Last month I posted about a recent report on the rate of deforestation in Belize. A similar report, with the same lead author, has been produced, focussing specifically on Belize’s mangroves. The abstract reads as follows:
Mangroves are an important component of the Belize Barrier Reef Complex, a mosaic of coral reef, sea grass, and mangrove ecosystems, and the world’s second largest barrier reef system. Based on satellite imagery available through the Regional Visualization & Monitoring System (SERVIR), the extent of Belize’s mangrove cover was assessed over a 30-year period to obtain a previously unavailable time-series of information on the status of these ecosystems. Using Zisman’s (1998) mangrove extent data as a baseline, a multi-temporal remote sensing-based change detection study was conducted by performing spectral mixture analysis on Landsat satellite imagery for the years 1980, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2004, and 2010. This assessment indicates that from late 1980 through early 2010, Belize’s mangrove cover declined from 188,417 acres (76,250 hectares), or 98.7% of the original extent, to 184,548 acres (74,684 ha.), or 96.7% of the original extent. Those figures equate to a net loss of approximately 3,900 acres of mangrove cover over roughly 30 years, a loss of 2% of the 1980 mangrove cover. The average annual net loss was estimated at 0.07%, or 125 acres. At the scale of 1:100,000, this assessment also reveals that land clearing resulted in fragmentation of some 2.1% of mangrove communities. In terms of the resilience of mangrove ecosystems, a mere 236 acres (96 ha.) of the area cleared between 1980 and 2010 was detected to have regrown. It is also assumed that widespread mangrove regrowth was likely not seen because land previously occupied by mangroves is permanently converted to other land uses such as infrastructure for housing. Whereas recent publications such as the 2010 World Mangrove Atlas indicate that a fifth of the world’s mangrove cover had been lost since 1980, the loss of 2% of Belize’s overall mangrove cover between 1980 and 2010 can be considered low.
For further details of the research, you can download the entire document: Technical Report: identification of threatened and resilient mangroves in the Belize Barrier Reef System.
Also of interest is this letter, written in response to the report, from the Belizean Mangrove Conservation Network. Here’s an extract:
In regards to this report, a 2% loss of mangrove in Belize seems slightly low but is probably in the right ball park. I wonder how some of the places that lost their mangroves long ago where handled in these estimates but I suspect the differences would not be great enough to warrant any objection to the the number in this report.
This estimate, however, does not tell the whole story.
Belize definitely has some advantages in mangrove conservation. They have strong national laws to reduce and prevent their removal. Shrimp farms there also have not used techniques that remove mangrove habitat. Perhaps most importantly, the population density of Belize is quite low and the human footprint along the coast is still somewhat limited. Development, however, is moving ahead rapidly and much of that is concentrated in housing and resort developments along the coast. That situation is rapidly evolving.
Concerns about Belizean mangrove conservation revolve more around the decisions made on a case by case basis as develoment proceeds. Given that 70% of the Belizean coastline is owned by foreign interests with direct interests in development, the fact that only 2% of mangroves have been removed so far is not especially reassuring.
Many developers in Belize still reflexively clear land down to the shoreline, even though this activity often results in immediate loss of portions of their property to erosion. It is also concerning that mangrove removal regulations have not always been enforced and until this recent global recession, development pressure had been increasing at a rapid pace. Developments built on fill on sites at or even below sea level are still routinely approved with devestating effects on the mangrove habitats as well as surrounding seagrass meadows that are dredged. In an era of rising sea levels and increasing storm intensity, this is a worrying trend.
Read the complete letter at the Mangrove Action Project blog. You may also be interested in the Belizean Mangrove Conservation Network group on Facebook.
Previously on Green Antilles: New report on deforestation in Belize, Coastal capital in the Dominican Republic (includes a link to an assessment of the value of Belize’s coastal ecosystems), Finding an ecology-economy balance for tourism in Belize.
[Photo: Sandy Redding]
