By Jane Spencer, The Wall Street Journal 9 May 08;
HONG KONG -- The impact of the Myanmar cyclone was likely worsened by an environmental problem plaguing Asia's coastlines: widespread degradation of mangrove forests that once protected coastal villages from tidal surges and strong winds.
In Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, the region ravaged by last Friday's cyclone, vast swaths of mangroves have been cleared over the decades to make way for rice fields and shrimp ponds and to provide wood for fuel. Ecologists say the destruction of the forests may have worsened the effects of the natural disaster.
Mangrove forests "used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, big waves and storms and the residential area," said Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore earlier this week. "All those lands have been destroyed. Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces."
Mangroves, the dense networks of trees and shrubs that live in tropical tidal zones, line one-quarter of the world's tropical coastlines. But in Asia they have been hurriedly uprooted to create farmland and aquaculture farms and for urban development.Researchers in Myanmar estimate that 83% of the mangroves in the Irrawaddy were destroyed between 1924 and 1999. The destruction was spearheaded by British colonial authorities who encouraged rice cultivation in the delta, which was once known as the "rice bowl" of the world. More recently, coastal development and demand for wood have added to the problem.
In other parts of Asia, the greatest spoiler of coastline is shrimp farms as Thailand, Indonesia and India have become some of the world's biggest shrimp exporters. Shrimp farms demand brackish water and flat land, both found in abundance where mangroves grow.
A typical shrimp pond lasts for no more than eight years before the many chemicals and antibiotics that are poured into it in the process of raising shrimp make it unusable. The shrimp farmers move on, cutting more mangrove forests for new farms. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that world-wide, 1% of the world's mangroves are destroyed each year.
Environmentalists have long lamented the loss of biodiversity associated with mangrove destruction, but a growing body of research suggests humans also pay a price for the destruction. Several studies following the 2004 Asian tsunami found that villages protected by healthy mangrove forests experienced fewer casualties, because the forests can dissipate the impact of a wave. Since then, nations including India and Bangladesh have launched projects to regrow mangroves to provide storm buffers.
Mangroves offer a double layer of protection against the pounding surf. Low red mangroves anchor themselves in mud flats along tidal estuaries, their flexible branches and tangled roots absorbing the sea's power. Behind them stand black mangroves as tall as trees. Scientists say they can also slow winds.
The rampant poverty in Myanmar has accelerated destruction of tidal forests. "People in the city of Rangoon [Yangon] can't afford to buy propane or gas, so mangrove is being cut continuously for fuel," says Jim Enright, Asia coordinator for the nonprofit Mangrove Action Project, who previously has visited the region hit by the cyclone. "When I was there, you could see large barges of wood headed to Rangoon."
Groups such as Mangrove Action Project have launched mangrove-regrowth projects in countries including Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Thailand.
Scientists in Myanmar are still in the very early stages of assessing the relationship between mangroves and the damage wrought by the cyclone.
"From our initial analysis, there's no doubt there's a connection," says Faizal Parish, an ecologist at the Global Environment Center, a Malaysian nonprofit group that focuses on mangrove protection, who has been in touch with environmentalists on the ground in Myanmar.
Mr. Parish says that part of the problem is that as the mangroves have been converted to agricultural lands, residents have moved closer to the sea and built homes in vulnerable areas. Many villages in Myanmar are in rice-growing areas that are actually below sea level.
The closed nature of Myanmar's government is making it even more difficult for outside scientists to get accurate information on the issue. For years, Myanmar's military government has blocked outside nongovernmental organizations and scientists from accessing the region, so data about mangrove destruction were limited even prior to the cyclone.
Edward Barbier, a professor of environmental economics at the University of Wyoming who has studied Asia's mangroves, says more study is needed before definitive conclusions about the relationship between mangroves and the cyclone death toll can be assessed.