TDA-IME Project Final Report June, 2013 Resolution of land tenure, resource access or use issues, policy failures or other issues that will affect the outcome of mangrove restoration and sustainable use management efforts. Respecting and using the traditional knowledge and cultural beliefs that local people 71 have about mangrove ecosystems. Providing mangrove restoration and environmental awareness and educational programs for key mangrove resources user groups, plus learning and participatory activities, particularly for children and youths. Applying modern, macro-level technology for coastal monitoring (e.g. remote sensing and GIS) that can detect large-scale and long-term environmental change. Monitoring of specific mangrove restoration and rehabilitation areas using simple, empirical and modern techniques (agreed and standardized), which can involve local communities and operate over meaningful time periods (5–10 years). Strengthening and empowering grassroots institutions to plan, implement and monitor mangrove restoration programs in partnership with other stakeholders. Interventions that improve the livelihoods of traditional mangrove users, preferably by providing alternative and more diversified livelihood opportunities to reduce the pressures on mangrove resources. Partnerships and co-management arrangements involving local communities/other civil society groups (including the private sector) and government are essential to achieving positive long-term outcomes and recognition for the role of local communities in mangrove management. The MFF (2012) review also identified some precautions that should be taken with ecologically sensitive sites. Special care should be taken in the management of micro-tidal barrier-built estuaries and lagoons. Because of their semi-enclosed nature and demographic pressures, they are highly sensitive to human impacts, amongst others. Mangrove restoration in such areas must follow guidelines that safeguard other aquatic fishery habitats and fishery-based livelihoods, plus the other ecosystem services that estuaries and lagoons provide. Coastal mudflats and other low-lying shore types should also be treated with particular care to avoid planting mangroves below their natural intertidal level, or where there are mudflat habitats critical to endangered wildlife. In the particular case of abandoned aquaculture farms, and other recoverable former mangrove areas, techniques that can restore the hydrological and soil conditions back to their near-to original state are a prerequisite for successful restoration/rehabilitation. Protecting Biodiversity The available evidence points to the importance of transboundary scale mangrove conservation and restoration as the most viable way to conserve biodiversity and protect endangered migratory species like the Irawaddy dolphin. Connectivity between mangrove habitats across political boundaries is important for biodiversity conservation, while larger areas of mangrove forest seem to have a positive correlation with fishery yields, even if the causal relationship is less apparent (see Section 2). Manson et al. (2005), for example, showed that the catch per unit effort for key mangroveassociated fish and crustacean species is correlated with mangrove area and perimeter (i.e. the total length of mangrove-fringed coastline). Thus, it would be highly desirable for countries, provinces and districts to prioritize mangrove conservation and restoration sites in a manner that maximizes the transboundary extent of mangrove forests. The logical
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis of Indochina Mangrove Ecosystems
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