Global mangrove distributions have fluctuated throughout human and geological history. The area covered by mangroves is influenced by a complex interaction between land position, rainfall hydrology, sea level, sedimentation, subsidence, storms and pest-predator relationshipsEslami-Andargoli, L., Dale, P. et al. (2009). "Mangrove expansion and rainfall patterns in Moreton Bay, Southeast Queensland, Australia." Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 85(2): 292–298."McLeod and Salm 2006" McLeod, E. and R. V. Salm (2006). Managing mangroves for resilience to climate change. Gland, Switzerland, The World Conservation Union (IUCN) 2.). In the last 50 years, human activities, mainly the expansion of shrimp farming along with agriculture and construction efforts, have strongly affected mangrove distributions, resulting in declines or expansions of worldwide mangrove area. These mangroves are riparian forests composed of trees and shrubs that are an important and crucial aspect of coastal land protection, climate change mitigation, and the maintenance and preservation of biodiversity. Mangrove forests are one of the world's most complex and most productive ecosystems, offering a multitude of benefits to their local ecosystems. They provide several important ecological services including coastal stabilization, juvenile fish habitats, the filtration of sediment and nutrients, water regulation, carbon storage, and storm protection.Valiela, I., Bowen, J. L. & York, J. K. 2001. Mangrove forests: one of the world's threatened major tropical environments. BioScience, 51, 807–815.Dierberg, F. E. & Kiattisimkul, W. 1996. Issues, impacts, and implications of shrimp aquaculture in Thailand. Environmental Management, 20, 649–666.Morrisey, D., Beard, C., Morrison, M., Craggs, R. & Lowe, M. 2007. The New Zealand Mangrove: Review of the Current State Of Knowledge. Auckland Regional Council. Mangrove loss has important implications for coastal ecological systems and human communities are dependent on healthy mangrove ecosystems. This article presents an overview of global mangrove forest biome trends in mangrove ecoregions distribution, as well as the cause of such changes.
As of 2010, mangroves are found in 117 countries and territories. Although distributed across 117 countries and territories, the top 15 mangrove holding nations contain approximately 75% of the global mangrove stock with Indonesia alone containing between 26% and 29% of the entire global mangrove stock.
The largest continuous area of mangrove forest is likely in-and-around the Sundarbans National Park in India and the Sundarbans Mangrove Forests in Bangladesh, which are both recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.
Overview Mangroves can be found in over one hundred countries and territories in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The largest percentage of mangroves is found between the 5° N and 5° S latitudes. Approximately 75% of world's mangroves are found in just 15 countries. Estimates of mangrove area based on remote sensing and global data tend to be lower than estimates based on literature and surveys for comparable periods.
In 2018, the Global Mangrove Watch Initiative released a global baseline based on remote sensing and global data for 2010 (Giri et al., 2011). They estimated the total mangrove forest area of the world as of 2010 at , spanning 118 countries and territories. Following the conventions for identifying geographic regions from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, researchers also reported that Asia has the largest share (38.7%) of the world's mangroves, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (20.3%), Africa (20.0%), Oceania (11.9%), and Northern America (8.4%).
+ Top 20 countries by area of mangrove coverage in 2014RankCountryTree cover (km2)in mangrove forestsTree cover (km2)in mangrove biome123,14342,27827,66317,28734,9217,61644,6917,61654,1696,23663,3153,31472,9856,03682,6536,90892,5083,783102,4017,516112,0602,084121,8763,936131,7732,314141,6726,236151,6242,407161,5531,554171,3232,673181,2232,658191,1131,323201,0813,864219351,906
By geographical region
Africa There are important mangrove swamps in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Madagascar, with swamps in the latter even admixing at the coastal verge with dry deciduous forests.
Nigeria has Africa's largest mangrove coverage, spanning . Oil spills and leaks have destroyed much of this in the last 50 years, damaging the local fishing economy and water quality.
Along the coast of the Red Sea, both on the Egyptian side and in the Gulf of Aqaba, mangroves composed primarily of Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata grow in about 28 stands that cover about . Almost all Egyptian mangrove stands are now protected.
There are mangroves off the east coast of South Africa extending as far south as the Tylomnqa River (). Some mangrove stands exist in the St Lucia estuary within iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
North America Central America and the Caribbean
Mangroves occur on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Mangroves can also be found in many of the Antilles including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Hispaniola, as well as other islands in the West Indies such as the Bahamas.
Belize The nation of Belize has the highest overall percentage of forest cover of any of the Central American countries. Belize's mangrove cover assumes the form not only of mangrove forest, but also of scrubs, savannas, and other vegetation types. A 2010 satellite-based study of Belize's mangroves by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean found, in 2010, that mangroves covered roughly , or 3.4% of Belize's territory.
In 1980, by contrast, mangrove cover stood at — also 3.4% of Belize's territory, although, based on the work of mangrove researcher Simon Zisman,Zisman, S.A. 1998. "Sustainability or Status Quo: Elite Influence and the Political Ecology of Mangrove Exploitation in Belize." Doctoral dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, Scotland. Belize's mangrove cover in 1980 was estimated to represent 98.7% of the precolonial extent of those ecosystems. Belize's mangrove cover in 2010 was thus estimated to represent 96.7% of the precolonial cover. Assessing changes in Belize's mangrove cover over a 30-year period was possible because of Belize's participation in the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System, a regional observatory jointly implemented by CATHALAC, RCMRD, ICIMOD, NASA, USAID, and other partners.
Continental United States Red and white mangrove communities are confined to Florida south of 29°N (see Florida mangroves). Black mangroves can be found up to 30°N on the east coast of Florida, and in isolated sections of the wider Gulf Coast, including Texas.
Mexico In Mexico, four species of mangrove predominate: Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa, Avicennia germinans, and Conocarpus erectus. During an inventory conducted by CONABIO between 2006 and 2008, of mangrove were counted. Of this total, 55% are located in the Yucatán Peninsula.
Significant mangals include the Marismas Nacionales-San Blas mangroves found in Sinaloa and Nayarit.
South America
Brazil The second largest region of mangrove forests is Brazil which contains approximately of mangrove forests and approximately of mangrove biome which is the whole mangrove forest system that might not include mangrove trees.
From 1985 to 2018 mangrove area increased about which is roughly a 2% increase. This might not mean that mangroves are truly in recovery because early satellite coverage was limited and current years have more data available. From 1999 to 2018 there has been about a 2% loss of mangrove area. +Mangrove Forest Percentage in BrazilStateForest Coverage (%)Maranhão46.46Pará22.28Amapá8.87Bahia7.10Sergipe2.14Paraná1.95São Paulo1.88Ceará1.79Pernambuco1.51Rio Grande do Nortre1.36Paraíba1.26Rio de Janeiro1.05Espírito Santo0.69Santa Catarina0.65Piauí0.57Alagoas0.45
Columbia Colombia possesses large mangrove forests on both its Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
Ecuador Ecuador has substantial remaining mangrove forests in the provinces of El Oro, Guayas, Manabi, and Esmeraldas, with limited forest remaining in Santa Elena. Mangrove forests in this country can largely be found along estuaries of numerous rivers such as the Mataje-Santiago-Cayapas, Muisne, Cojimíes, Chone, Guayas, and Jubones-Santa Rosa-Arenillas . The northern portion of Esmeraldas province has a large pristine mangrove forest that is preserved as the Reserva Ecológica Cayapas-Mataje (REMACAN) and is an original Ramsar site. This forest is the most preserved within Ecuador and likely the most pristine forest along the Pacific Coast of the Americas.
The only other major mangrove holding in Esmeraldas is in-and-around the community of Muisne and the Rio Muisne Estuary Swampland Wildlife Refuges. The mangroves in-and-around the estuaries of Muisne have decreased in area from from the period between 1971 and 2005. During this time, commercial shrimp aquaculture has become the dominant land-cover within this estuary environment.
On the border of Esmeraldas province and Manabí province is a formerly large area of mangrove within Cojimies Estuary. The mangroves in this estuary are some of the most degraded in Ecuador with only 19% of 1971 mangrove area remaining as of 1998, although mangrove has recovered since this date. Within Manabí the major mangrove holding estuary is the Chone estuary situated near the city of Bahía de Caráquez. Again, Chone has undergone substantial mangrove deforestation since the advent of commercial aquaculture in Ecuador. However, mangrove loss appears to have halted in this estuary and mangrove regrowth driven by local fisherman is now occurring.Hamilton, S. & S. Collins (2013) Las respuestas a los medios de subsistencia deforestación de los manglares en las provincias del norte de Ecuador . Bosque 34:2
The estuary within the Gulf of Guayaquil has seen large increases in aquaculture land use between 2000 and 2022 in areas that border protected mangrove zones. The Guayas province to the North lost 18,029 hectares of mangrove land cover from 1969 to 1999. Jumping forward to 2014, we can see that industrial aquaculture shrimp farms then occupied 22% of the estuary, decreasing mangrove land cover to 39% from a baseline of 46% from 1985.
Peru Peru has two small regions of mangrove located in the Department of Tumbes, north-west of the country on the Ecuadorian Border, and also in the Piura region, where the "Manglares de Vice" in the Sechura Province of Piura is the southernmost region of the Pacific to hold mangroves.
Suriname The Mangrove forests of Suriname have a height of and are found mainly in the coastal area. There are six types of mangroves, namely two types of Avicennia germinans (parwa or black mangroves), three types of Rhizophora mangle (mangro or red mangroves) and a small mangrove species Laguncularia racemosa (akira or tjila, white mangrove).
Venezuela Venezuela's northern Caribbean island, Margarita, possesses mangrove forests in the Parque nacional Laguna de La Restinga. Venezuela has 4% of the world's mangroves, with an extension of .
Asia Mangroves occur on Asia's south coast, throughout the Indian subcontinent, in all Southeast Asian countries, and on islands in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, East China Sea and the Pacific. The mangal is particularly prevalent in the deltas of large Asian rivers.
Indonesia
In the Indonesian Archipelago, mangroves occur around much of Papua province, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Maluku and the surrounding islands. Indonesia has around of mangrove forests, but 48% is categorized as 'moderately damaged' and 23% as 'badly damaged'.
Japan