Protect our Mangrove in Trinidad and Tobago

Until I heard that the mangrove in Trinidad was endangered, I had no idea what a mangrove was. I’ve done my research since then, and all I’ve read made it obvious that, before anything else, a mangrove is a place that should be protected.

First place I checked out was wikipedia, of course. It taught me that a mangrove is a type of tree and vegetation that is found in tropical regions, in saline water. The word mangrove also refers to the type of place where you find them – and that is also called a mangal, or a mangrove swamp. This is what we’re trying to protect. I’ve also found out that mangroves protect tropical regions from storms and erosion, which I guess can be pretty big problems in those area. After all, if you get your head out of the sand a bit during the summer, you’ll notice that hurricanes and tropical storms are quite a problem there – so anything preventing the region from being too damaged should be welcome. Mangroves are also unique ecosystems, home to a lot of biodiversity, and apparently a lot of shrimp (though unfortunately, this has caused some mangroves to be destroyed to make way for shrimp farming). All this would be reason enough to protect them.

I have also looked on flickr, searching for the keyword “mangrove”, and boy was that a nice search. All the photos that came up were beautiful. Mangroves seem to be so peaceful, so fragile, that it is mindblowing that anyone should want to destroy them to put a steel mill instead. Here are a few good ones:

By jawiyani under Creative Commons license

By Adrien Cretin under Creative Commons license

By yewenyi under Creative Commons license

So, they’re worth protecting, right? If you agree, please sign the petition to protect the Claxton Bay Mangrove. If you happen to have photos of it, please add them to our flickr group.