Essay On Mangroves

1101 Words5 Pages
Ecosystem services are free benefits humans get from nature and it is crucial to understand and value the critical functions natural systems provide us. Ecosystems perform many services that are taken for granted and theref¬ore not valued in money. Examples are microorganism’s release of nutrients, their degradation of pollutants in air, soil and water, pollination of insects and vegetation, and water-regulating effects. Knowledge of the importance of different species and interaction works and what disappearances that can disrupt ecological processes is still inadequate. Here follows four direct drivers of change that poses the most significant threats to the ecosystem services. Biological invasions and diseases are also global phenomenon…show more content…
Fish are often collected by the coast, and therefore this reduce the availability of food and income for local fishing families. One of the industries that threaten mangroves is the production of prawns, for export to the North. Mangrove trees are being cut down or damaged to give way for shrimp ponds thus coastal population may struggle to continue fishing as shrimp ponds stop them to getting out to sea. In the long term this may also damage surrounding mangroves due to chemicals that are spread from shrimp farms, plus changes in the groundwater system. During the past decades, hundreds of thousands of people in Latin America and Asia have had to move from areas where they had lived for many generations because of new built shrimp farms that have taken over the coastal land. Protests against the privatization of public resources such as mangroves are often met with violence. In a mangrove ecosystem there are not just the trees; even the surrounding wetlands are important for maintaining one of the world's most productive ecosystems. Despite this many shrimp farms are built in these very sensitive wetlands, in the belief that it is more durable just to not cut down
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