Creation of a high spatiotemporal resolution global database of continuous mangrove forest cover for the 21st Century (CGMFC-21)

Abstract

To provide high resolution local, regional, national, and global estimates of annual mangrove forest levels from 2000 through to 2012 with the goal of driving mangrove research questions pertaining to biodiversity, carbon, climate change, functionality, food security, livelihoods, fisheries support, and conservation that have been impeded until now by a lack of suitable data. We synthesize the Global Forest Change database, the Terrestrial Ecosystems of the World database, and Mangrove Forests of the World database to extract mangrove forest cover at high spatial and temporal resolutions. We then use the new database to monitor mangrove cover at the global, national, and protected area levels. Countries showing relatively high levels of mangrove loss include Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Guatemala. Indonesia remains by far the largest mangrove-holding nation containing between 26 percent and 28 percent of the global mangrove inventory with a deforestation rate of between 0.26 percent and 0.63 percent annually.Global mangrove deforestation continues but at a much reduced rate of between 0.16 percent and 0.39 percent annually. Southeast Asia is a region of concern with mangrove deforestation rates between 3.58 percent and 7.86 percent during the analysis period, this in a region containing almost half of the entire global mangrove forest inventory. The global mangrove deforestation pattern from 2000 to 2012 is one of decreasing rates of deforestation, with many nations essentially stable, with the exception of the largest mangrove-holding region of Southeast Asia.