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Safeguarding climate-resilient mangroves requires only a moderate increase in the global protected area
VUB research shows that targeted protection makes mangroves more resilient to climate change.
A new study by an international team of researchers shows how climate change can be better considered when protecting mangrove forests. The researchers found that even modest increases in protected areas can make these ecosystems more resilient to climate change. This information can help guide the creation of “climate-smart” protected areas that protect wildlife while continuing to function well as the climate changes.
“Although protected areas protect biodiversity from many human activities, species within them are still exposed to the effects of climate change. It is crucial that conservation planning anticipates these changes,” says lead author Alvise Dabalà, PhD researcher at the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
The team found that targeting the protection of mangroves located in climate-resilient areas does not require substantially more area than traditional approaches. “We show that international cooperation through transboundary conservation can protect more climate-resilient mangroves while requiring less total area than plans developed by individual nations,” says Alvise.
Given that mangroves experience different climate-change effects on their landward and seaward edges, the study also highlights the need for “edge-specific” conservation actions to effectively protect mangrove species across the intertidal zone.
The study offers new insight into how climate change can be effectively integrated into conservation planning at relatively low implementation cost. By identifying the most climate-resilient areas, conservation practitioners can better safeguard biodiversity and the ecosystem services mangroves provide in the decades to come.
Reference :
Dabalà, A., Brown, C.J., Van der Stocken, T. et al. Safeguarding climate-resilient mangroves requires only a moderate increase in the global protected area. Nat Commun 17, 2063 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68877-4
Contact :
Alvise Dabalà – Mathematical Marine Ecology Lab, University of Queensland, Australia, a.dabala@uq.edu.au
Prof. Dr. Anthony Richardson – Mathematical Marine Ecology Lab, University of Queensland, Australia, Anthony.Richardson@csiro.au
Prof. Dr. Tom Van der Stocken – bDIV group, Biology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Tom.Van.Der.Stocken@vub.be, Tel.: +32 2 629 34 20
Koen Stein
