Missed opportunities for mangroves as nature-based coastal protection against cyclone damage

Abstract

Many coastal communities undervalue the natural defense system mangrove forests provide against cyclone storm surges. Consequently, large parts of mangrove forest are being removed for other projects, leaving the inhabitants of these communities more vulnerable. Especially considering the increase of tropical storms intensity due to climate change, a better understanding of the value of such natural defense mechanism is urgent. To uncover the value of this protective function mangrove forests, a comprehensive dataset on cyclones that occurred in all cyclone basins between 2005 and 2019 was established, and the association between mangrove forest area and damage caused by cyclones in terms of property, crops and livestock in US dollars was determined. The results indicated that this association was not statistically significant. The most plausible explanation for not finding a negative significant association is the suboptimal placing of mangroves in the areas studied. Hence, this study’s findings imply that coastal communities need to adapt their coastal planning in such a way that more mangroves are placed between the urbanized area and the ocean if they want to grasp the opportunity these ecosystems provide as nature-based coastal defense.