Mangrove forests: Photography winners show beauty of ecosystems

Musfiqur Rahman has been named general winner of this yr’s Mangrove Images Awards, for his picture of a wild honey gatherer subduing large honeybees with smoke, in Bangladesh.

Run by the Mangrove Motion Undertaking, the competitors – now in its seventh yr – goals to indicate the relationships between wildlife, coastal communities and mangrove forests, in addition to the fragility of those distinctive ecosystems, each above and under the waterline.

Rahman’s profitable picture, A Courageous Livelihood, was chosen from greater than 1,300 entries from 65 nations.

“Indigenous Mowal honey gatherers, protected by Bonbibi, the forest goddess, should evade the hazards (Bengal tigers and saltwater crocodiles) lurking within the mangroves,” says Rahman.

“This historical custom and sustainable relationship between folks and the mangrove forest takes place within the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, and in addition India.”

Mangroves are an essential safety in opposition to local weather change, with one acre (4,000 sq m) of mangrove forest absorbing practically the identical quantity of carbon dioxide as an acre of Amazon rainforest.

The forests additionally defend coastlines from eroding as intense storms develop extra frequent.

“Right this moment, lower than half the world’s authentic mangrove forest cowl stays,” says competitors decide Robert Irwin.

“It has by no means been extra essential to advertise the conservation of those fragile ecosystems by means of inspiring pictures.”

Here’s a choice of profitable photographs from six competitors classes, with descriptions by the photographers.

The solar units on a stretch of shoreline after a mangrove restoration and seaside clear befell inside the local people.

Enchanted by the mangroves throughout a kayaking journey, we put the drone as much as get a unique perspective to disclose the peerlessly calm blue water between the mangroves.

As local weather change and sea degree rise threaten the way forward for the Sundarbans, constructing dams and mangrove beds is changing into one of many final hopes for the folks right here.

A lot of the mangroves alongside UAE’s shoreline are present in Abu Dhabi, appearing as a “inexperienced lung” for the town.

A peaceable early morning second on the Merritt Island Nationwide Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

The Milky Means shining above a mangrove tree at Mersing Seaside, Pulau Mawar, Malaysia, an space solely accessible by foot at low tide.

After 4 days of monitoring the elusive Bengal tiger, we had been lastly in a position to predict the place this particular person would possibly cross a creek.

The 2 mudskippers had been surprised throughout a battle for territory, by a playful dancing particular person.

These amphibious fish reside in mudflats and related mangrove ecosystems.

The inexperienced sea turtle is taking shelter within the mangroves.

Inexperienced turtles are born on seashores, develop up within the open ocean, eat seagrass and conceal in mangroves and coral reefs.

Defending these ecosystems is crucial in defending these species.

A uncommon encounter with a sargassum frogfish out of its pure habitat.

The frogfish is often related to sargassum seaweed, floating and travelling on the algae for hundreds of miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Mangrove habitats are essential for a lot of completely different sea creatures, together with the fascinating and vibrant upside-down jellyfish.

The plastic drawback on this a part of the world is large, and the mangroves are threatened, and slowly suffocating in plastic waste.

Native folks reduce down mangrove timber for gas and constructing supplies for boats and homes.

Over the previous three a long time, Indonesia has misplaced 40% of its mangroves.

The picture within the picture exhibits the reflection of the most important menace to Brazil’s largest city mangrove swamp: actual property hypothesis in areas of environmental preservation.

A clapper rail darts for canopy in a patch of coastal crimson mangroves.

The elusive chook has not been sighted within the space in over six years, however this one has discovered security and solitude in a small stretch of mangroves on the coast of Florida.

Mangroves are important for reptiles, like this Malayan water monitor, to thrive within the restricted coastal inexperienced areas of the town.

All photos are topic to copyright.