Protecting the mangroves of the Casamance through remote sensing data In the village of Séleki, deep in Senegal’s Casamance region, mangroves were quietly disappearing — not from logging, but from a less visible threat. Through the alert functionality of Global Mangrove Watch, our local team — Boubacar Sagna and Khadim Diop — were notified of the loss – an area of 2 hectares. Together with Marine Protected Area officer Capitaine Agustin Sadio, they travelled to the site and uncovered the source of the degradation: dikes. Mangrove loss alerts detected by Global Mangrove Watch The mangroves of the Casamance are more than just trees. They are a vital buffer against floods and sea level rise. They provide valuable products that form the livelihoods of many such as fish, oysters, and honey. Unfortunately, these ecosystems are under constant pressure from both human activity and natural shifts. The good news is that solutions to restore mangroves exist. But to implement them, we need to know exactly where degradation has happened. The Marine Protected Areas of this region are vast, and it is impossible for a small group of rangers to patrol the entire area. What if satellites out in space could monitor mangroves? What if there were a way for us to know, almost in real time, where we should direct our limited time and resources to conserve this ecosystem? This is exactly what Global Mangrove Watch does. It is an online platform that provides remote sensing data and tools for monitoring mangroves. With hi-res information on mangrove loss, Global Mangrove Watch gives Marine Protected Area managers, conservationists, policymakers and practitioners the evidence needed to respond to illegal logging, pinpoint the causes of local mangrove loss and track restoration progress. Global Mangrove Watch training ©Wetlands International Under Wetlands International’s Rooted Resilience project, supported by The Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation, we trained various stakeholders including local authorities and students to use Global Mangrove Watch in the Casamance. Rangers can now monitor their whole area, allowing them to dedicate their limited time to work with communities to conserve mangroves. The Story of Séleki: from aquaculture ponds to mangrove-based sustainable livelihoods In Séleki, located within the UKB Marine Protected Area (Ufoyaal Kassa-Bandial), we found that the dikes were built to create ponds for aquaculture. But these dikes blocked the natural flow of the brackish water, and over time, deprived of the tidal rhythm they needed to survive, the mangroves began to wither. Degradation caused by dikes blocking water flow ©Wetlands International Conservation is not just about the environment; it’s about people. Wetlands International Afrique are currently facilitating the exchange between the Séleki community, the National Aquaculture Agency, and the owner of the dike to develop alternative sustainable livelihoods. By finding new ways to support food security that don’t require blocking the tides, we can reopen the dikes and allow the ecosystem to heal. Our focus is on Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration, a method that aims to jointly with communities to restore the conditions for mangroves to regrow naturally. Alternative livelihoods include harvesting mangrove honey from restored areas ©Wetlands International Kalone-Bliss Kassa Not all degradation is caused by humans. In the KBK Marine Protected Area (Kalone-Bliss Kassa), GMW detected a different kind of mangrove loss. Roughly 16 hectares of mangroves are currently dying off due to a natural phenomenon: the shifting of a large sand dune. This dune has acted as a natural plug, cutting off the vital water inflow that the forest depends on. This case serves as a stark reminder that even in protected areas, mangroves are vulnerable to the physical changes of a shifting coastline. This site is very important for several species of birds such as cormorants and egrets. An impact study is currently needed to assess outcomes of potential interventions. Natural degradation caused by sand dunes ©Wetlands International Niamone-Kalounayes A third alert was noted in the MPA Niamone-Kalounayes. It is clear that mangroves have been cut here, but the reason for cutting is not completely known (therefore we don’t know the legality of these actions). We assume this could be done for fencing vegetable gardens in the region or to use the wood for product transformation. Because of the alerts by Global Mangrove Watch, the MPA is patrolling the area regularly to make sure there isn’t further degradation. Mangroves cut by humans ©Wetlands International By combining satellite technology with deep community engagement and government partnerships, we are ensuring that the mangroves of the Casamance region continue to protect the coast for generations to come. The journey from a digital alert to a restored mangrove forest is long, but in places like Séleki, the first steps toward recovery have already begun, bringing hope to the communities that depend on mangrove ecosystems.

The GMA Policy Working Group The Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) unites more than 100 member organizations across 40+ countries around its 2030 goals: halting mangrove loss, restoring half of all degraded mangroves, and doubling protection of what remains. The GMA’s Policy Working Group (PWG), connecting over 40 member organizations and all 14 national chapters, advances the enabling policy frameworks these goals require, from local governance to international agreements. In August 2026, the PWG held its second peer-learning call of the year, bringing members together to focus on blue carbon policy and finance, one of the topics members identified as a priority in last year's survey. Building on the group's first call in March, which launched the 2026 work program, this session moved from introductions into substance: an anchor presentation on blue carbon financing and project development, diverse country- and subnational-level case studies from PWG members, and an open exchange on the policy and governance conditions that determine whether blue carbon ambition translates into action on the ground. The call opened with a presentation from Lisa Schindler Murray of Rare, who leads the organization's blue carbon and nature-based financing work. She walked through the full landscape of blue carbon financing, carbon markets and the wide range of non-carbon market instruments now emerging, including payment for ecosystem services, parametric insurance, outcome-based finance, and enterprise-based approaches, and stressed that each depends on distinct enabling policy conditions, from tenure and resource-use rights to government engagement. She closed by highlighting two tools worth knowing: the High-Quality Blue Carbon Practitioners' Guide, recently updated to its second edition and organized around five pillars (safeguarding nature, empowering people, employing the best information, operating locally and contextually, and mobilizing high-integrity capital), and the new Blue Carbon Cost Tool from TNC and partners, which helps project developers estimate full costs from the outset. Her key takeaways for the group: No single financing tool is sufficient on its own, so a resilient strategy draws on several; Local leadership and context, ecology, policy, community priorities, and risk tolerance, should drive which tools get used Existing project support tools are there to be learned from rather than reinvented Local action, protecting one mangrove and empowering one community at a time, adds up to a planetary-scale response to climate and biodiversity loss. Three brief case studies followed, offering a snapshot of blue carbon policy in practice. In Jamaica, more than two years of work by The Nature Conservancy with Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of the West Indies, combining legislative review, strengthened baseline science, and stakeholder engagement, helped secure stronger blue carbon commitments in the country's latest NDC, including targets to protect 67% of the island's mangroves by 2033 and restore 7,000 hectares by 2027. In Papua New Guinea, The Nature Conservancy and partners supported a new blue carbon policy roadmap, launched at COP30, that clarifies institutional roles across government and names communities as key stakeholders and implementers alongside financing mechanisms, with a full policy targeted for 2030. And in São Paulo State, Brazil, Fundação Florestal, working with the University of São Paulo, has built a subnational blue carbon inventory on soil carbon sampling, now covering more than 2,000 samples, creating an internationally aligned baseline ahead of any future market project, alongside a new payment-for-ecosystem-services initiative addressing an invasive oyster species harming local mangroves and fishing communities. The discussion that followed surfaced themes cutting across all three presentations. Several members pointed to the same underlying policy conditions, tenure clarity, data-sharing rules, and early government engagement, as prerequisites regardless of financing instrument. On the gap between frameworks and practice, members highlighted the lack of guidance on free, prior, and informed consent and rights-based community engagement in voluntary blue carbon projects, noting several existing tools to support carbon market standards. Members also touched on how blue carbon commitments increasingly align with broader climate and biodiversity frameworks, including NDCs, national biodiversity strategies, and 30x30 targets, reinforcing blue carbon's role as a bridge among climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, and community livelihoods. The PWG's next peer-learning call is planned for Q3 2026. In the meantime, catch up on the group's first peer-learning call of the year or watch the recording of this session on YouTube. Interested in learning more? Dive into the recent PWG publication, Mangrove Law and Policy in Practice: 2026 Case Studies, building on the 2023 Mangrove Law and Policy Brief. Developed collaboratively by PWG members and partners around the world, it brings together 16 case studies across restoration protocols, NDCs, blue carbon tools, biodiversity strategies, and governance frameworks, offering practical guidance for translating commitments into outcomes on the ground. ---- If you are a GMA member working on mangrove policy and are not yet part of the Policy Working Group, reach out to the PWG lead, Adriana Vidal (Adriana.vidal@iucn.org), to get involved.

From Forensics to Action: The Evolution of GMW Lammert Hilarides, Wetlands International Lagune de la Somone, Senegal For years, tracking global mangrove loss has felt a bit like performing historical forensics. When early versions of the Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) platform launched, we were looking at broad, retrospective snapshots of the world's coastlines. We could see where mangroves had been, but by the time the maps were published, the loggers had moved on, the shrimp ponds were built, or the restoration planting had already succeeded or failed on the ground. Data was treated as a finished monument, built by scientists, published in journals, and left static until the next major funding cycle. With the release of the GMW 4.1 dataset and our latest batch of platform updates, that era is officially over. We are introducing a continuous, unbroken annual time-series stretching from 1985 all the way to 2025, complemented by near real-time monthly alerts of mangrove loss until June 2026. Aerial photograph from Senegal 2023 taken during GMW training. "This update isn't just a deeper archive or a minor technical patch. It represents a fundamental shift in how the Global Mangrove Alliance operates: moving away from treating data as a static scientific product, and embracing it as an active, living operational framework driven by people who use it for conservation and restoration on the ground." Lammert Hilarides, Wetlands International Our journey since publishing version 2.0, the first publicly available version, in 2018 has taught us that data is only as good as its responsiveness to reality. Science shouldn't happen in a vacuum. By listening to feedback from hundreds of people over many years, whether through formal website channels or informal feedback during trainings, we have deliberately evolved GMW into a tool built for real-world application. New features and updates The GMW version 4.1 dataset provides a new foundation for our work by providing the most stable, reliable time series of mangrove extent and change yet. The dataset now accurately separates gross loss and gross gain into individually usable layers. Instead of looking at a "net change" figure that hides massive local clear-cutting behind a wall of natural growth elsewhere, practitioners can now isolate exactly where destruction is happening versus where recovery is taking root. When you combine this deep historical backdrop with our monthly mangrove loss alerts, which now feature a temporal visualization color-coded by the recency of the alert, local teams can immediately spot and react to illegal clearing as it happens. Users can now distinguish exactly where mangroves are being lost versus where recovery is taking root. To support making this data truly actionable, the platform itself has undergone a transformation. For the first time, we are introducing much requested features of user accounts, subscriptions, and customizable areas of interest. Users no longer have to navigate from the global map from scratch every time they visit but instead can now draw a boundary around their own areas of interest, revisit those and receive tailored updates when new data comes in. This localized, user-driven approach is already changing how stakeholders manage their mangrove forests. Take Ecuador, where the national GMA Chapter is building its very own national mangrove monitoring system based on GMW data and empowering local stakeholders to directly track and defend their forests. Similarly, in Kenya, the Kenya Forest Service is utilizing these tailored insights to make an immediate difference in how regional marine resources are governed and restored. To bridge the gap between data and direct action even further, the platform now features a much closer integration with the Mangrove Restoration Tracker Tool (MRTT). Rather than just viewing loss from a distance, practitioners can now seamlessly transition from monitoring a site to tracking the actual progress and health of restoration projects over time. The monthly mangrove loss alerts are now enhanced with color-coded visualizations, showing the recency of each alert. Local teams can immediately spot and react to potential illegal clearing as it happens. Crucially, version 4.1 acts as a rock-solid foundation for an entire ecosystem of derived datasets. While today we launch the update to GMW extent and change data, it paves the way for a complete refresh of our most critical diagnostic layers. Over the next twelve months, updates will roll out for our global datasets on mangrove biomass, blue carbon stocks, restoration potential and many others. The Global Mangrove Alliance was founded on the idea that no single organization can protect the world's coastlines alone. By turning our scientific data into an open, community-driven process, we are ensuring that the tools to defend these vital ecosystems belong to everyone. The maps are sharper, the alert system is live, and the infrastructure is ready. We invite conservationists, policymakers, and researchers to create an account, subscribe to your regions of interest, and help us refine this platform even further by sharing your feedback through the GMW contact form, via email or by flagging data issues directly on GitHub. The latest data is in your hands. Now, let’s continue to use it to make measurable differences on the ground. And we will measure them!

Mangroves are a climate solution. Our alliance works globally to advance mangrove conservation, management and restoration at all levels. Halt Loss. Restore Half. Double Protection. Act Now COORDINATED, GLOBAL IMPACT. The Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) is a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to mangrove conservation and restoration at a scale that matters. Founded on the principles of collaboration and collective action, we unite diverse stakeholders from government, academia, non-profit organizations and industry to tackle challenges facing mangrove ecosystems. 20,000 Mangrove Experts 70,000 Ha of mangroves protected by members. 65,000 Ha of mangroves restored by members. 966,000 Ha of mangroves managed by members. UNITED FOR CONSERVATION We have reached a critical moment in the history of our planet. Recognizing both their importance and their resilience, there is increasing investment in the opportunities that mangroves present. The GMA represents a phase-shift in conservation opportunities for mangroves. With our global vision, we are providing a catalyst for accelerating change and building a host of opportunities for coastal peoples and biodiversity around the world. JOIN THE MOVEMENT WHY WHO Mangrove forests play an unparalleled role in coastal defense, biodiversity enhancement, food security and climate mitigation. Our community is protecting, conserving and restoring mangroves to secure a safer future for both people and nature. Our 100+ members and 14 national chapters represent technical experts, civil society organizations, governments, local communities, businesses, funding agencies and foundations. WHERE Our alliance works globally, nationally and locally at community, state and regional levels to advance mangrove conservation, management and restoration. HOW We scale impact by exchanging knowledge and experiences locally and globally, facilitating stakeholder connections across sectors and regions. We harness science to fill gaps between big-picture discussions and on-the-ground realities. KEY RESOURCES Further your understanding of mangrove conservation and restoration from global implementation projects to best practice guidelines. Join efforts to conserve and protect mangroves, collaborate on field work and partner on policy initiatives. Explore GMA Membership Subscribe to GMA Newsletter

Mangroves are one of the most productive ecosystems. We work to safeguard them with coordinated conservation and expansion of marine protected areas. This 2024 edition of The State of the World’s Mangroves. Mangroves are critical ecosystems, bridging land, freshwater and sea. They host tremendous diversity and protect and provide for countless coastal communities around the world. This 2024 edition of The State of the World’s Mangroves highlights the tremendous advances that have been made on multiple fronts to safeguard these ecosystems. It showcases progress in: science and understanding; collaboration and information sharing; practical management interventions; and the many policy, legal and financial tools that will help to secure a better future for these ecosystems. DOWNLOAD PORTUGUESE ENGLISH EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MANGROVE SPOTLIGHT FRENCH SPANISH WHY MANGROVES? Mangroves are ecosystems of hope, bridging land, freshwater and sea. The 15 million hectares of mangroves across the globe host tremendous diversity, protection qualities and provide for countless coastal communities. Mangroves are not only places of great beauty, they are also among the world’s most productive ecosystems. They are fish factories, carbon stores and seawalls. 21B Tons of CO2 stored 15M People protected 600B Shrimp and fish produced 341+ Threatened marine species WATCH & LEARN RISK & OPPORTUNITY 50% of mangroves are at risk of collapse by 2050. While rates of mangrove loss have decreased, our knowledge of their value and importance has increased. Today, over 42% of remaining mangroves are formally protected for conservation purposes, and efforts to restore mangroves have surged, along with the tools and knowledge to support such restoration efforts. Mangroves are also remarkably resilient and opportunistic. Give these ecosystems half a chance and they’ll take it – rapidly settling on newly deposited coastal settlements or recolonizing former strongholds whenever they are re-connected to the shifting tides. Mangroves can be protected through a global, coordinated conservation effort and an expansion of marine protected areas. The GMA works alongside global partners to safeguard these ecosystems through the advancement of science and understanding, collaboration, information sharing, practical management interventions and the many policy, legal and financial tools that will help to secure a better future for these ecosystems. Our goal for avoided loss is 16,800 ha by 2030. Rates of mangroves loss have already slowed considerably in recent years. This presents an opportune moment to raise our ambition. While we can aspire to halt all losses, our target refers to direct, and therefore directly manageable, human-driven loss. In recognizing that mangroves are dynamic ecosystems, we also draw attention to the possibility of making further gains as mangroves naturally colonize new locations. Our goal for restoration is 409,200 ha by 2030. Approximately 818,300 ha are considered restorable and we seek to restore half by 2030. This is a deeply ambitious goal. New work by Worthington and colleagues nonetheless shows that there is enormous potential for restoration, both by estimating the restorability and by highlighting the considerable side benefits for local populations and the global community. Our goal for doubling protection is 6,100,000 ha under conservation measures. 42% of the world’s mangroves currently in protected areas. However, the urgency to halt all loss is fundamental. One of our key approaches is incorporating of mangroves into permanent forms of protection including traditional protected areas and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), which could encompass indigenous lands and areas of sustainable use. While mangrove losses in the past were considerable, rates of loss are declining and fell by 44% between 2000 and 2020. In addition, the global picture of mangrove extent is better than ever thanks to the latest Global Mangrove Watch dataset—offering a sixfold increase in mapping resolution and coverage of six additional regions with mangroves. SOWM 2024 SOWM 2022 SOWM 2021 CURRENT STATE The latest maps on the Global Mangrove Watch, v4.0, use both optical and radar satellite data and the extent maps have been iteratively improved through the incorporation of user feedback. It has become increasingly apparent that many countries lack good quality national maps. GMW v4.0 now prioritizes resolution for global datasets that are locally relevant and the overall accuracy of the GMW v4.0 map is estimated to be 95.3%. The conversion of mangroves for aquaculture, oil palm plantations and rice cultivation accounted for 43.3% of global mangrove loss between 2000 and 2020. Natural retraction—changes or losses of mangroves that are driven by movements in riverbeds, sediment inputs, or sea levels—accounted for 26% of the total loss over the 20-year period. Mangrove threats from human activities are being exacerbated by climate change, especially sea-level rise and more severe and frequent cyclonic weather events. The Global Red List of Mangrove Ecosystems shows that 18 mangrove provinces are threatened, representing ~50% of the world’s mangrove area. More frequent and severe cyclonic storms and sea-level rise, resulting from climate change, threaten one third of the mangrove provinces assessed. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) can provide vital information to develop mangrove conservation and restoration efforts with greater potential for long-term outcomes. Engaging ethically with LEK may seem a challenge, but thorough guidance is now available for researchers and practitioners through The LEK Best-Practice Guide. LOCAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE LEK GUIDE Until recently, we lacked a global estimate of the fish and invertebrate productivity associated with the presence of mangrove forests. But new data on the density of 37 species of fish, prawns, crabs and one cockle species from locations around the world, estimated that the presence of mangroves annually supports nearly 800 billion fishes and invertebrates. The clearance of vast tracts of mangroves for aquaculture is well documented. Restoration must be accelerated but many challenges remain. For shrimp, demand will continue. Efforts to reduce consumer demand may help along with new approaches to aquaculture, including Associated Mangrove Aquaculture (AMA). Once established, the AMA provides both food and shelter for aquatic species to grow and thrive as part of the natural food web. A key component of ongoing mangrove management is ensuring local communities can be engaged in a sustainable manner, benefiting from mangroves. Where growing populations and diminished mangroves coincide, opportunities for increasing the sustainability of traditional or modern practices may be required, as well as new opportunities within or beyond the mangroves such as fishing, salt production, sustainable timber harvesting, beekeeping and tourism. Our ambitions are high and our impacts must be higher if we are to accomplish our 2030 Goals. Through the collective efforts of global and local partnerships, we can ensure that mangroves, and everything that depends on them, survive and thrive. JOURNEY TO 2030 GMA GOALS Through the collective efforts of global and local partnerships, we ensure that mangroves and all that depend on them face a safer and more prosperous future. We are working directly with local NGOs and stakeholders to disburse funding, replicate best practices and scale interventions on the ground. The GMA brings results in hectares, livelihoods and biodiversity, offering a unique value through 14 national chapters and 100+ members in 45 mangrove countries. We are working to translate national commitments into sustainably funded on-the-ground implementation. International policy agreements drive this collective action, providing technical support to countries and to international conventions to integrate mangroves into their strategies. Policies that recognize this include the UNFCCC’s UAE Consensus and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Local knowledge and communities are the foundation for project design and implementation. Our science-based target setting and global network inspired the creation of the Mangrove Breakthrough, in collaboration with the UNFCCC climate champions. The Mangrove Breakthrough has leveraged support from a total of 38 national and subnational governments. These countries represent around 60% of the world’s mangroves alongside 100+ non-state actors. They are now launching the Mangrove Finance Facility to mobilize $4 billion to secure the future of over 15 million ha of mangroves by 2030. LATEST FROM KNOWLEDGE HUB “Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the global community has recognized the importance of biodiversity…In many ways, mangroves are the poster child of the interdependence between people and nature. As such, it is great to read, in this State of the World’s Mangroves, of the fantastic advances in our knowledge, and to see how this knowledge is being shared around the world.“ Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

There would be no Alliance without our members. Our members collaborate on field work, policy initiatives and campaigns. COORDINATING MEMBERS 100+ Members 40+ Countries 14 National Chapters 10 Regional Programs MEMBERS There would be no Alliance without our members. All members of the Global Mangrove Alliance enjoy opportunities to contribute to, and benefit from, the GMA's collaborative spirit. Our growing community fosters broad representation and inclusivity in the GMA decision-making processes. As a member, you join in the efforts to raise the profile of mangroves and the threats facing these tropical ecosystems. Our members collaborate on field work, policy initiatives and campaigns. The GMA community also convenes at international meetings, conferences and workshops. NATIONAL CHAPTERS GMA national chapters, supported by local partners, reflect the grassroots momentum driving mangrove conservation at local levels. While linked to global efforts through the international GMA team, national chapters are tailored to local needs and incorporate local ecological knowledge, community input and equity considerations. LEARN MORE Join efforts to conserve and protect mangroves, collaborate on field work and partner on policy initiatives. Become a Member Stay up to Date