Satellite study finds world has been gaining more mangrove forest than it loses since 2010
A study led by Dr. Zhen Zhang at Tulane University used Landsat satellite imagery to track global mangrove cover and found that gains have outpaced losses since 2010. The researchers attribute the shift to stronger legal protections and natural regeneration. Globally, net mangrove losses since the 1980s now stand at around 849 sq km, down from roughly 12,000 sq km cleared in earlier decades. This is a single study using a new satellite methodology the authors say may detect changes that prior research missed, and it has not yet been independently corroborated.
Mangroves have been cleared at high rates for decades for aquaculture and coastal development, and this study offers early satellite-based evidence that legal protections and natural recovery may be reversing that trend at a global scale.
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