Mangroves' role in supporting ecosystem-based techniques to reduce disaster risk and adapt to climate change: A review

Variations due to climate change like rising sea levels, recurring storm surges and changing wave conditions coupled with unsustainable development along the coast are exacerbating coastal populations' vulnerability to coastal dangers globally. The ecosystem based solution to achieve sustainable development is increasingly advocated in the last two decades to leverage nature's robust adaptive capacity to change and protect people against its negative consequences. Mangroves protect and maintain a rich marine biodiversity in the tropics and subtropics and are crucial carbon sinks. The present study thus analyses mangroves' role as ecosystem-based technique to reduce disaster risk and adapt to climate change using Mauritius, a small island state, as case study, particularly the coastal protective and climate change adaptive capacities of the two local species Rhizophora mucronata Lam. and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (L.) Lam. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines were used to retrieve resources from Google Scholar, Web of Science and ScienceDirect for the 2002 to 2022 period. A total of 41,789 records were identified and through a robust screening and filtering process only 50 studies were deemed relevant to the present study. In this context, key attributes of mangrove forests were found to be in reducing coastal flood risk, sheltering coastal regions during storms and stabilizing the coast. This study lays the foundation to consider Rhizophora and Brugueira as robust nature based solutions for Mauritius which will be of key importance to decision makers, researchers and the public at large to consider restoring degraded mangrove sites and promote ecosystem-based approaches to reduce disaster risk, adapt to climate change, enhance marine spatial planning and better coastal zone management.

Automated summary

This study analyzes the role of mangroves as an ecosystem-based technique to reduce disaster risk and adapt to climate change, using Mauritius as a case study. The study finds that mangrove forests play a crucial role in reducing coastal flood risk, sheltering coastal regions during storms, and stabilizing the coast.