Mangrove forests fight climate change impacts

A healthy mangrove forest helps coastal communities to fight against climate change fallouts, experts told a regional symposium yesterday, advising coastal countries to improve mangroves, as they support biodiversity and enable improvements in lives and livelihoods.
The two-day symposium, "Ecosystems for Life: A Bangladesh-India Initiative", drawing representatives from vulnerable coastal communities from Asian countries, started on Sunday in the capital to share knowledge for practical solutions to tackle complex coastal issues.
“Understanding how coastal communities cope with climate-related hazards can help us design more proactive and comprehensive policies to support the victims,” Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju told the concluding session at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, hosted by The Mangroves For the Future (MFF) project of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Senior MFF adviser Don Macintosh said a key objective of the project was disseminate scientific and local knowledge on coastal resources management that would support national to regional policies aimed at building resilience among the vulnerable communities.
Yunus Ali, chief conservator of forests, and Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, country representative, IUCN Bangladesh, also spoke.