Sustainable mangrove mngm’t pushed amid climate change

MANILA, Philippines -  The Philippines will host for the second time the ASEAN Mangrove Congress, which is aimed at strengthening the region’s technical and institutional capacities toward sustainable mangrove management amid threats of climate change.

To be hosted by the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB), the Congress aims to update member countries on research and development on mangrove resource and enhance public awareness on the impacts and threats on mangrove habitats, particularly climate change.

“We will strengthen collaboration and linkages among environment researchers who are now playing a crucial role in this big task of managing the coastal resources and climate change,” ERDB director Henry Adornado said.

It also seeks to promote the exchange of in-depth learning and good practices among ASEAN members and dig deeper into cases that prove mangroves can reduce impact of natural disasters.

Disaster prevention has become a primary program of ASEAN countries with reports of trends on rising temperature in the region since 1951, as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Rainfall has been trending down and sea levels up at the rate of one to three millimeters per year, and the frequency of extreme weather events has increased; heat waves are more frequent,” Adornado said.

Approximately 563 million people in Southeast Asia are concentrated along coastlines measuring 173,251 kilometers long, leaving it exposed to increasing risks including coastal erosion due to climate change and sea level rise.

“Mangrove habitats represent both a vulnerable resource and a potential deterrent to the effects of climate change. Sea level rise poses a major threat to mangrove ecosystems as it induces erosion and weakening of root structures, increased salinity, and mangrove inundation,” Adornado said.

Mangroves have been recognized to play an important role in combatting storm surges as what has been observed to be severely destructive during the Yolanda typhoon.

They are also known to reduce waves by as much as 75 percent through its vast underground root networks and high vegetation structural complexity.

This is the second time the Philippines is hosting the event. The first ASEAN Mangrove Congress was also held in the country in December 2012.

The conference comes in light of evidence that mangroves are proven to reduce the impact of disasters.

Coastal disasters have occurred as a result of tropical cyclones, tsunamis, landslides, and storms among which are Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines and Tropical Cyclone Komen that caused deaths in the Bay of Bengal affecting Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh in 2015.

About 563 million people in Southeast Asia are concentrated along coastlines measuring 173,251 kilometers long, leaving it exposed to increasing risks including coastal erosion due to climate change and sea level rise,” according to ERDB.

Mangroves are known to protect communities for as long as these have an extent of one kilometer. 

 Disaster prevention has become a primary program of ASEAN countries with reports of trends on rising temperature in the region by one to 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade from 1951 to 2000 as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC.