Third East Asian Seas Youth Forum Toolkit - PEMSEA.org

Young Champions for the OceanMangrovesThe marine and coastal ecosystems of the countries in Southeast Asia are home to 35 percent of mangroves in the world and 28percent of the world’s mangrove forests are within the coastal areas of the South China Sea. Products and ecological services providedby mangrove systems are estimated to be worth about US$16 billion annually.The value of the ecosystem services provided by coral reefs ranges from more than US$ 18 million per square kilometer per year fornatural hazard management, up to US$ 100 million for tourism, more than US$ 5 million for genetic material and bioprospecting andup to US$ 331,800 for fisheries.Worldwide mangrove distribution (Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, 2009).However, significant decrease in the size of mangrove areas all over Southeast Asia have been reported in a span of 15 years. Themangrove resources of Southeast Asia suffer the highest rates of mangrove losses in the world. As of 2005, only 46, 971 km 2 ofmangrove is remaining from the 63, 850 km 2 estimate total regional mangrove area in 1980. This is about 26% aggregate decline withina 25-year period.The major causes of mangrove forest degradation include conversion of mangrove areas to mariculture ponds, mostly for shrimpfarming, and overexploitation for fuelwood and timber production.Distribution of the world’s mangroves (Nelleman et. al., 2009).19