(AGENPARL) - Roma, 26 Luglio 2023 - (AGENPARL) – mer 26 luglio 2023 [NewsMedia_NewsRelease]
Global effort to safeguard mangroves steps up
Rate of loss has slowed in the last decade, new FAO report says
26/07/2023
Rome – The world is making progress towards ending the loss of mangrove forests, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Found on the coastlines of [123 countries](https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/mangroves-spotlight) worldwide, over 20 percent of mangroves are estimated to have been lost globally over the past 40 years, mainly due to both human activities and natural retraction.
[The World’s Mangroves, 2000–2020](http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc7044en), launched today on the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, reports that the total global area of mangroves in 2020 stood at 14.8 million hectares.
But while 677,000 hectares of mangroves were lost between 2000 and 2020, the rate at which they are disappearing fell by almost a quarter (23 percent) in the second decade, according to the report.
The study also reveals that mangroves, unlike other forests, can spread very fast given the chance.
Some 393,000 hectares of new mangrove forests – an area equivalent to 550,000 football pitches – have grown in areas where they were not present in 2000, offsetting more than half of the global loss in the last 20 years.
Asia, which hosts almost half the world’s mangroves, showed a 54 percent decrease in mangrove area net loss in the last twenty years. Net loss also decreased in Africa, while North and Central America reversed the trend and recorded a mangrove area net gain between 2010 and 2020. Increases in net loss were reported in South America and Oceania in the same period, however.
“This new study shows positive steps countries are taking towards slowing the loss of mangroves, but also underlines that we must continue to prioritize their restoration, sustainable use and conservation to safeguard their critical services for people and the planet,â€