Travel 8 Marine Health
In tropical regions such as Madagascar , mangroves anchor coastlines, and they also form a vital link between land and sea. Plus, their adaptation to highly saline waters and soils has produced astounding biological traits. For example, they can actually excrete salt or obtain oxygen through “breathing” pores! And that's not all: Mangroves shed leaves and branches that disperse and transfer essential nutrients into the marine environment, supporting intricate marine and terrestrial food webs.
Agricultural and sediment runoff can threaten the sensitive fish breeding areas, and that’s where our forestry program is so directly relevant. Planting the right trees in the right places reduces loss of topsoil that is essential for farm productivity and eases pressure for clearing more forest for farming. Keeping soil on slopes also keeps it out of rivers that support fish breeding habitat in the lake. The world’s longest lake, Tanganyika is an “inland ocean” holding nearly 20% of the world’s fresh water. It’s older and deeper than any other lake in Africa and it’s home to more than 300 fish species, including more than 250 species of endemic cichlids.
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