Mangroves

This publication, prepared in cooperation with the oil industry’s Exploration Production Forum, sets out the oil exploration process, describes the potential environmental consequences of exploration and recommends measures for the prevention or minimization of adverse impacts. The material is based on the experience of IUCN’s Environmental Assessment Service.

This study, based on a colloquium, field assessments of development activities and technical analyses pertaining to barrier-built estuaries and lagoons, was inspired by the positive response to a preceding report captioned <a href=”http://www.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2011-112.pdf”> ‘An Appraisal of Mangrove Management in Micro-target_idal Estuaries and Lagoons in Sri Lanka’</a>.

This study was inspired by observations and experiences from post-tsunami (2004) mangrove planting and ‘restoration’ work in the country. Since the tsunami, IUCN Sri Lanka supported a number of initiatives for improving mangrove management in the context of the structure and functioning of the parent ecosystems – estuaries and lagoons.

Scientific evidence suggests that variations in temperature, weather patterns and sea level will impact coastal ecosystems and communities. This easy to use four step guide has been developed to help coastal project managers effectively address the potential impacts of climate change and enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of projects.

In this toolkit, we focus on both human (socioeconomic) and biophysical (ecological) aspects of monitoring. Socioeconomic monitoring normally focuses on people’s knowledge and attitude towards an ecosystem as well as their natural resource use and dependence. Ecological monitoring on the other hand will generally focus on a specific species or ecosystem, using supporting information on environmental conditions and associated organisms.

The goal of this toolkit is to help promote environmental stewardship and increase awareness of marine and coastal ecosystems among schoolchildren in Asia through the use of creative, investigative approaches. Investigative approaches allow schools to make the local environment relevant and interesting to children in coastal communities and help to reinforce the need for wise and sustainable management of our coastal and marine resources.