Can mangroves be saved?
In the face of these challenges, grassroots organizations and conservation groups are beginning to champion the maligned mangrove. In Brazil and Ecuador, community management of mangrove forests ensures long-term sustainable use. In Vietnam, millions of mangrove saplings have been planted in areas formerly devastated by Agent Orange. In Indonesia, people devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami are working to restore their mangrove coastal barricade. On the desert shores of the Red Sea, a mangrove-planting scheme in drought-stricken areas is providing timber resources, high-protein fodder for farm stock and revitalized fisheries. But with mangroves being lost at a rate of thousands of acres a year in some areas, can conservation awareness and reforestation outflank the drive for development? The Last Stands project will profile these highly diverse, highly valuable and highly threatened habitats which stand in the battle zones between restless sea and crumbling land; between relentl
