he word “forest” often calls to mind a dense landscape of towering trees. However, some of the most carbon-rich and productive forests are clustered along coastlines in the tropics and subtropics. Mangrove forests, made up of salt-tolerant trees and shrubs, play a vital role in erosion and flood control, fisheries support, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation and nutrient cycling. Many coastal communities rely on mangroves for food, forest products and tourism revenue, and the forests provide a natural coastline defense to storm surges by reducing wave and wind velocity.
New analysis relies on satellite data to survey the state of these important ecosystems. Using Global Forest Watch (GFW), an online forest monitoring platform, we found that the world lost 192,000 hectares (474,000 acres) of mangroves from 2001 to 2012, a total loss of 1.38 percent since 2000 (or 0.13 percent annually). This is a relatively low rate of loss compared to the rate of tropical deforestation, which stands at a total of 4.9 percent from 2000 to 2012 (or 0.41 percent annually). The tropical deforestation rate was calculated using the same tree cover loss data as the GFW analysis, and considered forests with more than 25 percent canopy cover.