Sixteen percent of the world's mangrove forests threatened with extinction

By Sara Novak, Columbia, SC on 04.10.10 One of the fondest memories of my honeymoon was kayaking through the mangrove forests on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. The trees were mystical, something out of a fairy tale. That’s why I was more than a little saddened to learn that forests of this kind all over the world are in serious decline. In fact, many of them are threatened with extinction. The first ever global assessment of the world’s mangrove forests found that 11 of the 70 species of mangrove trees are threatened with extinction. They’ve been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™. According to the study, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, where as many as 40 percent of mangrove species are found, have experienced the most serious declines. …

Sixteen Percent of the World’s Mangrove Forests Threatened with Extinction