Pacific Islands Losing Their Mangroves
Ankit Gupta - All Headline News Staff Writer Bangkok, Thailand (AHN) - Some islands in the Pacific may see over half of the mangroves fading away steadily by the end of this century, the worst hit being American Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu and the federated states of Micronesia, says a UN study. A study by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) assessed the vulnerability of the 16 Pacific Island nations and territories having native mangroves, has revealed that as much as 13 per cent of the mangrove area may be lost. Action was needed to conserve the mangroves in the Pacific amid concerns that rising sea levels linked with climate change are set to drown large areas of these precious and economically important ecosystems, UNEP said in a statement today. It said about half the world's mangrove area has been lost since 1900 as a result of clearances for development like shrimp farms and that 35 per cent of the loss occurred in the past two decades. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said there are many compelling reasons to fighting climatic change - the threat to mangroves in the pacific. "Industrialized nations must meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, the international emission-reduction treaty, as a first step to the even deeper cuts needed to stabilize the atmosphere," he said. The report makes a series of recommendations to coastal planners, among them reducing pollution from land-based sources |
