ReviewEthnobiology, socio-economics and management of mangrove forests: A review
Introduction
Mangroves have been extensively studied for decades by botanists, ecologists and marine scientists (Macnae, 1968, Chapman, 1976, Saenger et al., 1983, Tomlinson, 1986, Kathiresan and Bingham, 2001, Lacerda, 2002). Yet, it was not until the 1980s and early 1990s that significant research attention was brought to bear on the human interactions with these unique forested wetlands (FAO, 1985, Hamilton et al., 1989, FAO, 1994, Cormier-Salem, 1999). Earlier works were mostly descriptive, documenting the status and uses of mangroves by coastal communities (e.g., Walsh, 1977, Taylor, 1982, Christensen, 1982, Kunstadter et al., 1986, Field and Dartnall, 1987, Diop, 1993, Lacerda, 1993). By contrast, recent research on mangroves is more analytical, examining humans as ecological agents of disturbance and change in mangrove ecosystems. These studies have applied a mix of ecological, economic, ethnographic, historical and geo-spatial methods to quantify the diverse values of mangrove forests and to probe cause–effect relationships between people and mangroves in a variety of geographic, cultural and political-economic contexts (e.g., Dewalt et al., 1996, Ellison and Farnsworth, 1996, Ewel et al., 1998b, Rönnbäck, 1999, Vandergeest et al., 1999, Kovacs, 2000, Barnes, 2001, Walters, 2003, Walters, 2005b, Dahdouh-Guebas et al., 2006a, Lopez-Hoffman et al., 2006).
This review paper synthesizes research on the ethnobiology, socio-economics and management of mangrove forests, and also includes a brief review of geo-spatial monitoring tools as these have been applied to study mangroves. These topics span an enormously diverse range of literature. As such, different sub-topics are necessarily dealt with succinctly. An attempt was made to include the most significant publications as well as a good number of the less noted, but also important research works. The extensive bibliography can serve as a resource for readers interested in further exploration of the subject.
Population pressure is typically greatest along the coast, so it is little surprise that human influences on the world's mangrove forests are significant and growing. Mangroves have been cleared and degraded on an alarming scale during the past four decades (Valiela et al., 2001, Wilkie and Fortuna, 2003, Duke et al., 2007), yet they remain an important source of wood and food products and provide vitally important environmental services for coastal communities throughout the tropics (Balmford et al., 2002). These values still receive relatively little attention or recognition from government policy-makers and the development community, and the myriad influences people have on these forests continue to be overlooked by many mangrove researchers. It is hoped that this review paper will provide some corrective to this neglect.
Section snippets
Ethnobiology of mangroves
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) or traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) are closely related concepts that are broadly inclusive of many different types of ecologically relevant knowledge, ranging from traditional use of specific plants and animals and essential knowledge critical to harvesting natural resources, through complex understandings of the functioning of local ecosystems, to cultural beliefs and religious views of human–environment relations (Berkes, 1999, Davis and Wagner, 2003).
Mangrove forest users and uses
Non-timber forest products are recognized as important economic resources, particularly to rural, marginalized communities (Vedeld et al., 2004). Many coastal communities in the tropics are characterized by relative geographic isolation, chronic poverty and significant dependence on the harvest of marine and coastal resources for their livelihood (Kunstadter et al., 1986). The majority of people living in or near mangrove areas derive their principal income from fishing and related activities.
Mangrove support functions to fisheries
Fishery species that use mangroves as habitat can be classified into permanent residents, spending their entire life cycle in mangrove systems, temporary long-term residents, associated with mangroves during at least one stage in their life cycle, and temporary short-term residents or sporadic users of the mangrove habitat (Robertson and Duke, 1990b). The critical early life stages, i.e. the larvae and juveniles, of many fish and shellfish species utilize mangroves as nursery grounds,
Mangrove ecosystem services
Mangroves support a wide variety of ecosystem services (e.g., Saenger et al., 1983, Ewel et al., 1998a, Moberg and Rönnbäck, 2003, Barbier, 2007, Rönnbäck et al., 2007a), which can be classified into supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Supporting services are those that are necessary for all other ecosystem services, and include soil formation, photosynthesis, primary production, nutrient cycling and water cycling. Provisioning
Property rights, resource access and conflict
Mangroves are unusual environments in that they are located between dry land and shallow marine and brackish water. This characteristic introduces complexities to planning and management because of competing and overlapping interests in mangrove lands and their resources. In short, mangroves are valuable coastal lands to various forest users and land developers, each one having incentive to claim and control access through degrees of privatization. But this tenure dynamic changes because marine
Conclusions and future directions
Research on the human dimensions of mangrove forests remains a relatively new frontier. While not intended to provide a comprehensive list of possible research topics, these concluding comments suggest several key priorities.
There are a growing number of studies which examine local resource utilization and valuation of mangroves, yet coverage is patchy: limited to a relatively small number of sites, concentrated within a few biogeographic regions (esp. East Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian
Acknowledgements
Brad Walters’ current research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Patrik Rönnbäck's and Farid Dahdouh-Guebas’ research was funded by the EU (INCO-DC contract no. 510863). John Kovacs’ research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (249496-06). Jurgenne Primavera's mangrove rehabilitation projects are funded by a grant from the Pew Fellowship program in Marine Conservation.
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