Paul Walters

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The Plight Of The Humble Coastal Tree That Could Save Us All.

The Plight Of The Humble Coastal Tree That Could Save Us All.


Now, before I launch into this diatribe I have a confession to make; I have never liked mangrove forests or mangrove trees in general. From afar they look fabulous but get up close and personal and, once inside that forest is a bit like stepping into one of those awful places one sees in fantasy movies. !


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Mangroves are coastal trees and grow in muddy soil or, lets call a spade a spade, they grow in swamps and, when the tide is out, the mud that makes up the swamp’s floor smells somewhat dank, in keeping with its gloomy surrounds. If that wasn’t enough, every mangrove forest I have been in is mosquito central and, if one is not wearing six gallons of repellent, a full body suit and a bee - keepers outfit these little bastards will drain all of your blood before you can even utter the word mangrove.


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However, I have lately discovered that for all of these years I’ve been giving the humble mangrove rather a bad rap for, as it turns out, these hardy trees are vital to our very existence.

I read a fascinating piece by Erin Craig recently that changed my attitude and has made me realize that without these trees I might just have to invest in a set of robust floaties or even a rubber raft.

Mangroves it seems are the climate superheroes of the arboreal world. They grow in swamps along the coasts: thin trunks and tangled, spidery roots submerged in dark, briny water. The roots filter saltwater and can expand and protect eroded coastlines. These hardy trees create natural storm barriers and protect agricultural land from saltwater infiltration. And on top of everything else, mangroves are atmospheric, giant vacuum cleaners, pulling in unparalleled amounts of carbon dioxide from the air.


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"The organic carbon stocks stored in mangrove ecosystems are three to five times larger than other forest types," confirmed Sigit Sasmito, a researcher with the Center for International Forestry Research and Charles Darwin University in Australia”

Here in Bali we also have Mangrove palms, also called Nipa palms, which are a unique part of the mangrove biosphere: they are the only palms that have adapted to salty coastal waters. While not as effective as regular mangrove trees, mangrove palms are still efficient carbon-dioxide filters and protect the shoreline from storm damage and erosion. Their feathery, fronded tops rise high above the water, creating a dense forest where locals make a living from their catches of small fish and squid.


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Now the reason I am talking about trees today (not a subject I am well versed in and in fact with this article I am perhaps walking on thin ice) is that Mangroves at the moment are rather a hot topic here on the island of Bali. Any visitor travelling to and from the airport will see massive signs bearing the words “tolok reklamasi’ which translated means, deny the reclamation.

Seems that one of Indonesia’s largest developers in conjunction with a Chinese consortium are hell bent on clearing a huge swathe of mangrove forests in order to build yet another five star resort and a golf course for the up market punters.

The Balinese, usually the most non - confrontational people on the planet, have decided that enough is enough and basically taken up arms to fight the developers all the way to the highest court in the land to block this development. However, Indonesia being Indonesia money it seems speaks very loudly and it looks like the development will get signed off pretty soon. This is a typical case of short- term gain for long term pain.


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This is not a phenomenal confined to Bali or Indonesia as the clearing of these trees is happening all over Asia. Vietnam for instance has lost more than half its mangrove forests since the 1940s, largely to aqua farming and urban development. It’s the eternal conundrum of environmentalism in developing economies: eat now or breathe later?

Clearing land for shrimp farms might be beneficial in the short term, but intact forests are hugely profitable to the fishing industry at large: by keeping salinity levels in check, mangrove forests promote tremendous biodiversity, which means more kinds of fish to catch.


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Some of the doomsday predictions are that if these forests continued to be cleared at their current rate, the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s breadbasket and one of the world's most prolific rice-growing areas will be underwater by 2100! Not only that 35% of Ho Chi Minh, (Vietnam’s second largest city) will suffer the same fate.

I have restricted my reading on this subject to S.E. Asia but I am sure, in fact I know that this mindless clearing of mangroves is happening in most of the tropical and sub- tropical areas around the globe.


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I wish I had an answer or a solution but sadly I don’t but I will continue to ponder on this subject while I take my swimming lessons.

My heartfelt thanks to Erin Craig whose stats I studiously pinched for this piece.

Paul v Walters is the best selling author of five novels and when not cocooned in sloth and procrastination in his house in Bali he scribbles for several international travel and vox pop journals.


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Komentar

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #38

#53
Aaron Skogen thanks for stopping by, much appreciated . Now , about my room overlooking your back yard ......

Lisa Gallagher

6 tahun yang lalu #37

#51
Thank you for the invite Paul Walters!!

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #36

#19
Lisa \ud83d\udc1d Gallagher As always spot on the money. Thanks for stopping by

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #35

#29
@Rox castaneda Thanks for stopping by all the way from peru

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #34

#22
@dabasish majumder Thanks for the comments, always appreciated

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #33

#26
Lada \ud83c\udfe1 Prkic Thanks Lada , always good to see you here

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #32

#27
Jerry Fletcher there is still a lot of bali that is unspoiled so pop on down

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #31

#34
Dear onl Ronnie ...wasnt the sharpest knife in the drawer . Thanks for stopping by

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #30

#35
Randall Burns Thanks for the info...yup they do breed in fresh water but like any reprobates hang out in gloomy places

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #29

#36
Joyce \ud83d\udc1d Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee Thanks for the comments , always appreciated

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #28

#38
@Franci Eugenia Hoffman Thanks for dropping by , always great to see your comments

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #27

#39
Savvy Raj Thanks again for stopping by always appreciated

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #26

#30
Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams Thanks for that. Environmentalist?? Well perhaps I will however coninue to write about it. Just wait for further pieces on kalimantan ( Borneo) and Sarawak ( Malaysian side of Borneo) The environmental destruction there is indescribable all for timber and the growing of palm oil . 75% of the native forests have gone in just 40 years !!

Randall Burns

6 tahun yang lalu #25

#37
Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams While living in Cayman Islands I learned about the SSS, everyone there used it.
So sad. So inevitable. Money will rule. And if citizens line up in a blockade o save the trees? Well, we've seen what good that does here in the US.

Randall Burns

6 tahun yang lalu #23

#4
Paul Walters After rereading some of the comments I have to interject here to clarify that the mangroves, (and I really wish I could use italics here), are NOT the cause of the mosquitoes; mozzies can only breed in fresh water, sure the mangroves are a great place for them to hang out but getting rid of the plants will not get rid of the bugs. (have you tried Avon "Skin so Soft"? seriously best mosquito repellent and it's good for your skin). As you illustrate so well in your article the mangroves fill a niche in the interface between the salt water ocean and "dry land". Again great article, keep spreading the awareness, will share...

David B. Grinberg

6 tahun yang lalu #22

Paul, I enjoyed reading this buzz, which jogged my memory of an unfortunate and misguided comment once made by President Reagan that trees are the cause of pollution. Remember that one? To the contrary, trees and nature are the lifelines that allow the human race to thrive. We can't fool Mother Nature, as they say, and drastic climate change IMHO is an unequivocal testament to that. Thanks for more brilliant buzz!

Randall Burns

6 tahun yang lalu #21

#24
Ian Weinberg, It's never too early for a single malt!!!

Lisa Gallagher

6 tahun yang lalu #20

#30
My sister, her grown kids and husband all went swimming with the manatees about 4 years ago. My nephew was still in HS then! They had fun.

Randall Burns

6 tahun yang lalu #19

Great article Paul Walters, Mangroves are prevalent throughout the Caribbean, are a cornerstone in the ecosystem and are fairly well protected. Many marine species, (literally thousands), begin their lives in the mangroves and would not survive without the them. They are also one of the best "hurricane holes" to stash your boat in for protection during severe storms and full blown hurricanes, (Our 32' sloop survived many storms and several majors in our mangrove hurricane hole), very strong, hardy, resilient, but also flexible.

Jerry Fletcher

6 tahun yang lalu #18

Thank you Paul. I've never been around a mangrove long enough to form an opinion about them. Now, I want to go hug one. I, personally. would like to visit a Bali that has not been "reclaimed." Thank you for opening my eyes.

Lada 🏡 Prkic

6 tahun yang lalu #17

Paul, this post is such an interesting read. It's one of the topics that makes us think about the world we live in. It reminds me on the Amazon deforestation. Rain forests are being cut mainly for cattle pasture and for the cultivation of soybeans for feeding cows, turning the forests into the beef factories. Something similar happens with mangrove forests. Despite their benefits, the forests have experienced extensive deforestation. As you pointed, loss of mangrove trees also causes soil erosion and multiplies the risk of tidal waves and floods. I only hope that corporations' and politicians' interests will not cause our collective end, as Ian ‘predicted’in his comment.

Gert Scholtz

6 tahun yang lalu #16

Paul Walters At least no trees were used in "putting this to paper" :) I hope the article goes out wider to increase awareness of these destructive developments. Very good read Paul - thank you.

Ian Weinberg

6 tahun yang lalu #15

Thanks for the tag Paul Walters Sadly the scourge of Mankind carries on. Like a Shakespearean Tragedy in slo-mo, we're witnessing the relentless destruction of our 'aqua-lung', our Gaia. The evils of self-interest driven behavior will surely be our collective end. Even a parasite spares the life of the host. The current self-interest behavior of Mankind is more akin to a spreading malignant tumor which invariably destroys its host. Wow you really got me going here. And its still a bit too early for a single malt ...

Pascal Derrien

6 tahun yang lalu #14

Now that's a tree and a half and I keep learning stuff with your articles :-)

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #13

Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee

CityVP Manjit

6 tahun yang lalu #12

#11
Gerald Hecht Loyola has released the "Finding Common Ground" video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFj2vhehgzk That is a 87 minute video in a 8 Second world. The video shows plenty of intelligent folk in Louisana and what I take from it is that restoration is more akin to the Louisana dredges used by folk in Dubai to build land that Dubai use to create maps of the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDYYjBiywg Apparently those folk in Dubai have lots of cash from this thing called oil. Louisana oil companies, but I also see in the video that dredging is a quick fix and not a holistic solution. Moreover I don't understand the logic of freshwater diversion that kills salt water marshes, and salt water later kills vegetation - so here I can see salt water marshes act in a similiar way to Bali's Mangroves - but Louisiana has constituencies Bali does not have like farmer and fisherman interests a.k.a. short-terms wins vs long-term value. I also took a look at Mangroves in Louisana featured in the PDF below - the more I look, the more questions I find and the greater the conflicts in any solution. http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/document/32868-coastal-mangrove-marsh-shrubland/coastal_mangrove-marsh_shrubland.pdf I could only watch half of the video because my local time is getting closer to 3am. It is a very informative video and I agree with the woman who called Louisana a "holistic puzzle". This video articulates that puzzle but it needs more than 8 seconds.

Lisa Gallagher

6 tahun yang lalu #11

#5
Thanks for tagging me and posting this vital buzz Paul Walters. I'm not very familiar with Mangroves so I appreciated reading about the consequences if they keep ridding areas of the Mangroves. Dean, don't you feel that money always wins? It's sad that the people/Corporations that can afford to build seem to have little to no concern for our environment either short term or long term. It's so defeating that people at large can protest, sign petitions etc... to try and stop big money from destroying our planet and in the end it seems they always win. Look at the Dakota pipeline, another example of big money/OIL Moguls winning out without giving two craps if they contaminate the water and soil of so many Indians (and others) who live off of the land. Hey even birds depend on mosquitos for their feeding.

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #10

#16
Gerald Hecht every little bit counts...now away to finish that single malt and 'then to sleep and per chance to dream"

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #9

#6
Tani Paxton And to you . I would hang around a bit and chat but given the significance of today I must away and hug a mangrove

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #8

#10
Gerald Hecht Thanks I knew I could rely on you !!

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #7

#9
CityVP \ud83d\udc1d Manjit Thank you for your extremely enlightened response ( I did say I was on Thin ice !!) However next time you do happen to breeze through Bali, please get in touch I would be delighted to meet you !

CityVP Manjit

6 tahun yang lalu #6

What I have read of this is perplexing. When Bali hosted the climate change conference back in 2007 I find this PDF talking about planting of mangroves to stop coastal erosion http://www.climatecentre.org/downloads/files/asia_and_pacific/Bali%20mangroves.pdf so as I see it, the logic dictates that planting mangroves stops coastal erosion, but removing mangroves is reclamation. I am sure the Donald Trump Business School must have recently opened up in Bali but the reality is that if the United States is considering climate change and other long-term value initiatives unnecessary, this is a dark time indeed. When the association between climate change and catastrophic consequences is finally addressed, the problem is that the actors who let that catastrophe happen will be long gone and not accountable to the decisions they took. Further research took me to the World Ocean Summit in Bali this February in 2017 and this is a story about restoration - to restore 20% of Bali's Mangroves by 2030. https://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/pressreleases/global-mangrove-alliance-rallies-the-world-to-reverse-loss-of-worlds-most-va.xml On the one hand I am reading that reclamation will remove Mangroves that will lead to coastal erosion and on the other hand there are groups in Bali announcing restoration. Seems like what one hand is giving, the other is taking. Back in England we called it - "the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing". I can see the sense in restoration and absurdity of reclamation. Next four years the world is steadily being led by corporations and remarkably working class people have given the keys to the kingdom by voting in a man who is the picture postcard of corporate interest. It is a tough time arguing for climate change when the leaders of the Free World are interested in deregulation and profits. The short-term is not good at all.

Dean Owen

6 tahun yang lalu #5

#4
As you may know I lived in Singapore for 9 years. And as you may also know, despite being almost bang on the equator, Singapore has pretty much eradicated mozzies through hefty fines and constant fumigation. But despite this, the mangrove swamps of Pasir Ris and other parts of the island are still flourishing. I hope that Bali can find some compromise.

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #4

#3
Dean Owen A bout of dengue fever might change your stance on the mozzies !!

Dean Owen

6 tahun yang lalu #3

An important article! Glad to see the Balinese taking a stand. Much as I think mosquitoes are the most putrid of all species, save the mozzies!

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #2

Claire L Cardwell

Paul Walters

6 tahun yang lalu #1

Dean Owen

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