The International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem is celebrated every year on 26 July. Its main aim is to create awareness of the importance of the mangrove since it is a rare but spectacular species. The mangrove is the only tree that grows in salty water.
Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees containing a complex salt filtration system. They are adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions. This ecosystem is found along the sheltered tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide, it represents one per cent of all tropical forests and less than 0.4 per cent of the total forest estate.
Mangroves are at a higher risk of being destroyed, and the major factors contributing to this is exploitation and pollution. According to Mangrove Alliance, 67 per cent of mangroves have been degraded to this date and an additional one per cent is lost annually. These species of trees are disappearing at a very fast rate and if not conserved, they are likely to be extinct in the near future. However, on 26 Sep 2015 in a General Conference held in Paris, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) decided on a day to conserve mangroves in different parts of the world to save the tree from extinction.
Mangrove forests protect seagrass beds from siltation and erosion thus increasing resilience to natural hazards. Climate change is rarely experienced along the coastline since mangroves take up to five times more carbon out of the atmosphere than forests on land, these forests also play a vital role in providing a habitat for fish, which serve as food for the human population. In order to balance the ecosystem, people should try to save this species of tree in danger of extinction.