Recently, two significant events highlighted the global importance of global wetland conservation: COP15 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem on 26 July. These occasions spotlight the urgent need to protect mangrove forests, which are among the planet’s most vital coastal ecosystems, yet remain under relentless pressure from human activities. These salt-tolerant forests provide critical services – from buffering storm surges and nurturing fisheries to storing immense amounts of “blue carbon” – but widespread degradation is occurring.
Globally, mangrove cover has declined sharply: an estimated 30–50% of mangrove forests have been lost over the last half-century. While conservation efforts have helped slow the annual loss rate in recent years (down to ~0.04% per year), human-driven threats still account for about 62% of mangrove loss worldwide. A 2024 assessment by the IUCN warned that over half of all mangrove ecosystems are now at risk of collapse if current trends continue. The following examines the major anthropogenic threats – from chainsaws to shrimp farms, pollution to climate change – and how each is imperiling mangroves and their carbon-sink capacity.
Worldwide, mangroves today cover roughly 147,000 km² of coast – about three times the size of the Dominican Republic. This extent is the result of substantial declines: since 1996 alone, net global mangrove area shrank by about 5,245 km². Despite the loss of nearly half of mangrove forests over the past 50 years, the good news is that the rate of loss has slowed significantly over the past two decades — reflecting increased awareness and conservation efforts.
However, from 2000 to 2016, human activity caused two-thirds of mangrove destruction. This loss in the tropics impacts fish nurseries, coastal protection, and vast carbon reserves. Mangroves sequester carbon at ten times the rate of tropical rainforests and store 3–5 times more carbon per hectare than upland tropical forests. Their destruction could account for up to 10% of global deforestation-related carbon emissions, making it vital to curb mangrove loss. We will explore the main human threats driving this decline and their impact on mangrove ecosystems and carbon sequestration.
Direct threats to mangroves include deforestation for wood, fuel, or land use (charcoal, timber, pulp) and encroachment from urban expansion and coastal infrastructure, particularly near growing cities and tourist centers.
For many, the story of mangrove loss brings to mind Southeast Asia—places like Indonesia and Myanmar, where rapid deforestation in recent decades has been especially severe. Myanmar alone lost over 60% of its mangroves between 1996 and 2016, largely to rice paddies, oil palm, and charcoal production. Indonesia, home to more than 20% of the world’s mangroves, has led global deforestation rates, losing over 1,700 km² between 1996 and 2020.
Mangrove trees on the banks of the tidal Kangy River in Myanmar.
Yet beyond Asia, mangroves in other regions—particularly in the Caribbean—face equally urgent threats, though they are often overlooked. In Jamaica and elsewhere in the region, coastal development has stripped away nearly a quarter of mangrove coverage over the past 25 years to make way for resorts, urban expansion, and other shoreline uses. This widespread habitat destruction not only undermines biodiversity and natural coastal defences, but also carries a significant carbon cost. It’s precisely these under-recognised mangrove systems that Gentian’s technology could help monitor and protect before further loss becomes irreversible.
Mangrove roots shelter fish in the Caribbean.
Mangrove soils accumulate carbon over centuries in waterlogged conditions; when mangroves are cleared and soils drained or excavated, that carbon rapidly oxidizes into CO₂. Each hectare of mangrove cut down releases the carbon stored in biomass and sediment, and it halts future carbon sequestration. Given that mangroves globally hold on the order of 11–12 billion tonnes of carbon in their biomass and soils, continued deforestation of these reservoirs poses a significant threat to climate stability.
Shrimp farming is the primary cause of mangrove destruction globally, accounting for 26% of deforestation between 2000 and 2020. This unsustainable practice, particularly prevalent in Southeast Asia and Latin America, involves converting mangrove estuaries into shrimp ponds, which degrade quickly (2–5 years) due to disease and pollution.
The loss of mangroves, exemplified by Indonesia and Ecuador (where 70% of forests in the Gulf of Guayaquil were lost to shrimp ponds), devastates local ecosystems and livelihoods. Furthermore, converting mangroves for aquaculture releases stored carbon, potentially contributing up to 10% of deforestation emissions, undermining a crucial natural climate solution.
Local planting mangrove trees in Hoa Binh District, Bac Lieu (now Ca MAu Province) © HMC/GNI
In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where mangroves have been heavily cleared for shrimp farming, a major restoration project in Ca Mau Province is demonstrating how aquaculture and conservation can coexist. Led by IUCN and funded by Hyundai Motor Company and Good Neighbors International, the initiative is planting 160,000 mangrove trees across degraded shrimp-farming zones. By integrating mangroves into aquaculture landscapes, the project supports both biodiversity and productivity — improving water quality, reducing disease risks, stabilising shrimp yields, and protecting coastlines from erosion.
As of July 2025, over 80,000 trees had been planted across 18 hectares. This model highlights how nature-based solutions can transform shrimp farming from a driver of deforestation into a tool for ecological and economic resilience.
Pollution—especially oil—poses a major threat to mangroves, which, despite thriving in brackish conditions, are highly sensitive to contaminants that alter water and soil quality. Oil spills smother roots and create oxygen-starved conditions, killing trees and halting growth.
Oil extraction in the Niger Delta, along with agricultural runoff, sewage, and plastic waste, severely degrades mangroves, turning them from carbon sinks into carbon sources. Preventing and cleaning up coastal pollution is vital for mangrove health and climate stability.
Over 6,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta have destroyed 40 km² of Ogoniland's mangroves, reducing fishstocks and increasing erosion. Plastic waste, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste further damage these habitats by blocking tidal flows, causing algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and direct toxicity.
Mangrove Forest in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
Remote sensing technology has significantly advanced the monitoring of mangrove loss in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Using weekly radar data from Sentinel-1 satellites, AI modelling, and imaging techniques adapted from medical science, researchers mapped over 9,000 km² of oil pipeline networks and detected both reported and unreported spill sites.
This innovative approach revealed that mangroves have been dying at a rate of 5,644 hectares per year between 2016 and 2024. By linking specific spill sites to ecological damage, the study provides vital data for restoration planning, empowering local communities to advocate for environmental accountability and protection of their livelihoods. Solutions like Gentian’s technology can support these efforts by providing the consistent, high-quality baseline data needed to monitor ecosystem change and inform meaningful, science-driven action.
Climate change poses a looming, and compounding, threat to mangroves worldwide. These ecosystems exist in a relatively narrow and vulnerable strip of intertidal shoreline.. As climate change accelerates, mangroves are being challenged in multiple ways:
Mangroves tolerate gradual sea-level rise by accumulating sediment, but current rates often outpace this. Too rapid or deep waterlogging effectively "drowns" them. Projections suggest 25% of global mangrove areas could be submerged by 2070 due to sea-level rise. In many low-lying areas, mangroves face a "coastal squeeze" against human development, preventing landward migration and leading to permanent losses. This loss also releases massive carbon stores from their soils.
Rising global temperatures intensify storms and extreme weather, severely damaging mangrove forests. Cyclones defoliate, uproot, and erode mangroves, with 18 regions (50% of global area) now classified as threatened. Examples include Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Dorian, which devastated mangroves in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Increased storm frequency hinders recovery. Droughts and heatwaves also cause die-offs, like the 2015 El Niño event that killed 7,400 hectares of mangroves in northern Australia, turning them from carbon sinks into carbon sources.
Climate change intensifies threats to mangroves, exacerbating damage from human pressures. Degraded mangroves are less resilient to storms and rising seas, risking the release of vast "blue carbon" stores. Current trends project an additional 1.8 billion tons of carbon emissions from mangrove loss by 2050 (16% of current stores). Protecting mangroves is vital to prevent a worsening climate feedback loop.
Mangrove forests are in crisis. Their loss not only endangers biodiversity and traditional livelihoods, but also weakens one of the planet’s most effective natural defences against climate change. The collapse of mangroves means the loss of storm protection, fish nurseries, and some of the most efficient carbon sinks on Earth. Urgent action is required to address over-harvesting, unregulated development, and environmental degradation.
Yet amidst these threats, a new generation of solutions is emerging—driven by innovative technologies and rooted in local empowerment. Gentian, in collaboration with Distant Imagery Solutions and Open Forest Protocol, is helping to transform how mangroves are restored, monitored, and sustained. Together, these partners are enabling communities in the Caribbean and other vulnerable regions to reclaim their coastal ecosystems using cutting-edge tools like satellite imagery, drones, marine robots, and kites.
Gentian’s AI-powered platform delivers high-resolution, remotely sensed habitat classifications within minutes—eliminating the need for costly, inconsistent field surveys in hard-to-reach mangrove zones. This technology supports restoration efforts by establishing ecological baselines, modelling habitat connectivity, and enabling real-time decision-making for protection, planning, and post-hurricane impact assessment.
Meanwhile, Distant Imagery Solutions trains local stewards in restoration practices and equips them with measurement, reporting, and verification tools to track biodiversity change over time. Complementing this, Open Forest Protocol provides a transparent framework for generating high-integrity carbon credits—a crucial element for financing long-term conservation. Revenue from credit sales flows directly back to local communities, providing sustainable funding and reinforcing community ownership of the restored ecosystems.
The project’s collaborative infrastructure is tied together by Uplink, a digital platform designed to scale nature-based solutions globally. Starting with mangroves offers strategic advantages: they are impactful in regions most vulnerable to climate change, and their relatively uniform structure allows for consistent, scalable data collection. Over time, this model can be extended to other threatened habitats.
Crucially, the initiative goes beyond mapping and monitoring—it supports sustainable local livelihoods such as fishing, salt harvesting, ecotourism, and beekeeping. This ensures that conservation efforts do not come at the expense of local well-being, but rather serve as a foundation for long-term resilience.
By embedding Gentian’s technology into national and regional mangrove strategies, stakeholders gain more than a tool—they gain a partner in delivering biodiversity net gain, aligned with both environmental and economic priorities. In doing so, this work is helping to reshape how we value, restore, and protect nature—one mangrove forest at a time.
If your organisation is working toward biodiversity and coastal ecosystem goals, Gentian can help. Fill in the form below, and a member of our team will get in touch to discuss how we can support your efforts to protect and restore vital habitats like mangroves: