East African and Indian Ocean mangroves
Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania hold the largest areas; Kenya's Lamu is the biggest stand north of Tanzania.
Eastern Africa in Atlas (which includes the Indian Ocean islands) has about 759,000 hectares across 10 countries.
Main areas
- Mozambique (~311,000 ha): the Zambezi delta and Sofala coast, plus the north near the Quirimbas.
- Madagascar (~268,000 ha): mostly on the west coast around Mahajanga and Mahajamba, with important stands in Menabe.
- Tanzania (~113,000 ha): the Rufiji delta, the largest single mangrove block in East Africa, plus Tanga and Mtwara.
- Kenya (~53,000 ha): about 60% in the Lamu archipelago, the rest around Tana River, Kilifi, Mombasa and Kwale.
- Smaller: Somalia, Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius, Djibouti, Eritrea.
Trend. Taken together the loaded countries show a net loss since 1996 of a few percent, with Mozambique and Madagascar losing and Kenya slightly gaining.
Local detail. Atlas adds detailed species-formation, field-survey, restoration and sea-turtle layers for Lamu and Kenya's coast, and boundaries and forest layers for Tanzania from WWF Kenya Sources.
Related reading
More in Knowledge Base
- How satellites see mangroves
- Global Mangrove Watch: version 3 and version 4 explained
- Mangroves as climate adaptation, not only mitigation
- East African coastal forests
- Mangrove zonation: why different species grow in bands
- Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV)
- The Lamu seascape
- Salt marshes and tidal flats
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