Palau becomes first nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty

The people of Aceh’s Alue Naga village plant mangrove seedlings to buffer future floods and revive local fisheries · Abdul Hadi Firsawan / Pacific Press / Alamy

Many mangroves were themselves destroyed by the Boxing Day wave. But on the worst-hit western coast of Aceh, field research found that forests in front of villages reduced casualties by an average of 8%. That figure sounds modest, but on the fateful day it could have represented 13,000 lives saved.

Mangroves are disappearing fast, especially to make room for shrimp and prawn ponds · Pieter van Eijk / Wetlands International

“We get more fish [in the ponds] now that there are mangroves,” local leader Wahab said. “They grow faster and in greater numbers than when the ponds were bare. I can see the juveniles hiding in the roots of the mangroves. The roots help them avoid predators. We get more crabs, too.”

Extreme weather events like the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami are getting worse because of climate change · Water Lands

Of the seventy known species of mangroves, more than a dozen are thought to be at risk of extinction. But the good news is that the decline can be reversed.

“We get more fish [in the ponds] now that there are mangroves. They grow faster and in greater numbers than when the ponds were bare.” · Getty Images

Contributors

Jane Madgwick

CEO, Wetlands International

Jane Madgwick is a conservationist who has been actively engaged in the field of wetlands and water policy for the last 30 years. As CEO of Wetlands International since 2004, she leads a global network of offices operating in over 100 countries. Wetlands International builds knowledge and facilitates action to safeguard and restore wetlands for biodiversity conservation, water security, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, and livelihoods.

Fred Pearce

Environment writer

Fred Pearce is an environment journalist, writing for publications such as The Guardian, New Scientist, and Yale e360. He has also published a number of books, including When the Rivers Run Dry and, mostly recently, The Land Grabbers. Trained as a geographer, Fred has written about science and the environment from 64 countries over the past 20 years.

Wetlands International

Wetlands conservation & restoration

Wetlands International (WI) and its predecessors have worked to protect wetlands since 1937. WI is dedicated to conservation and restoration of wetlands by understanding and tackling the underlying causes of wetland loss and damage. Their knowledge-base and advocacy enables action to safeguard and restore wetlands, and to use them in sustainable ways. To achieve their goals, they utilize scientific knowledge, empower local communities through a bottom-up approach and form strategic partnerships in order to focus on the long-term goal.

On-the-ground projects

See all

Explore Only One members’ impact

Preserving lowland peat swamp forests and mangroves in Indonesian Borneo

Village communities are saving forests and wetlands that are one of the largest natural carbon stores in the world, as well as protecting and rehabilitating critically endangered orangutans.

Project·8 min read

Revitalizing coral reef infrastructure in Indonesia

Marine biologists, students, local community members, and tourists are planting 30,000 corals to fortify reefs and restore critical coastal ecosystems.

Project·7 min read

Advancing community-based mangrove restoration in Senegal

Local people are revitalizing 80,000 hectares of mangrove forest to safeguard valuable marine coastal ecosystems.

Project·8 min read

Long reads in #Plastic

Toxic waters / Danni Washington

The pervasive poisoning of our world’s waters not only draws parallels to the toxicity of systemic racism — both further one another. An ocean explorer and the first Black woman to host a science series on television, Danni Washington wants you to know that there is no remedying one without the other.

Article·10 min read

Dreams of finding peace in a plastic-free ocean / Camila Torres

For Argentine photographer and filmmaker Camila Torres, living within touching distance of the ocean is what gives her peace. She spoke to us about her determination to free our seas from plastic.

Article·4 min read

Hawaii, humpback whales, and how to cut down on plastic use / Kelsey Williamson

Underwater, landscape, and travel photographer Kelsey Williamson — who is based on the island of Oahu, Hawaii — is passionate about raising awareness of ocean issues. She spoke to us about ways people can help stop plastic from flowing into our ocean.

Article·4 min read

Dune Ives / We’ve been sold disposability. We can demand a material change.

Our “throw-away” culture first developed during the 1918 pandemic, when disposable items were sold as the safe option to protect against disease. Today, in the face of another global pandemic and rampant plastic pollution, the plastics industry is taking advantage of the crisis, putting profits over people and the planet.

Article·11 min read

An introvert’s guide to making plastic history / Dyson Chee

A 2018 Ocean Heroes Bootcamp Champion, Dyson Chee goes into schools to raise awareness of the issues of a plastic-filled ocean. Here he shares his experience of helping successfully pass Bill 40, a landmark comprehensive ban on single-use plastics in his home state of Hawai‘i.

Article·13 min read

Short films

The Ocean Solution

Farming under the sea? Meet Bren Smith, the ocean farming pioneer whose vertical kelp and shellfish farms can transform the way food is produced. As a commercial fisherman, Bren’s career was nearly wrecked by the crashing cod stocks in the North Atlantic; he then turned to oyster farming, just in time for catastrophic, climate-driven storms to show him there wasn’t a solid future in that, either. Unwilling to tether himself to land, he took the hard lessons learned and returned to the sea with a new method of restorative ocean farming. What he discovered is a way to produce large quantities of nutritious food that fights the climate crisis, cleans the ocean, creates aquatic habitat, and sustains his sea-going way of life.

Video·14:00

Blue Carbon

Blue Carbon is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. As wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk says, “You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit.” It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate. In 2018, Restore America’s Estuaries led a first-of-its-kind study in the Snohomish Estuary of Puget Sound, Washington to quantify the climate benefits of estuary restoration. This short film helps to build awareness of blue carbon (carbon that’s captured and stored by coastal wetlands) as a climate mitigation tool and to encourage more investment in wetland restoration at local, state, and federal levels.

Video·05:47