The Dancing Mangrove Trees of Sumba at Walakiri Beach are a sight to behold. These majestic trees, found along the coast of the remote Indonesian island of Sumba, move in a mesmerizing dance with the tide, swaying gracefully in the wind. The mangroves, with their thick, gnarled roots and tangled branches, are a vital part of the ecosystem, providing a habitat for a variety of marine life and protecting the shoreline from erosion.
Mangroves are tree families unlike any others, providing local communities and the planet with a long list of benefits.
Trees are crucial to a healthy world as they support the planet with many vital functions. Most trees cannot survive in saltwater, but mangroves have adapted to live in high salinity environments. Mangroves can live in such harsh conditions due to their unique root systems. Their roots help the trees stay upright in waterlogged soils, giving them access to oxygen and nutrients.
Mangroves also have special leaves that help them thrive in brackish water. Some mangroves filter that salt water through pores on their leaves. They even store carbon in their leaves, and when those leaves fall off and sink into the mud and silt, they become what is known as blue carbon or carbon that is stored underwater.
Unfortunately, mangroves are disappearing from coasts at a distressing rate due to farming, development, aquaculture, and sea level rise.The benefits of mangroves are immense, and as our planet rapidly changes, planting mangroves is becoming more important than ever.
At One Tree Planted we are actively supporting mangrove restoration projects throughout Asia and Latin America, including Costa Rica, The Philippines, India, Haiti and Guatemala. These fascinating trees are incredibly important both to the ecosystems they support and to the entire planet.
Today I learned that "mangrove" is not a biological classification of plant, and instead a general word for trees and shrubs that are specially adapted to grow in coastal areas periodically inundated because of tides.