Current Biology
Volume 32, Issue 7, 11 April 2022, Pages 1641-1649.e3
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Ambitious global targets for mangrove and seagrass recovery

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.013Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • We estimated potential global recovery of mangroves and seagrass

  • Protection reduces net losses and supports long-term recovery

  • Restoration is critical to achieve net gains in ecosystem extent

  • Both protection and restoration are required to achieve and sustain global recovery

Summary

There is an urgent need to halt and reverse loss of mangroves and seagrass to protect and increase the ecosystem services they provide to coastal communities, such as enhancing coastal resilience and contributing to climate stability.1,2 Ambitious targets for their recovery can inspire public and private investment in conservation,3 but the expected outcomes of different protection and restoration strategies are unclear. We estimated potential recovery of mangroves and seagrass through gains in ecosystem extent to the year 2070 under a range of protection and restoration strategies implemented until the year 2050. Under a protection-only scenario, the current trajectories of net mangrove loss slowed, and a minor net gain in global seagrass extent (∼1%) was estimated. Protection alone is therefore unlikely to drive sufficient recovery. However, if action is taken to both protect and restore, net gains of up to 5% and 35% of mangroves and seagrasses, respectively, could be achieved by 2050. Further, protection and restoration can be complementary, as protection prevents losses that would otherwise occur post-2050, highlighting the importance of implementing protection measures. Our findings provide the scientific evidence required for setting strategic and ambitious targets to inspire significant global investment and effort in mangrove and seagrass conservation.

Keywords

conservation optimism
conservation targets
coastal wetlands
protection
rehabilitation
scenarios
Markov projection models
ecosystem goals

Data and code availability

Original code has been archived at Zenodo and the DOI is listed in the key resources table. All data used in the analyses are publicly available and are linked to in the key resources table. Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.

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Twitter: @ChristinABuelow

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Lead contact