in southeast asia many forests have been

While many tropical countries are experiencing rapid deforestation, some have experienced forest transition (FT) from net deforestation to net reforestation. Numerous studies have identified causative factors of FT, among which forest scarcity has been considered as a prerequisite for FT. In fact, in SE Asia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, which experienced FT since 1990, exhibited a Being one of the three regions with the largest tropical rainforests in the world, Southeast Asia is actually losing large parts of its forests, mostly from human activities. But people living around and in the woodland across the region have been leading efforts to protect and restore them to return their function amid the worsening climate With this kind of forest clearance, Southeast Asia is likely to lose more than 40% of its biodiversity by 2100, according to environmentalists. Where In Asia Is Deforestation A Problem? Indonesia's Paradise Forests, Papua New Guinea's rainforest, and the Congo's forests are in such an abundance of illegal logging that government agencies are conducting a wide-ranging investigation. Southeast Asia was covered with 206.5 million ha of forest in 2015, containing a total of 21,172 Tg C AFCS (Figs. 1 and 2 ). Indonesia is the largest contributor both in terms of forest cover and In the 12 years since the first Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study was completed in 1998, the region has experienced tremendous changes in nearly every aspect. These changes have been particularly profuound in the forestry sector, where society has dramatically increased its demands and expanded its expectations of forests and forestry. By analysing high-resolution satellite data sets of forest loss and state-of-the-art maps of carbon density and terrain, an international team of researchers quantified patterns of forest loss in Southeast Asia during the first two decades of this century. They found that during the 2000s, forest loss was mainly concentrated in the lowlands Vay Tiền Online Từ 18 Tuổi. Every year, farmers in states neighboring Delhi burn crop residue, sending smoke into the air and across the country. South Asia was home to 44 of the world’s top 50 most polluted cities last year, most of them in India, according to the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir. Kandhari said that though she sympathized with residents in New York and elsewhere, “we really hope that the policymakers in the USA, who are in denial, feel the pain of the developing nations who choke each day in this toxic hell.”The world’s most polluted city last year was Lahore, Pakistan, IQAir says. In Bangladesh, whose capital, Dhaka, was the world’s second-most polluted city Thursday, air pollution is responsible for 20% of all premature deaths, according to a World Bank report this year. Southeast Asia has also seen worryingly high levels of pollution this spring from forest and agricultural fires, endangering public health and threatening the crucial tourism industry in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and many as 70% of the world’s million annual air pollution-related deaths are in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the United Nations Environment Delhi residents like Deepali Yadav, who says she’s been “dealing with this problem for years,” say they have found ways to cope that could also help those suffering from pollution in the air quality index AQI in New York and elsewhere exceeded 400 Wednesday, well above the 100 that the Environmental Protection Agency considers a healthy limit. “They can try staying indoors and using purifiers, using masks and water sprinklers to settle the smoke a bit,” said Yadav, an electronics engineer. “Strenuous outdoor activities can wait for some time, if that’s possible.”Shreya Bhattacharya, a textile designer, said people in New Delhi and elsewhere in northern India were wearing masks long before the Covid pandemic, especially heading into winter when AQI can exceed 700. She said they use humidifiers and air purifiers, especially while sleeping, and keep potted plants in the house during those months. “Breathing exercises and yoga have helped us greatly in maintaining lung capacity,” she said. An anti-smog gun mounted on a truck sprinkles water to curb dust pollution in New Delhi in Khanna / Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesTaking a shower or washing one’s face, especially the eyes, with cold water “helps remove the burning sensation from exposure to polluted air,” she said.“We try to avoid stepping outside as much as possible and make sure to mask up whenever we do.”Both Bhattacharya and Yadav stressed the importance of making earth-conscious choices.“I try to walk or use public transport whenever possible, surround myself with air-purifying plants, burn less, reuse and repair more, use masks outdoors, eat healthy and live using sustainable and nature-friendly ways,” Yadav Beijing, where AQI approached 1,000 during the “airpocalypse” of 2013, air pollution has improved dramatically but still flares up during annual sandstorms in March and April that partly originate in neighboring Mongolia. Experts say climate change is likely to make the naturally occurring sandstorms more don’t go outside, especially elderly people and Jiang, university student in Beijing “When I was in middle school, I can remember many days when the weather was foggy and visibility was no more than 200 meters 220 yards,” said Sam Li, 23, a Beijing native. “My nose was full of dust, and I felt quite disgusting.”Almost every family she knew had an air purifier, she added. “My high school also had air purifiers to protect students from air pollution.”Li said the most efficient way to prevent pollution from entering homes was to shut all the doors and windows. “If you have to go outside, you need to wear the professional mask,” she said, referring to particulate matter that measures less than micrometers in diameter, like that produced by wildfires. This year, the Chinese capital experienced its worst air pollution March 22, according to the Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center. The AQI that day was 500, state media reported.“The sky was yellow and the pollution was bad, but not to the extent that it is in New York today,” Jungle Jiang, a university student living in Beijing for six years, said via text message. A recent report documents the seizure of 25,000 live animals and more than 120,000 metric tons of wildlife, parts and plants from the Sulu and Celebes seas between 2003 and animals trafficked include rays, sharks and turtles, mostly between Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, for which the region forms a maritime border people of the Sulu and Celebes seas region have strong transboundary cultural and trade links, prompting experts to call for enhanced international cooperation in enforcement efforts. A new report has highlighted the maritime border zone between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines as a hotbed for the illegal wildlife trade, and called for urgent intergovernmental action to protect this biodiversity hotspot at the apex of the Coral Triangle. Wildlife trade monitoring nonprofit TRAFFIC documented and analyzed the seizure of more than 25,000 live animals and more than 120,000 metric tons of wildlife, parts and plants from the illegal trade between June 2003 and September 2021 in the Sulu-Celebes seas region. “The sheer volume of hundreds of marine and terrestrial species poached and trafficked through this lesser-known seas is a wake-up call for action before it’s too late,” report co-author Serene Chng, senior program officer of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, said in a statement. The communities that live alongside these seas have long had strong transboundary relationships and connections due to their shared cultures and engagement in local trade, often involving illegal, unreported and untaxed goods. TRAFFIC found the illegal wildlife trade through the Sulu and Celebes seas is primarily between the three Southeast Asian countries, rather than destined for other countries — though the arrests of some Chinese and Vietnamese nationals suggests some involvement by international syndicates. The smuggling of marine turtles — nearly all of which are endangered or critically endangered — is a major issue in the Sulu-Celebes seas region, with all three countries implicated in the trade. Image courtesy of TRAFFIC. Marine wildlife targeted TRAFFIC logged 452 confiscations of live animals and wildlife parts in the region, with the Philippines accounting for 239 53%, Malaysia 125 28% and Indonesia 88 19% of the cases. The incidents involved a diverse range of terrestrial and marine wildlife, with animals accounting for 89% of cases and plants the remaining 11%. Out of 119 incidents resulting in arrests, only 26 6% of total incidents led to documented convictions. However, TRAFFIC said the data on convictions were limited by gaps in reporting and recording. “Trade and enforcement levels constantly fluctuate and so many factors influence that,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia director Kanitha Krishnasamy. “But what the figures show is that the pressure on species is a constant.” The report found that species including marine turtles, giant clams, seahorses, sharks and rays — some threatened with extinction and banned from trade — are specifically targeted and frequently seized in large quantities, reflecting the alarming frequency of these illicit activities. Marine turtle smuggling is a major issue in the Sulu-Celebes seas region, accounting for 28% of all seizures, with much of this illicit trade conducted through in-person transactions rather than open online platforms. Marine turtle eggs constituted 95% of the seized marine turtle items, predominantly trafficked between the southern Philippines and Sabah, Malaysia, with Malaysia responsible for nearly 80% of the seizures. The eggs, believed to originate mainly from the Philippines’ Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary, are destined for the bustling consumer market in Sabah, with the city of Sandakan identified as the main entry point for their illegal transport. A total of 409 shark and ray individuals, nearly metric tons of their meat, and almost 29,000 shark products were seized in 12 incidents, primarily in the Philippines, with one seizure reported in Malaysia. Except for two live pelagic thresher sharks Alopias pelagicus and three whale sharks Rhincodon typus — both endangered species whose trade is highly restricted — all the seized sharks and rays were dead individuals. The study also showed that land animals were not exempt from the clutches of smugglers, with frequent and significant seizures observed. For instance, parrots were often seized in Bitung on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, with many originating from eastern regions of the country like Papua and Maluku. Seizure reports indicate Bitung is a potential consolidation point for selling these birds within Indonesia or to the Philippines. An endangered manta ray in Indonesian waters. TRAFFIC found that rays were the most commonly offered taxa for sale online in the region. Image by Anett Szaszi / Ocean Image Bank via The Ocean Agency. Online trade continues The illegal wildlife trade persists and thrives across online shopping platforms such as Lazada and Shopee, notably in Indonesia and Malaysia. After analyzing more than 600 posts related to sharks and rays, marine turtles and pangolins, TRAFFIC found that rays were the most commonly offered taxa for sale online in the region. A notable instance of online trade involved the sale of sharks and rays through livestreaming of Indonesian fish markets on Facebook. The videos showcased various species and their prices, with viewers engaging by commenting, asking questions, and bargaining prices. In Gorontalo, Sulawesi, an instance of stockpiling was observed, wherein online traders were found purchasing significant quantities of shark fins. Online trade of marine turtles was documented only in Indonesia, mainly in the form of carved bracelets and rings made from turtle shells. With the rise of online trade on social media and shopping platforms, TRAFFIC has called for increased attention from law enforcement agencies and tech companies. It also urged the governments of the three countries to employ existing traceability tools to combat wildlife trafficking, and to enhance regulations particularly concerning the legal trade of sharks and rays, which both play vital ecological roles within their respective food webs. Theresa Mundita Lim, executive director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity ACB, pointed to findings of the February 2020 Red List Index for Southeast Asia, which revealed a steady increase in the rate of biodiversity loss in the region. She said the region faces a high risk of wild vertebrate extinction, especially among species targeted in the illegal trade, further exacerbated by the prevalence of online commerce. “While social media is being used in these illegal activities, it can also be the solution to such a worsening problem,” Lim told Mongabay. “Everyone can contribute to curbing such illegal transactions by reporting accounts that engage in illicit trade.” Fresh shark fins drying in Indonesia. A total of 409 shark and ray individuals, nearly metric tons of their meat, and shark products were seized in 12 incidents, primarily in the Philippines. Image by laurent KB via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA A call for cooperation Given the interconnected nature of the illegal wildlife trade and the low number of successful convictions, the TRAFFIC report emphasizes the importance of a holistic, regional approach to finding solutions, including increased interagency and transboundary cooperation. “At least 45 different agencies from these three countries made arrests and seizures, with over a quarter of incidents involving collaboration between multiple agencies within a country,” Chng said. “We’re keen to see and support more of these joint efforts at the regional level between countries.” Related podcast listening Banner image A green sea turtle. Marine turtle smuggling is a major issue in the Sulu-Celebes seas region, accounting for 28% of all seizures. Image by Amanda Cotton / The Ocean Agency. Study Paying fishers to ease off sharks and rays is cost-effective conservation Citations Armstrong, O. H., Wong, R., Lorenzo, A., Sidik, A., Sant, G., & Chng, S. 2023. Illegal wildlife trade Baseline for monitoring and law enforcement in the Sulu-Celebes Seas. TRAFFIC. Retrieved from Bornatowski, H., Navia, A. F., Braga, R. R., Abilhoa, V., & Corrêa, M. F. 2014. Ecological importance of sharks and rays in a structural foodweb analysis in southern Brazil. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 717, 1586-1592. doi FEEDBACK Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page. Article published by Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Fish, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Trade, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, Sharks And Rays, Social Media, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Trade Print New research has found that the tropical forests in the mountains of Southeast Asia are losing trees at an accelerated rate, deepening a wide range of ecological concerns. Southeast Asia is home to about 15% of the world’s tropical forests and help sustain plant and animal biodiversity. The trees also store carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it would further contribute to warming global temperatures. But clearing the forests of trees has reduced the ecosystem’s capacity for carbon storage, according to a study recently published in Nature Sustainability. In many parts of the world, people have cleared out forests to make space for subsistence agriculture and cash crops. In Southeast Asia, illegal logging is also responsible for a huge amount of deforestation. As forests shrink, their ability to counteract human carbon emissions dwindles. “We know there is substantial deforestation on mountains [in Southeast Asia], but we didn’t know if it was increasing and how it affected carbon,” said Zhenzhong Zeng, an earth system scientist at Southern University of Science and Technology in China and a co-author of the study. “Now, we find that it’s increasing.” The researchers used satellite images to track forest loss over time and carbon density maps to calculate corresponding reductions in carbon storage capacity. Their results showed that Southeast Asia has lost 61 million hectares of forest over the last 20 years. In the 2000s, the annual loss was about an average of 2 million hectares a year. Between 2010 to 2019, that number doubled to about 4 million hectares a year. “I think what’s surprising is just the rate that it’s occurring at, and not the fact that it is occurring,” said Alan Ziegler, a physical geographer at Mae Jo University in Thailand and another co-author of the study. About a third of trees cleared were in mountainous regions such as northern Laos, northeastern Myanmar and the Indonesian islands Sumatra and Kalimantan, the study found. Experts previously thought that these trees, protected by rugged mountain landscape, would be less affected by human intervention compared to trees found in flatter lowlands. But the study found that with cultivatable lowlands growing more limited, forest clearance has expanded into the mountains. In 2001, mountain trees made up about 24% of all trees cleared that year. By 2019, it was over 40%. FILE - A view of Khao Yai National Park, 130 kilometers north of Bangkok, Thailand, March 22, 2021. “I think it’s innovative, the way they look at how [forest loss] shifts from lowland areas to the mountain areas,” said Nophea Sasaki, who studies forest carbon monitoring at Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and was not involved in the study. “I think that’s a great concern.” Forests at higher elevation and on steeper slopes tend to store more carbon than lowland forests, according to the study. If people are clearing out more mountain trees, then the forests could lose even more carbon than current climate change models predict. If land is set aside, trees can regrow and restore their carbon stocks. But the natural habitats forests support and the great biodiversity they contain may be lost forever. Species unique to the region could disappear. The forests’ protection of watersheds and flood prevention capacity may also vanish. “It’s not only about carbon. In terms of environmental destruction on a long-term basis, it would destroy nature. It would destroy all biodiversity,” Sasaki said. Complicating the picture is inconsistent monitoring and enforcement of forest protection between countries and states. Experts say advances in technology, such as the satellite data used in this study, and public attention on the issue will be important for closer monitoring and prevention of forest loss. “We should be obligated to protect the forest because without these forests, we cannot survive,” Sasaki said. Most people are familiar with orangutans–the big, hairy, monkey-looking creatures that share over 96 percent of our DNA. But did you know that these large primates are in danger of becoming extinct? This may lead you to wonder why is the orangutan endangered? And what efforts are being done to protect it? Keep reading as we take a closer look at these questions. Are Orangutans Going Extinct? There are three species of orangutan the Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli. The Bornean orangutan is considered endangered, while the Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans are both critically endangered. Critically endangered means that the species may go extinct from the wild within the next 15 years. So yes; if more efforts are not made to protect them, at least two of the orangutan species may go extinct, and the third one could soon become critically endangered. The good news is that people throughout the world are becoming aware of the threat and making efforts to protect the orangutans. We’ll talk more about these conservation efforts a little later in this article. Why are Orangutans Endangered? Orangutan populations have seen massive declines in recent decades. You may be wondering why; what factors have caused their decline? There are several factors that play a role in falling orangutan numbers. Let’s take a look at those factors below. Deforestation Orangutans live in tropical forests and river valleys on a few islands in southeast Asia. Many of these forests have been destroyed to make room for palm plantations. Fires Part of the deforestation process involves burning large sections of forest at a time. Not only do these controlled burns kill much of the wildlife inside, but they can also easily spread to the forests around them and grow into large, uncontained wildfires. Illegal logging In forested regions that aren’t being cleared for plantations, illegal logging is a major problem. Even in protected areas, loggers will go in and cut down large numbers of trees, further reducing the orangutan’s available habitat. Poaching Though hunting orangutans is illegal, the big, slow animals are often targeted by poachers. Some orangutans are hunted for food; others, forced from their homes as their natural habitats disappear, are shot for encroaching on farming areas and eating crops. Pet trade In some regions, orangutans are in high demand as pets, though it is illegal to own or sell them. In the illegal pet trade, female orangutans are killed and their babies taken; and, according to the World Wildlife Fund “It is thought that for each orangutan reaching Taiwan, as many as 3-5 additional animals die in the process.” What Efforts are Being Made to Save Orangutans? As you can see from the above section, orangutans face many threats. It’s no wonder their populations are declining so rapidly. Fortunately, there are efforts being made to protect orangutans and restore their populations. Some of these efforts include Habitat conservation Local and international organizations are making efforts to reduce the number of forests being destroyed. Large areas of forest in southeast Asia are receiving legal protection against deforestation, burning, and logging; though some of these activities persist, they are not as prevalent in areas where they are illegal. Limiting pet trade Some organizations work to limit the pet trade by helping local governments enforce the laws already in place, make new laws, and rescue orangutans that have been illegally trafficked. The rescued orangutans are raised to adulthood or nursed back to health, eventually being released back into their native habitats. Monitoring populations Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund keep track of orangutan populations, making note of fluctuations from year to year and reporting any dangerous declines. By monitoring the actual numbers of orangutans found in the wild, we can better understand how conservation efforts are making a difference and changes that still need to be made. Public awareness Many organizations throughout the world are simply trying to get the word out about the plight of the orangutan. As more people learn about the problem, many will become more interested in getting involved and supporting the efforts already being made to correct it. Check out this video to learn more about the threats to orangutans and what is being done to protect these large primates. Conclusion Orangutans are found in forested areas of southeast Asia, where they face many threats in their natural habitats. Efforts are being made to protect and restore the three orangutan species, all of which are endangered and two of which are considered critically endangered. Article Open Access Published 28 April 2020 Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number 7117 2020 Cite this article 15k Accesses 112 Citations 86 Altmetric Metrics details Subjects AbstractFragmentation is a major driver of ecosystem degradation, reducing the capacity of habitats to provide many important ecosystem services. Mangrove ecosystem services, such as erosion prevention, shoreline protection and mitigation of climate change through carbon sequestration, depend on the size and arrangement of forest patches, but we know little about broad-scale patterns of mangrove forest fragmentation. Here we conduct a multi-scale analysis using global estimates of mangrove density and regional drivers of mangrove deforestation to map relationships between habitat loss and fragmentation. Mangrove fragmentation was ubiquitous; however, there are geographic disparities between mangrove loss and fragmentation; some regions, like Cambodia and the southern Caribbean, had relatively little loss, but their forests have been extensively fragmented. In Southeast Asia, a global hotspot of mangrove loss, the conversion of forests to aquaculture and rice plantations were the biggest drivers of loss >50% and fragmentation. Surprisingly, conversion of forests to oil palm plantations, responsible for >15% of all deforestation in Southeast Asia, was only weakly correlated with mangrove fragmentation. Thus, the management of different deforestation drivers may increase or decrease fragmentation. Our findings suggest that large scale monitoring of mangrove forests should also consider fragmentation. This work highlights that regional priorities for conservation based on forest loss rates can overlook fragmentation and associated loss of ecosystem functionality. IntroductionMangroves are intertidal wetlands found along coastlines in much of the tropical, subtropical and warm-temperate world. These forests provide valuable ecosystem services including preventing erosion1, providing habitat for fisheries species2, protecting coastal communities from extreme weather events3,4 and storing large reserves of blue carbon, thus mitigating global climate change5. The services provided by mangroves are threatened by anthropogenic processes including deforestation6 and sea-level rise7,8. Historically, mangroves were subject to high rates of deforestation of up to per annum9. However, since the turn of the millennium global mangrove deforestation rates have slowed, with annual loss rates of Lower rates of loss are due to near total historical loss of forest patches in some regions, but also improved conservation practices11 and improvements in large scale monitoring techniques that provide more accurate estimates of cover and loss than were available historically10,12. The majority of contemporary mangrove loss occurs in Southeast Asia, where ~50% of the remaining global mangrove forest area is located, with nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar continuing to show losses of and per year, researchers have highlighted that simply reporting mangrove total loss rates is insufficient for prioritising conservation actions11, if there is insufficient knowledge of the quality and spatial arrangement of habitat that remains. It is important to consider the proportional loss of mangroves, as areas with small amounts of mangrove forest will be particularly negatively affected by deforestation and resulting fragmentation, even though such small patches can still provide a disproportionate amount of ecosystem services for local populations13. Similarly, in addition to simply conserving mangrove forests, there is now also a focus on quantifying mangrove connectivity14,15,16. Although measurement of total areal loss is an important step towards informing conservation priorities, other metrics of environmental change, such as fragmentation, are also important indicators of habitat health17,18,19,20, ecological function and resilience of fragmented mangrove forests may be compromised in multiple ways, making fragmentation an important change to monitor22. For example, fragmented forests are likely to have a reduced capacity to ameliorate waves23,24 and so will have higher through-flow of tidal waters leading to greater erosion of sediment substrate25. Increased sediment erosion may affect the capacity of mangroves to accrete and keep pace with sea level rise7,8, so by increasing erosion fragmentation may reduce the ability of mangroves to adapt to sea level rise. In addition, increased mangrove fragmentation may mean forests are more accessible to humans, potentially leading to increased deforestation of mangroves and exploitation of species that use mangroves as habitat26. Finally, the biological integrity of fragmented mangroves is compromised by lower species diversity of both birds27 and estuarine fish28. Thus, the capability for mangroves to provide critical habitat for many fished species may be jeopardised by fragmentation. The biophysical impacts of fragmentation in mangroves are likely to influence the ability of forests to capture and store carbon6,29. Given the number of important ecological changes associated with the fragmentation of mangrove forests, we suggest that fragmentation should be explored as a way to monitor the deterioration of mangrove ecosystems at large compared rates of mangrove fragmentation and deforestation from a high spatial resolution dataset from 2000 to 2012 at a global scale, with ~30 m resolution at the equator10. We used four metrics of fragmentation that represent different aspects of the quality of mangrove forests globally clumpiness, perimeter-area fractal dimension PAFRAC, mean patch area and the mean distance to a patch’s nearest neighbour Supplementary Methods S1. The clumpiness index and PAFRAC assess how patches are dispersed across the landscape, and patch shape, respectively30. These metrics are independent of the areal extent of forests31, making them ideal for assessing shifts in mangrove forest arrangement. The metrics mean patch size and mean distance to nearest patch have the advantage of being immediately comprehensible and describing ecologically relevant shifts in forest arrangement28,32. However, these two metrics can be highly correlated with the extent of forests in the patterns of mangrove fragmentation are related to, but distinct from, patterns in mangrove loss at the global scale. Six of the ten nations with the highest rates of mangrove loss were also in at least one of the lists for the top ten nations for fragmentation rates Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, United States, and the Philippines Table 1. We also identified hotspots for loss that had lower rates of fragmentation, including Brazil, northern Myanmar, Mexico and Cuba Figs. 1, 2 and Supplementary Fig. S1. Although fragmentation is often linked to loss, there is a ubiquitous trend toward fragmentation globally, even in areas with low rates of loss Fig. 2, Supplementary Table S1. Landscapes in regions with both high rates of loss and fragmentation, such as Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia, displayed high values for all measures of fragmentation Fig. 3. Hotspots of fragmentation within the top ten for at least two of four fragmentation metrics include Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea and the southern Caribbean Aruba, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of these areas are associated with high deforestation rates; however, areas such as Cambodia, Cameroon, New Guinea and nations with little mangrove area in the southern Caribbean Aruba, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago have comparatively low loss 1 The top ten nations ranked by total areal loss and rates of fragmentation for each of the four main metrics. Nation and value are size tableFigure 1A description of similarities and disparities between fragmentation and areal loss of mangroves, with example size imageFigure 2Global distribution of total mangrove loss panel A, proportional mangrove loss panel B and fragmentation, measured as 1 changes in distance to nearest patch Panel C and, 2 shifts in mean size of mangrove patches panel D.Full size imageFigure 3Maps of four landscapes, each demonstrating a notable shift in one of the four metrics of fragmentation employed in this size imageThe spatial distribution of mangrove fragmentation is variable and depends on which metric of fragmentation is considered Table 1, Fig. 2. Generally, there is a fragmentation hotspot centred in Southeast Asia, concomitant with known areas of mangrove loss10. There are other hotspots of fragmentation albeit less severe than in Southeast Asia in the Caribbean, northern South America and the eastern Pacific. These hotspots ranked highly for fragmentation in the metrics of mean distance to nearest neighbour and patch area see Fig. 2, metrics which have high ecological relevance. Western Africa also ranked highly on the sensitive metrics of PAFRAC and clumpiness see Supplementary Fig. S1.Land-use changesFragmentation and loss were highly correlated in Southeast Asia, and this relationship was mediated by the specific land-use transition. Rank correlations indicate a strong relationship between the extent of loss and all fragmentation metrics correlation coefficients ranged from to all correlations had p 0 to 0. Rasters were spatially transformed to the local UTM and exported as GeoTIFF files, resulting in 8,985 landscapes with mangrove presence in 2000. All spatial processing was conducted using R version and the packages raster48, rgeos49, rgdal50 and sp51. Fragstats52 was used to process the landscapes. Fragmentation statistics calculated included CLUMPY, PAFRAC, ENN_MN and AREA_MN. Total mangrove cover in the landscape was calculated using the raw cover values in the cropped raster were assigned to a nation and a biogeographical ecoregion53. The GADM version and ecoregional layers53 were cropped to each landscape, and the nation and ecoregion that was most dominant in the landscape were assumed to be the nation/ecoregion containing the mangroves within the landscape. The majority of landscapes were assigned only one nation Plotting was conducted using the R packages sf54 and of land-use transitionsFor Southeast Asia, dominant land-use transitions were extracted from a previous analysis using remote sensing of Landsat imagery45. In the previous study, all areas of mangrove deforested in Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2012 and larger than hectares in size were classified to identify their land cover in 2012 using a machine learning model45. Data on the prevalence of six types of land-use transition were extracted from this dataset urban developments, rice paddy, oil palm plantations, aquaculture, mangrove regrowth including mangrove forestry, rehabilitation or natural regeneration and other including recent deforestation with no identifiable form of land-use, deforestation caused by erosion, and conversion to non-oil palm terrestrial landscapes. Each landscape was queried for the number of mangrove patches and the total area of mangrove undergoing different land-use transitions. Many landscapes had multiple land-use transitions within their boundaries. Accordingly, the dominant land-use transition for each landscape was assigned. The land-use classification which had both; 1 the highest total area within the landscape, and 2 was present in the most or equal to the most mangrove patches within the landscape was considered dominant. Spearman rank correlations were conducted to identify the relationship between mangrove deforestation loss in hectares and absolute shifts in metrics describing habitat arrangement. The Spearman rank correlation was used because initial analyses with linear regression indicated the residuals did not conform to a normal distribution. We then modelled the correlation coefficient as a function of fragmentation metric and land-use transition using a linear model. The linear model tested the hypothesis that the extent of deforestation and fragmentation would be more strongly linked for some land-use transitions than others. All processing was conducted in R version Data availabilityThe datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are available in the dryad repository, WEBLINK. To be made public upon publication.ReferencesKoch, E. W. et al. Non-linearity in ecosystem services temporal and spatial variability in coastal protection. Front. Ecol. 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Springer-Verlag New York, 2016.Download was supported by a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE160101207 from the Australian Research Council, and and by The Global Wetlands Project. FA was supported by an Advance Queensland Fellowship from the Queensland Government, Australia. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program RTP informationAuthors and AffiliationsAustralian Rivers Institute – Coast and Estuaries, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, AustraliaDale N. Bryan-Brown & Rod M. ConnollyETH Zurich, Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore, SingaporeDaniel R. RichardsAustralian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, AustraliaFernanda AdameDepartment of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, 117570, Singapore, SingaporeDaniel A. FriessAustralian Rivers Institute – Coast and Estuaries, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, AustraliaChristopher J. BrownAuthorsDale N. Bryan-BrownYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarRod M. ConnollyYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarDaniel R. RichardsYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarFernanda AdameYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarDaniel A. FriessYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarChristopher J. BrownYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google and conceived the project. conducted the data management and analysis. suggested project direction and provided support in planning stages. and provided data for land-use changes in Southeast Asia. and interpreted results. drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to editing the manuscript. All authors consented to the manuscript being submitted in its final authorCorrespondence to Christopher J. declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Additional informationPublisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional informationRights and permissions Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit Reprints and PermissionsAbout this articleCite this articleBryan-Brown, Connolly, Richards, et al. Global trends in mangrove forest fragmentation. Sci Rep 10, 7117 2020. citationReceived 18 June 2019Accepted 06 April 2020Published 28 April 2020DOI This article is cited by New contributions to mangrove rehabilitation/restoration protocols and practices Alexander Cesar FerreiraLuiz Drude de LacerdaLuis Ernesto Arruda Bezerra Wetlands Ecology and Management 2023 Natural Protected Areas effect on the cover change rate of mangrove forests in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico Laura Osorio-OlveraRodolfo Rioja-NietoFrancisco Guerra-Martínez Wetlands 2023 Genomic population structure of Parkia platycephala Benth. 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in southeast asia many forests have been