Impacts of mangrove plantations on land stabilization along the coastline in Bangladesh

Rapid degradation of stabilized mangrove plantations in the southern and south-eastern part of Bangladesh has raised much concern to the scientists and environmentalists. In the past, land stabilization concept in connection to mangrove plantations is poorly understood. This study aimed at assessing the current status of mangrove plantations and understanding more about their impacts on land stabilization along the coastline of Bangladesh. The study was carried out at five Coastal Afforestation Divisions (here mentioned as CADs) of Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) from September 2014 to August 2015. Primary data on stabilized mangrove plantations over the time period of 1966 - 2014 were collected from BFD field offices. Secondary data on natural accretion and erosion were collected from a large number of existing literatures. The results showed that more than 192,395 ha of mangrove plantations were stabilized over the period from 1966 through 2014 in five CADs with the highest distribution in Noakhali (40%) followed by that in Chittagong (26%), Bhola (20%) and Patuakhali (14%). The total area of stabilized mangroves maintained a significant (