Community Efforts for Mangrove Restoration

Mangroves are a blue carbon ecosystem, they are a climate change mitigation tool because of its high carbon sequestration and storage capacity, they retain soil through their roots, serve as water filter, protect our communities against strong winds and flooding, provide habitat and are a food source to an important group of coastal biodiversity.

Climate change plays a fundamental role in the development, intensity and frequency of atmospheric events of the magnitude of Hurricane Maria. The present rate of global warming threatens the survival of entire ecosystems. Storm surges produced by atmospheric phenomena cause dangerous floods, loss of vegetation, loss of biodiversity and threaten the livelihood of coastal communities. Among the most at-risk ecosystems are mangroves (2006, E. Mcleod).

Forty four of seventy-eight municipalities in Puerto Rico have coasts. Coastal municipalities are home to over 60% of the entire island's population. Mangrove patches all over the island’s coastline have not recuperated naturally after hurricanes Irma and Maria. From 23 - 53% of wetlands across the island were severely affected, with some mangrove patches completely lost. 

Puerto Rico’s vulnerability continues to be evident in the advent of this event and coastal communities continue to be exposed. The outcome of another phenomenon similar to Maria would be even more devastating if nothing is done about our mangroves today.