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.
“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.”
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.