18 October 2024

I have heard that mangroves protect coastlines during hurricanes and tsunamis but I could not imagine how they did it until I saw this video from Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK), Special Envoy for the President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and 13 year old climate activist.

This is actually why we plant mangroves trees pic.twitter.com/0rNwkkbRZU

— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 13, 2024

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is the eastern half of Timor island, located north of Australia. The other half of the island is part of Indonesia.

Timor was created by volcanoes so its mountains are steep and nearly everyone lives on the coast. It is good to live by the sea, but they need mangroves to protect them.

Timor island is located in the region with the highest diversity of mangroves in the world — 26-47 species in one place. Compare this to just one or two species in Louisiana.

When a hurricane hits Louisiana we often hear that the damage would not have been so great if they had more mangroves. Louisiana is now trying to restore their mangrove forest but it is slow going.

Learn more about mangroves in this award-winning video from The Marine Diaries.