Where Are Mangroves Found?
There are 15.9 million hectares (over 60,000 square miles) of mangrove forests in the warm waters of tropical oceans all over the world. Along the Atlantic coast they are found from Florida all the way down to Argentina. Mangroves grow on both the western and eastern coasts of Africa. They stretch into India, Burma, and south-east Asia. Mangrove forests are also common in New Zealand and Australia. Saving the Mangroves For centuries mangrove areas have been used for timber, mining, agriculture, harbor development and human settlements. Mangrove areas were used for commercial shrimp farming during the late 70’s and early 80’s. However, using mangrove areas for shrimp farming proved to be unsustainable. Many governments have realized how necessary mangroves really are to the overall environment and have adopted mangrove restoration and conservation programs. Strict legislation to protect mangroves is in place in many countries. Indonesia is home to over a quarter of the world’s mangrove
