Rotich Mwangi Lawry WhereLandMeetstheSea MangroveReport

2016

This report provides a synoptic analysis of the legal and governance frameworks that relate to the use and management of mangrove forests globally. It highlights the range of challenges typically encountered in the governance and tenure dimensions of mangrove forest management. This assessment forms part of a broader study that includes national-level assessments in Indonesia and Tanzania. It was carried out under the USAID-funded Tenure and Global Climate Change Program. The report provides information on the challenges for mangrove rehabilitation and restoration, legal frameworks for the governance of mangroves, mangrove governance and tenure in practice, and lessons in mangrove governance for policy and practice. Primary findings from this assessment show that authority over mangrove forest management is overwhelmingly vested in state institutions and that mangrove protection is a central objective. Given the ambiguous role of mangroves situated between the land and sea, the conf...

2017

This dataset is an output of the "Assessment of Natural Resource Governance Including Land and Forest Tenure in Coastal Mangrove Forests of Southeast Asia and Africa" project. The project involves the preparation of a background global review and two national assessments of natural resource governance, including land and forest tenure in the sustainable management of coastal mangrove forests. The background global review will survey the existing literature on the role of governance and tenure conditions in driving deforestation and degradation, as well as the sustainable management of forests. The two assessments will incorporate a gender-differentiated approach and cover Indonesia and Tanzania. They will involve an examination of national policies and legal contexts across relevant ministerial sectors. They will also provide a detailed analysis of mangrove governance and tenure practices in each country.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

2017

Coastal Field School participants from Kurri Cadi, Maros, South Sulawesi discuss the results of a trend analysis in preparation for mangrove restoration activities. Credit: Rio Ahmad/Blue Forests.

workshop presentation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019

Wetlands Ecology and Management 19: 533-543, 2011

Mangrove forests of Tanzania are reserved by law, but the capacity to effectively enforce this institution has remained far from reach and mangrove forests continue to be exploited as cheap sources of wood and forest land for other uses. Often, the rural poor who depend on mangroves for their subsistence are pointed out by the state institutions as culprits of the degradation. Promisingly though, this paradigm is being offset by the emerging positive view about human proclivity for caring and nurturing common resources. Traditional and community based forest management practices are emerging as appropriate alternatives to state control and institutional arrangement for ensuring sustainable management of forest resources. Nonetheless, community based management has not yet been robustly implemented for mangrove forests in Tanzania. Retrospectively, this paper argues that nationalization of mangrove forests has not been successful in reversing mangrove degradation. The experiences have instead been the frictions between people and the state, as desperate rural poor continue to plunder on and make a living at the expense of mangrove forests. The paper exemplify how policy failure, weak or dysfunctional state institutions in Tanzania compounded by little participatory awareness and self commitment are ruining the restoration and conservation initiatives.

Environment and livelihoods in tropical coastal zones: managing agriculture-fishery-aquaculture conflicts

From its early discovery, mangrove has inspired ambivalent feelings among Westerners, ranging from delight to repulsion. It has been considered in turn as an unhealthy and hostile milieu, as a source of multiple resources or as a fragile, diversified and rich ecosystem. Management policies have also varied between extremes: from periods of degradation and conversion to periods of rehabilitation, restoration and protection. This contribution is centred on claims and conflicts over mangrove wetlands. Three case studies are described (Kaw estuary in French Guiana, Menabe mangrove wetland in Madagascar, and the endangered amphibious territories in the Northern Rivers) to analyse the local strategies that have been elaborated to meet the challenges of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Through the case study of West Africa, we will show the very early (at least, the 15th century) multiple-use system controlled by peasant-fishermen communities, then the disruption of t...

Conservation Biology, 2016

Many drivers of mangrove forest loss operate over large scales and are most effectively addressed by policy interventions. However, conflicting or unclear policy objectives exist at multiple tiers of government, resulting in contradictory management decisions. To address this, we considered 4 approaches that are being used increasingly or could be deployed in Southeast Asia to ensure sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. First, a stronger incorporation of mangroves into marine protected areas (MPAs) (that currently focus This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 2 largely on reefs and fisheries) could resolve some policy conflicts and ensure that mangroves do not fall through a policy gap. Second, examples of community and government comanagement exist, but achieving co-management at scale will be important in reconciling stakeholders and addressing conflicting policy objectives. Third, private-sector initiatives could protect mangroves through existing and novel mechanisms in degraded areas and areas under future threat. Finally, payments for ecosystem services (PES) hold great promise for mangrove conservation; REDD-style carbon schemes (known as blue carbon) are attracting attention. Although barriers remain to the implementation of PES, the potential to implement them at multiple scales exists. Closing the gap between mangrove conservation policies and action is crucial to the improved protection and management of this imperilled coastal ecosystem and to the livelihoods that depend on them.

2019

Protecting mangrove forest is essential because the numerous of its ecosystem services, particularly over coastal communities, rely on the mangrove. Deforestation on mangrove forest not only affected the community's welfare but also increased the risk from disasters such as tsunami, storm surges, tidal flood, etc. The loss of mangrove forest occurred in Langkat Regency, North Sumatera, Indonesia. Massive land-use change from mangrove forest to palm oil plantation commence in 2000, resulting in significant loss of fishermen income and environmental degradation. Langkat case is unique and exciting because of the community in 3 subdistricts against the oil palm corporation by doing a movement to rehabilitate mangrove area. The final action was in 2010 when communities broke down the palm oil dike in a field, which called Register 8/L, that was a mangrove area. After the movement of successfully 'reclaimed' the land by gaining the right to manage the mangrove through Communi...