UN FAO, 2010 - Two Sides

Extent of forest resources 29
Figure 2.11
Area of mangroves by country, 2010
(1 000 ha)
0
< 50
50–500
500–1 000
> 1 000
No data
Together, the 112 countries and areas reported a total area of mangroves of
15.6 million hectares. The five countries with the largest areas of mangroves (Indonesia,
Brazil, Nigeria, Australia and Mexico) together account for some 47 percent of the
world total.
Together with the International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, ITTO, UNEP-
WCMC, UNESCO – Man and Biosphere, the United Nations University – Institute
for Water Environment and Health and The Nature Conservancy, FAO has recently
published a World Atlas of Mangroves containing detailed maps and descriptions of
the mangroves in all countries and areas where they are known to exist, see www.fao.
org/forestry/mangroves/atlas for details.
Trends
Information for 1990 was missing for eight countries (Australia, China, Cuba,
Guadeloupe, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Sudan), and
two countries (Nicaragua and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) did not
present information for 1990 and 2000. For these countries, the 2000 and 2005 figures
respectively were used for this analysis. Given the overall negative trend in mangrove
area, this is likely to overestimate the area of mangroves in 1990 and underestimate the
loss over time.
The results indicate that the global area of mangroves has decreased from around
16.1 million hectares in 1990 to 15.6 million hectares in 2010 7 (Table 2.8). However,
there are indications that there may have been a change in assessment methodologies
over time in some countries, which means that the estimates from different years are
not completely compatible. Indonesia, for instance, reported a significant increase in
7
In comparison, FAO (2007e) contained information from 124 countries and areas and estimated the
total mangrove area to be 16.9, 15.7 and 15.2 million hectares respectively in 1990, 2000 and 2005.