To Improve and Maintain Positive Human Impacts on the Mangroves

In order to maintain a positive balance between the ecosystem and humans, two strategies emerge. The first is to increase the amount of protected areas within the ecosystem. These protected areas should be multipurpose, focusing on biodiversity conservation as well as improving human welfare. Joint efforts of the World Wildlife Fund, the National Marine Institute, and the National Park Service have set up the New Protected Areas (NPAs), including the Menabe-Antimena protected area. So far these protected areas have been extremely effective. Supporting good site management and reasonable exploitation of site resources, these protected areas improve the overall balance between people and this unique ecosystem.

The second way to maintain positive human impacts on the mangrove ecosystems is to develop various other conservation strategies. These include monitoring and evaluating human activities that affect the mangroves, and increasing awareness and education among local inhabitants of the ecosystem, including the Malagasy people whose lives are tied to the mangrove ecosystem in many ways. Building on local knowledge about sustainable practices for fishing and harvesting the mangrove wood, it is possible to reduce human stresses or and increase the restoration of degraded areas. Additional goals include managing activities that affect mangroves sediment elevation and managing the landward retreat of the ecosystem by replicating it in other protected areas. Using a combination of these strategies, the mangroves of Madagascar will again fall into a category of ecosystems with positive human impacts.