangrove Loss: Geographic Patterns and Implications for Livelihoods. In: Rivera-Monroy, V., Lee, S., Kristensen, E., Twilley, R. (eds) Mangrove Ecosystems: A Global Biogeographic Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62206-4_9

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