Global Mangrove Deforestation and Its Interacting Social-Ecological Drivers: A Systematic Review and Synthesis

Abstract

Globally, mangrove forests are substantially declining, and a globally synthesized database containing the drivers of deforestation and drivers’ interactions is scarce. Here, we synthesized the key social-ecological drivers of global mangrove deforestation by reviewing about two hundred published scientific studies over the last four decades (from 1980 to 2021). Our focus was on both natural and anthropogenic drivers with their gradual and abrupt impacts and on their geographic coverage of effects, and how these drivers interact. We also summarized the patterns of global mangrove coverage decline between 1990 and 2020 and identified the threatened mangrove species. Our consolidated studies reported an 8600 km2 decline in the global mangrove coverage between 1990 and 2020, with the highest decline occurring in South and Southeast Asia (3870 km2). We could identify 11 threatened mangrove species, two of which are critically endangered (Sonneratia griffithii and Bruguiera hainseii). Our reviewed studies pointed to aquaculture and agriculture as the predominant driver of global mangrove deforestation though their impacts varied across global regions. Gradual climate variations, i.e., sea-level rise, long-term precipitation, and temperature changes and driven coastline erosion, salinity intrusion and acidity at coasts, constitute the second major group of drivers. Our findings underline a strong interaction across natural and anthropogenic drivers, with the strongest interaction between the driver groups aquaculture and agriculture and industrialization and pollution. Our results suggest prioritizing globally coordinated empirical studies linking drivers and mangrove deforestation and global development of policies for mangrove conservation.

Taxon Cycles in Neotropical Mangroves

“…An additional factor characteristic of the last millennia, which was absent in former geological epochs, is the presence of humans, whose influence on Pelliciera is largely unknown, except for the last decades. P. rhizophorae has been listed as “Vulnerable”—that is, under a high risk of extinction in the wild due to its small (500–2000 km 2 ) and fragmented distribution area—in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species [ 85 , 86 , 87 ]. Urban expansion has been recognized as a major threat to Pelliciera populations, which are being heavily fragmented and threatened by habitat loss [ 88 ].…”

Growth patterns of captive painted terrapins Batagur borneoensis in the Aceh Province, Indonesia

“…The population of reptiles belonging to the Batagur genus in various parts of the world at this time is very alarming. This condition occurs due to human activities that continuously utilize plant vegetation in the mangrove ecosystem to meet the needs of a better life (Estoque et al 2018;Rudianto et al 2020;Bhowmik et al 2022). Various human activities continue to exploit natural resources uncontrollably, which is the habitat of various biota that live in it, including the Batagur habitat.…”

Mangrove ecosystem management in Indonesia: Review, limitation, gap, and knowledge

“…The reporting of the PRISMA method is also said to be more optimal in terms of the quality of the literature review process (Sarkis-Onofre et al, 2021). This review approach has been taken several times, such as for bibliometric reviews (Dabić et al, 2020;Donthu et al, 2021;Manesh et al, 2021) and meta-analysis reviews (Rosck et al, 2017;Rana & Paul 2020;Bhowmik et al, 2022;Bimrah et al, 2022). Meanwhile, other approaches related to this review have also been carried out, including the hybrid narrative approach (Paul et al, 2017;Kumar et al, 2020), theme-based synthesis (Kahiya, 2018;Christofi et al, 2021), and theory-based reviews (Hassan et al, 2016;Gilal et al 2019).…”