Bangladesh’s Sundarbans mangrove forest

Remember when Katrina decimated New Orleans? Some scientists argued that the destruction of nearby swamps in the Mississippi delta took away an effective storm surge barrier and, well, you saw the results. The problem with man-made barriers is that they are only as strong as their weakest link. A section of canal wall fails and it is so-long Ninth Ward.  Yet we continue to remove natural barriers like swamps and mangrove forests.

This week’s typhoon in Myanmar provides another warning to developers everywhere: remove natural barriers to storms at your own risk. According to a BBC report deaths caused by the storm were directly related to the loss of Mangrove forests that grow in salty marshes all over the world.

“Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces.”
His comments follow a news conference by Burma’s minister for relief and resettlement, Maung Maung Swe, who said more deaths were caused by the cyclone’s storm surge rather than the winds which reached 190km/h (120mph).
“The wave was up to 12ft (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages,” the minister said. “They did not have anywhere to flee."

Researchers from IUCN, formerly known as the World Conservation Union, compared the death toll from two villages in Sri Lanka that were hit by the devastating giant waves.

The 2004 tsunami prompted a series of mangrove replanting projects
While two people died in the settlement with dense mangrove and scrub forest, up to 6,000 people lost their lives in a nearby village without similar vegetation.

When 300,000 people in Bangladesh died in flooding there, the country instituted a policy to let the mangrove forests of the Sunderbans forest grow into a natural storm barrier protecting the low-lying nation. Global warming makes mangrove barriers more important as sea levels continue to inch upward.