Contributing to the Global Mangrove Alliance

At the same time as being carbon storage and biodiversity hot-spots, mangroves are globally threatened by human clearance and sea level rise. In efforts to protect these important yet endangered ecosystems, the Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) was created. The GMA is a collaboration of NGOs, governments, scientists, industry, local communities and funders focused on conserving and restoring mangrove ecosystems. The pooling of knowledge and resources in this way has been shown time and time again to be a practicable mechanism through which large conservation goals can be achieved, which underscores the importance of the role the GMA plays in global mangrove conservation.

Researchers at the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (CRI) have provided important evidence that has been used to underpin the objectives and funding ambitions of the GMA and its associated initiative, Mangrove Breakthrough. For example, the $4 billion funding aim outlined by Mangrove Breakthrough was set in context of work developed at the University. The research produced in CRI also provides a strong component of the Global Mangrove Watch geospatial platform, providing open access data to users to aid the conservation and restoration of mangroves. Further, this research has provided the catalyst for developing collaborations of 100s of mangrove scientists from around the world. From these various outputs and achievements, the future of mangroves becomes a much more certain and positive one.