Thank me by planting a mangrove sapling, please!

Mangrove trees may not appear effective when pictured against the high tsunami waves that occurred after the earthquake in Japan, but corals and mangroves are reported to absorb up to 90 per cent of the energy of wind-generated waves. This effectively means much of what could be of concern to us in the course of any year is successfully countered by natural defenses.

"Mangrove forests are the ultimate illustration of why humans need nature," says Dr. Mark Spalding, lead author of the World Mangrove Atlas and senior marine scientist with The Nature Conservancy. "The trees provide hard, rot-resistant timber and make some of the best charcoal in the world. The waters all around foster some of the greatest productivity of fish and shellfish in any coastal waters. What's more, mangrove forests help prevent erosion and mitigate natural hazards from cyclones to tsunamis - these are natural coastal defences whose importance will only grow as sea level rise becomes a reality around the world."

But mangroves are fast disappearing. About one fifth of all mangroves are thought to have been lost since 1980. The greatest drivers for mangrove forest loss are direct conversion to aquaculture, agriculture and urban land uses. Coastal zones are often densely populated and pressure for land intense. Where mangroves remain, they have often been degraded through overharvesting.

The nations with the largest mangrove areas include Indonesia with 21 per cent of global mangroves, Brazil with 9 per cent, Australia 7 per cent, Mexico 5 per cent and Nigeria with 5 per cent.

This year’s theme for World Environment Day – Forests: Nature at Your Service – emphasises the importance of managing our forests sustainably.

Grow-Trees.com, a company in this year’s host country – India, is in the spirit of World Environment Day demonstrating what individual action can contribute to the collective engagement towards environment-friendly behaviours. The organization, also part of UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign, came into being as a part of the World Environment Day 2010 celebrations, with a clear vision of enabling people to plant trees and restore forests in vulnerable areas of India.

Grow-Trees has since planted more than 97,000 saplings across six states of India, including mangrove saplings in the town of Dwarka in Gujarat, a city in western India that has experienced submergence six times in its history. This continuous planting of the mangrove saplings is financed by individuals as well as companies’ online purchase of ‘green greetings’ or ‘sustainable thank you’s’ – beautiful tree saplings!

What better way is there to appreciate somebody than by planting a tree?