Quantifying the presence and potential of national legal frameworks for global mangrove protection

Mangroves represent a highly valuable and complex ecosystem that delivers critical ecological services. They protect coastlines from storms and erosion; they purify the air and lock in carbon; and they harbor beautiful species and provide homes for fish and crabs, which in turn provide food and livelihoods. Protecting mangroves is a vital strategy to advance human well-being and mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. National laws are a key tool for mangrove conservation, but studying them can be challenging. In this article, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from around the world analyzes the laws and policies of 116 countries and territories—every jurisdiction in the world that contains mangroves—to understand what kinds of mangrove laws exist and why they are adopted in some places but not in others. We find more mangrove laws than we expected; more than 80% of the world’s mangroves are subject to some form of explicit legal protection, from direct prohibitions and restrictions on cutting or clearing (60%) to requirements for considering mangroves in environmental impact assessments or coastal planning (75%). Jurisdictions with high-value mangroves supporting fisheries or protecting coastlines or locking in carbon are more likely to have laws and policies protecting mangroves. The types of laws adopted also depend on geographic region and wealth. Lower-income countries are more likely to have frameworks for community management of mangrove areas, while higher-income countries are more likely to integrate mangroves into coastal planning. This highlights the opportunities to leverage existing laws for mangrove conservation, including through investing in community-managed mangrove areas. In addition, countries where mangroves are providing valuable ecosystem services like fisheries and coastal protection may be amenable to legal reform to strengthen mangrove protection.