Preserving and Restoring Mangroves Protects Communities

Philippine mangrove forests play a critical role in supporting healthy ecosystems, creating opportunities for recreation and ecotourism, and ensuring prosperous livelihoods. Given their location in tidal zones, mangrove forests play a unique role in protecting local communities from shoreline erosion and typhoon damage, helping to stabilize elevation as sea levels rise. Over the last century, the Philippines has lost half of its mangrove cover, and many of the mangrove forests that remain are fragile and fragmented. These forests are under threat from both human and natural causes and local leaders must act to preserve mangrove forests and the ecosystem services that benefit all Filipinos.

This brief, available in English and Tagalog, details the valuable services that mangroves provide, explains the challenges of preserving and restoring mangrove forests, and provides recommendations for local leaders to take to protect communities from the consequences of sea level rise and increasingly severe typhoons. Both briefs also include links to the “State of Mangrove Summit” findings for Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, and the Central and Eastern Visayas.