Depletion of the mangroves of Continental Asia

The mangroves located around the Bay of Bengal and along the coast of South China Sea are of special interest for many reasons. This coastline receives three major tropical rivers (Ganges, Irrawaddy, Mekong) and it has the world's largest mangrove stands in a single block (the Sunderbans). The contrasted climatic conditions from sub-arid (southeastern India), to moist (coastal Cambodia), and the extreme diversity of human impacts in one of the world's highest population densities (West Bengal in India and Bangladesh), have created a mosaic of mangrove types that are floristically rich and with different histories, different ecological frameworks and distinct evolutionary trends. For the first time, we draw together remote sensing data along with essential structural and physiognomic parameters of mangrove forest areas. We have devised a sufficiently accurate coastal mapping methodology providing statistics on the actual areal extent of mangrove types and sub-types, both at local and continental scales. Some results are entirely new, and others provide comparison with existing data. The exact extent of mangroves in Myanmar was previously unknown. Using remote sensing we also demonstrate the magnitude of the ongoing deforestation in this country. The current location and status of mangrove forests in the affected area are described using the methodology which is also being applied in other sites around the world.