AMN: General statement on climate change
Acknowledging that:
- Mangroves provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including fisheries production, coastal protection, pollution abatement, carbon sequestration, and timber production;
- Human-induced stresses ranging from: diversion of freshwater, poor land-use in and around mangrove forests, over-harvesting of resources, and pollution disrupts the natural equilibrium of mangroves;
- Degradation of the mangrove forests not only depletes the resources within their boundaries, but also affects the productivity of the adjacent coastal and marine ecosystems
And that:
Mangroves have the potential and unique advantage of offering carbon offsets, including long term stores in peat, along with a range of other ecosystem services;
AMN resolves to
1 - Promote interventions to: reducing pressure of land use changes on the mangrove habitats, alleviating pressure on mangroves due to over-harvesting, and alleviating impacts of partial conversion of mangrove habitats due to pollution.
2 - Further, AMN in partnership with other stakeholders, resolve to promote the development of research capacity needed to deliver, and learn from, poverty reduction and conservation projects that utilise payments for ecosystem services (PES); such as REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation).
3 - Pursue mitigation and adaptive strategies in order to enhance resiliency of mangroves to climate change impacts; including, sustainable forest management, reforestation of clear-cut areas, community participation, among others.
AMN General Assembly Accra Ghana 30 April 2009
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