UNEP/GEF Review of Mangroves Bordering the South China Sea

The characteristic vegetation of tropical shorelines is mangrove, a habitat, which has been undervalued in the past and consequently has been subject to extensive removal and degradation in the Southeast Asian Region. The extensive conversion of mangrove in the countries bordering the South China Sea during the sixties and seventies often reflected short term economic opportunities that benefited a few individuals and neglected the longer term and more widely felt, but poorly understood benefits derived from mangrove services such as coastal protection.