Lalao Aigrette has worked to protect the mangroves of her native Madagascar for more than 16 years. Growing up inland, she didn’t see the ocean until she was around 20 years old. But now she works closely with coastal communities via the Madagascan environmental group Bôndy to help them steward the mangrove ecosystems they depend on. “Mangroves are really important for the coastal communities in Madagascar, for their livelihood,” Aigrette said. Now a new study has confirmed that Aigrette’s and others’ hard work has been paying off.
Mangroves have been hammered around the world in recent decades due to deforestation, pollution, climate change and other stressors. In 2007, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that the world lost about 20% of its mangrove forests between 1980 and 2005. Madagascar’s mangroves were heavily deforested during that time as well, spurring the government and other organizations to begin adding protections.
These efforts are beginning to work. A new analysis of satellite images in Global Ecology and Conservation, dating as far back as 1972, has revealed that Madagascar’s mangroves have been making a comeback, with rates of deforestation slowing over time and mangrove cover actually increasing over the last decade. While these vital ecosystems still face challenges, experts say the results are a sign that Madagascar’s efforts to protect mangroves have been succeeding.
“I definitely think that it can be seen as a success story,” said Temilola Fatoyinbo, a forest ecologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, who was not involved with the study. “These protected areas, and conservation, work.”
Aigrette is not the only one who feels at home in the mangroves. These unique shoreline forests are hubs of biodiversity, hosting animal and plant species that can be found nowhere else, including the mangroves themselves. A mangrove is any tree or shrub that has evolved to thrive when partially submerged in saltwater; there are about 80 species total, and they aren’t all closely related.
Coastal mangrove forests can be found in tropical areas around the world, and they make up around half of Madagascar’s coastline. For communities living alongside mangroves, the trees and the ecosystem they create are a vital source of life.
Mangroves act as storm buffers, serve as fish nurseries and attract fish that are caught locally using traps and canoes and provide wood used for building, cooking and crafting the canoes.
Madagascar’s mangrove comeback aligns with results from other parts of the world too. In 2020, Fatoyinbo co-authored a study showing that global mangrove losses due to human activities are on the decline. This is partially because the easy-to-access mangroves have already been cut down, Fatoyinbo said, but is also because “the awareness and knowledge about the importance of mangrove ecosystems has just increased so much.”
As efforts to protect mangroves continue, Fatoyinbo expects the salt-loving trees to expand even further along the world’s tropical coasts.
While mangroves in Madagascar aren’t out of the woods yet — additional threats include mining, resort development and severe storms, which are becoming more common due to climate change — the new results show that with concerted conservation effort, in partnership with coastal communities, progress can be made.
“There is a need to empower the local communities to secure their rights over mangrove management,” Aigrette said, including not only the trees themselves but the fisheries they support. “Because their life is dependent on mangrove.”