Woking Sea Cadets, Surrey: the Burma May 2008 cyclone

The Sea Cadets

Woking & District

Mangrove loss 'left Burma exposed'

Adapted from pieces by BBC New Online & New York Times: 06 May 2008

Destruction of mangrove forests in Burma left coastal areas exposed to the devastating force of the cyclone at the beginning os May 2008, according to ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan.

Speaking at meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, he that said coastal developments had resulted in mangroves - which act as a natural defence against storms - being lost.

"Encroachment into mangrove forests, which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and residential areas; all those lands have been destroyed," he was reported as saying.

Apparently the storm surge caused more damage that the 120 mph winds. "The wave was up to 12ft (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," said Burma's minister for relief and resettlement, Maung Maung Swe.

Crushed fishing boats

Fishing boats crushed by a tropical cyclone in the port of Yangon.

Monks help clear debris

Black mangroves

Black mangroves (Avicennia germinans). Mangrove swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines throughout the world, usually between 25° N and 25° S latitudes. The mangrove swamp is an association of halophytic trees, shrubs, and other plants growing in brackish to saline tidal waters of tropical and subtropical coastlines.

* Mangroves are salt-tolerant evergreens that grow along coastlines, rivers and deltas
*They are found in more than 120 tropical and subtropical nations
*The plants' root systems have been shown to dissipate wave energy.

Satellite image of Sundarbans

There is some good news. In a few parts of the world, mangrove forest is deliberately being encouraged in order to provide a defence against cyclones and hurricanes. An example is the Sundarbans on the India/Bangladesh border, containing about 100,000 hectares of mangrove forest habitat (see satellite image above). This has been allowed to grow because Bangladesh was severely hammered by a typhoon that killed about 300,000 people about 20 years ago.

As well as acting as a buffer for inland areas from the ravages of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, this area is an important habitat for the endangered Bengal tiger, freshwater dolphins, and nearly 200 bird species.