MFF trains regional coastal managers on mangrove restoration and management

The course addressed one of the recommendations of the 2012 Mangrove Colloquium Call for Action, and was designed as a field-based mangrove restoration training course in collaboration with the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Thailand. Twenty-four participants from MFF countries Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam attended two days of seminars on the topics of ecological restoration and community-based ecosystem management. The FAO project Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystems (BOBLME) co-sponsored three participants from Myanmar to attend the course. 

The seminars were followed by four days of field exercises covering visits to four natural mangrove parks in Thailand. Participants visited mangrove sites on the west coast of the Gulf of Thailand, which included Pranburi and Chumphon. The Pranburi Forest Park and Mu Ko Chumphon National Park were good locations to consider the integration of mangrove restoration into coastal management planning, including biodiversity conservation. The Sirinath Rajini Mangrove Ecosystem Learning Center at Pranburi served as a demonstration site for restoring abandoned shrimp farms back to healthy mangrove forest. After Chumphon, participants crossed to the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, which is much more exposed to marine conditions than the Gulf of Thailand side, and experiences a much greater tidal range (up to 5 metres). Participants visited a Mangrove Arboretum at La Un near the border between Thailand and Myanmar, and then visited the Ranong Mangrove Forest Research Center to understand the multiple management objectives of the surrounding Ranong Biosphere Reserve.

MFF is now preparing a set of "References on Mangrove Restoration" which will include guidelines on mangrove restoration that include both technical considerations and non-technical approaches. These approaches will include effective methods to involve local communities in planning, implementation, and monitoring mangrove restoration and management activities, as well as an enumeration of benefits that restored and healthy mangrove ecosystems provide to the environment and to society in general.