International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem 2023

IAS Current Affairs

1 year ago

Overview

Every year on July 26 there is a celebration known as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem.

Its goal is to increase public awareness of the value of mangrove ecosystems as a unique, special, and vulnerable ecosystem.
Also to advance strategies for their sustainable management, conservation, and uses.
This International Day was adopted by the General Conference of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2015.

Why international day required?

The world’s mangroves, along with all the aquatic and land creatures that depend on them, are thought to be in danger.
With estimates placing the number at more than 75 percent.
This is why UNESCO decided to take action to safeguard them through its Geoparks, World Heritage sites, and Biosphere Reserves, along with other unique blue carbon ecosystems.

Mangroves are an uncommon, magnificent, and abundant environment that bridges the land-ocean divide.
These extraordinary ecosystems play a role in the protection, well-being, and food security of coastal populations across the world.
They sustain a thriving biodiversity and offer fish and crustaceans a significant nursery environment.
A natural coastal defence against storm surges, tsunamis, increasing sea levels, and erosion is provided by mangroves.
They store enormous amounts of carbon in their soils, which are very efficient carbon sinks.
However, mangroves are vanishing three to five times more quickly than all of the world’s forests, with negative ecological and socioeconomic effects.
According to recent estimates, the area covered by mangroves has decreased by half during the previous 40 years.

Importance of Mangrove

Mangroves enhance the natural recycling of nutrients.
Mangroves moderate monsoonal tidal floods and reduce inundation of coastal lowlands.
They provide locals with timber, firewood, medicinal and tasty plants.
Give various fishes a secure and advantageous habitat in which to mate, reproduce, and grow.
They enhance the deposition of sediment in areas.

With its broad coastline, numerous deltas, estuaries, and distinctive offshore islands like the Lakshadweep Islands and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India is home to enormous mangrove ecosystems.
One of the biggest mangrove ecosystems in the world is the Sundarbans stretches into Bangladesh.
People use India’s mangroves and the 37 tree species that grow there for a variety of things, including building materials, medicines, fuel, grazing land for cattle, and honey production.
Mangrove ecosystem services offer housing for a wide variety of animals, including the Bengal Tiger.

Ecotone is a zone of transition between two ecosystems. An example is mangroves.

Issues in Indian Mangrove system

India mangroves have suffered significant losses as a result of
- Land reclamation
- Conversion to agri- and aquaculture
- Urban encroachment
- Over-exploitation
Mangroves of Pichavaram and Vedaranyam are degraded mainly due to the construction of aquaculture ponds and salt pans.

Conservation Efforts in India

This drop began to stabilise in the 1990s.
With sustainable harvesting cycles, much of India’s surviving mangroves are now maintained as forest reserves.
Some of them have seen notable increases in mangrove coverage as a result of ecosystem restoration and natural regeneration.
Out of 40 World Heritage sites and 12 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in India Several, mangrove forests are part of its Biosphere Reserves and natural World Heritage Sites, including the Sundarbans National Park.

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