SINANCHÃ ‰, Mexico, August 2 (IPS) – Two extremes of coastal development can be found parallel in the small community of San Crisanto, in the municipality of Sinanché in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatán.
On one side is a mangrove forest that the community has preserved since 1995. It protects the settlement from coastal erosion, supports local fisheries and provides employment in ecotourism. And, as of 2022, it is generating income from carbon credits.
On the other side, two large housing projects are taking shape. Such constructions in coastal areas represent one of the greatest threats to mangrove ecosystems in Mexico and worldwide. But in San Crisanto, the woods are safe – for now.
“Fortunately, the mangroves are still good,” IPS José Loria, president of the community-based organization, told San Crisanto Foundation, monitoring efforts to protect and restore them. “We are working. As a result, have a better view of their environmental services. “
But elsewhere in Mexico, threats to mangroves are growing. Meanwhile, uncertainty surrounds government-funded efforts to restore coastal forests, and it’s unclear whether mangroves can cope with the sea-level rise that global warming causes. demand is being created or not.
Loss and recovery
Only three countries – Indonesia, Australia and Brazil – have a larger area of mangroves than Mexico, yes 905,086 hectares of forest by 2020.
These fragile ecosystems have a dual role to play in the fight against the climate crisis. On the one hand, they absorb and store large amounts of carbon. On the other hand, they protect the coast from storms and sea level rise.
But they are under threat from the construction of aquaculture farms, infrastructure and tourism development. Regulations to protect mangroves and land full of water have not yet stopped their destruction.
Mangroves Deforest Affects three states in particular, according to Mexico’s Mangrove Monitoring System. In the northern territory of Sinaloa, the total area is 5258 hectares from 2015 to 2020, in Baja California Sur 1,068 and in northern Nayarit 247 hectares.
As well as deforestation, many areas of mangroves are being degraded by human activities. While the total area of mangroves is degraded fall from 18 332 hectares in 2015 to 9,680 hectares in 2020, it get a raise in the states of Baja California Sur and Chiapas, to the south.
Replanting lost mangroves is one of the goals of UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030was started in 2019, but so far there are no mangrove restoration projects in Mexico registered on the UN database.
But many mangrove restoration projects are in fact ongoing. For example, between 2006 and 2020, Mexico’s National Forestry Commission (Conafor) approved 74 mangrove reforestation projects to offset deforestation elsewhere. According to Conafor data, these projects take place in 13 states, cover an area of 11 479 hectares and cost $200 million. The state of Nayarit has hosted 21 initiatives and the state of Veracruz in the southeastern part of the country, 18.
In addition to these deforestation compensation projects, Conafor has funded 11 mangrove restoration initiatives by 2021. Together they planted 1.34 million mangrove seeds on 1,048 hectares, and pepper cost $2.52 million.
Information vacuum
Claudia Teutli, a mangrove researcher at Center for Advanced Study and Research of the state-run National Polytechnic Institute, critiques some aspects of policies on mangroves.
“We don’t know the success of the projects, given how the restoration was done,” she said IPS. “It was done mostly for clearing claims. There is no goal of ecosystem restoration. “
Teutli says the government surveillance system is outdated and restoration requires better strategy and knowledge of restoration sites.
“There is a confusion between restoration and reforestation,” she said. “We don’t know what was done and how. Success is more than the number of trees planted”.
Joanna Acosta, a professor of conservation biology at the state Autonomous University of Carmen in the southeastern state of Campeche, agreed.
“We don’t know where the recovery has worked or where it has failed,” she said. “The government map does not make it clear whether the mangroves will be restored or not. We have to come up with transparent strategies, because the restored areas should not be interfered with. “
The scale of the challenge is enormous – Acosta estimates that Mexico has at least 235 000 hectares of mangroves that are not covered by conservation or management programs. She said that acknowledging the value of mangroves should be beneficial to the design of public policies.
“Mangroves are the species most resilient to the climate crisis, which is why they need to be protected,” she said. “It is important to protect them because of their ability to capture and store carbon, and because their degradation releases carbon dioxide.”
Against sea level rise?
The community in San Crisanto is taking advantage of this. It has begun selling carbon-based offsets of 850 hectares of storage mangroves.
San Crisanto is a ejido – Area of land owned by the State but held and managed by local people. Its mangroves also generate revenue from the Conafor Environmental Services Payment Program. This year, the program is paying out $53 ejido for every 340 hectares of mangroves.
Ejido proposes the creation of a national network of mangroves and a national coastal resource system.
“There should be some work to building the organization,” says Loria. “We are the starting point for regulating environmental processes and creating resilience.”
But despite the successes of San Crisanto, Loria acknowledges problems like coastal erosion. This raises the question of how Mexico’s mangroves will withstand sea level rise as the planet warms.
Some researchers say sea level rise will be higher than the rate at which mangroves accumulate sediment over the next 30 years if warming continues at the current rate. This will submerge the mangroves. Other scientists, work in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsulasays that mangroves will differ in their ability to cope with sea level rise.
Teutli is optimistic, saying that as sea levels rise, mangrove sediments will build up, keeping trees above water level.
“Adapting to floods,” she said. “Before we thought they were intolerant. Tropicalization is coming and it will help mangroves. “
This article is part of set of two stories Produced with support from Internews . Earth Press Network.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
