Good day fellow steemians, Today I will continue with the series sustainable development and I will be writing about the decline of the tropical mangrove forest.
Tropical magrove forest ecosystems are habitats with an unusual variety of animals and plants adapted to coastal estuarine environment. Mangrove forest occupies about 15 million hectares of land in the warm waters of tropical oceans around the world. Along the Atlantic coast they are found from Florida all the way down to Argentina. They grow on both the western and eastern coasts of Africa stretching into India, Burma, and south-east Asia. Mangrove forests are also common in New Zealand and Australia. 
![mangrove.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVp973iuuZRycUB9VjjuwGKzLqBHeSM2C8Zwvd21m6m6m/mangrove.jpg)
[Mangrove Forest in Florida](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mangroves.html)

Mangrove forests blossom near large river mouths (where river deltas provide lots of sediment (sand and mud). Mangrove roots collect sediments and slow the water's flow, helping to protect the shoreline and prevent the soil from eroding. Birds, monkeys, and fishing cats all make the mangrove home. Mangroves provide a shelter and  a nursery for a variety of fish, birds, crustaceans, and shellfish.

About 35% of earths tropical mangrove forest have been destroyed, with countries like India, Philipines and Vietnam having figures as high as 50% as a result of:
* Clearing mangrove to pave way for agricultural land, human settlement, infrastructure and construction of industries, also the booming tourist industry and shrimp aquaculture is causing the depletion of the mangrove.
* Overharvesting of mangrove trees for fuel wood construction wood, pulp production, charcoal , and animal fodder, this is not sustainable as the forest resource are used up faster than they can be replenished thereby threatening the existence of the forest.
* Climate change is also a threat, mangrove are sentitive to changes in water level as they require stable sea level to survive. The increase in atmospheric temperature have led to the increasing sea level which is not good for mangroves.
* Construction of dams reduces the amount of water reaching the mangrove which increase the salinity and lead to  the mangroves drying out.
* Fertilizers, pesticides, and other toxic  chemicals carried by river systems from sources upstream can kill animals living in mangrove forests, while oil pollution can destroy mangrove roots and suffocate the trees.

The way the mangrove forest can be revived/protected is to control human activities which account for about 90% of the damages been done to this ecosystem. Afforestation Legislation (including laws and policies),Monitoring and Surveys (land and aerial, etc,  Protection (including conservation, parks and reserves development, etc.) are steps to take in achieving our goal of stoping the decline of the mtropical mangrove forest.


**Reference**
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove)
http://aquafind.com/articles/Mangrove_Ecosystems.php
http://mangroveactionproject.org/mangrove-issues/