Mangrove monitoring – Central America

Mangrove forests are an integral part of the coastal environment but are put at risk through the growth of intensively operated shrimp farms and agricultural activity in coastal areas. Other risk factors are water pollution and drainage efforts as well as severe hurricanes, to name but a few.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the ERS sensors has been used to map changes in the extent of mangrove areas for two sites (coast of Belize / Mexico and Terraba Sierpe, Costa Rica) between the mid 1990’s and 2007.

Changes in the extent of the mangrove areas between both dates were calculated. In both regions a decrease of mangrove areas in the order of 13% was observed.

Mangrove monitoring – Central America Mangrove Monitoring Mangrove monitoring – Central America Copyright: UNESCO, UNCBD, CCAD, ESA, GeoVille