High Economic Value Set On Threatened Mexican Mangroves
Mangrove destruction not only comes with ecological cost, but monetary as well: $37,500 per hectare each year, researchers say. The ecological value of coastal mangrove forests in Mexico has been apparent to marine scientists for years. Now, for the first time, researchers have used a wide-ranging compilation of fisheries landings, the official record of fish catches, to place an economic price tag on that value.
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, writing in the new online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that Mexican mangroves, trees that form forest ecosystems at the land-sea interface, demonstrably boost fishery yields in the Gulf of California. The more mangroves, the more landings, the study showed.
The researchers arrived at their results through a combination of field studies, geographical analyses and economic valuations.
They found that thirteen fishing regions in the Gulf of California produced an average of 11,500 tons of mangrove-derived fish and blue crab per year between 2001 and 2005, generating nearly $19 million for local fishermen.
