Giving Compass' Take:

• Rachel Ramirez explains how mangroves in Central America protected communities from tropical storms, worse under climate change, and prevented economic damage. 

• Which vulnerable communities could be protected by mangroves? How can funders support community climate projects? 

• Learn how mangrove-planting drones can rebuild ecosystems. 

From Typhoon Hagibis in Japan to Cyclone Idai in Mozambique to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, climate change–fueled tropical storms have been increasingly wreaking havoc on coastal regions across the globe.

These storms, especially in vulnerable communities, create significant economic losses. Although levees or seawalls have been thrown out as ideas for preventing those losses, such coastal defense infrastructure can be costly. It can also have detrimental impacts on nearby ecosystems.

As climate change worsens, more and more experts are beginning to talk about nature-based solutions as a way to protect coastal regions from damage and mitigate economic losses. A new study released last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines the role mangrove habitats in coastal areas in Central America play in mitigating economic losses from hurricanes. Mangroves are trees that grow in coastal waters.

“When you take a look at these mangroves, they’re these really dense ecosystems that could essentially act as a wall or barrier for wind and storm surge,” explained Alejandro Del Valle, an assistant professor of risk management and insurance at Georgia State University and one of the lead authors of the study. “The key part is that these ecosystems are literally in the coastlines. It’s already there, so you don’t need to spend too much money in constructing it, just conserving and protecting it.”

The study’s researchers estimated local economic activity in Central America using satellite data measuring lights from human settlements as a proxy. “The idea is that when income increases, people consume more lights,” Del Valle explained. He and his colleagues also estimated potential hurricane destruction using a wind field model and located mangrove habitats using a collection of maps.

Analyzing these data sources, the researchers found that hurricanes can lead to significant economic losses but that wide mangrove belts are capable of mitigating the damage. The wider the swath of mangroves, the lower the impact from hurricanes, and less economic damage.

Read the full article about mangroves by Rachel Ramirez at Grist.