Jurgenne Primavera, Ph.D., said humans cannot control the occurrence of tsunamis, but the resulting damage and devastation could very well be mitigated. To her, a solid wall of trees is the best defense against a solid wall of water.

The early warning system currently being planned by states in the Indian Ocean, which were devastated by the tsunami triggered by an intensity 9.0 submarine earthquake in Indonesia, would definitely be of help, said Primavera, a senior scientist at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center’s Aquaculture Department.

She pointed out, however, that it would be a lot better if greenbelts are built along the coastlines. “A tsunami early warning system would be helpful because it could warn those who are out at sea. It could warn people that a tsunami is coming. But greenbelts would be there to lessen the strength of impact. People would have something to cling on to so they won’t be washed away. Properties would be protected, too,” she said.

Primavera, who is considered one of the top Filipino experts on mangroves, said, “Tsunami-triggered waves destroy only things that lie in their path, including houses and tourist resorts. But a greenbelt of mangroves and beach forests will mitigate the impact of 15-meter waves. It’s nature’s protection against nature’s fury.”

She cited a study titled, “Mangroves as a coastal protection from waves in the Tong King delta, Vietnam,” which said that “where mangroves were sufficiently tall, the rate of wave reduction per 100 meter was as large as 20 percent.”

The study further showed that “due to the high density of vegetation distributed throughout the whole water depth, the effect of wave reduction was large even when the water depth increased.”

Primavera also related that the Marine Biological Station on Inhaca Island in Mozambique that she visited years ago “shows how it can be done.” She said, “The buildings, hidden from sight as our boat approached the island, had been constructed a good distance behind the beach vegetation.”

Primavera said that there is also a need to change “our stereotyped picture of a tropical sunset with only coconut trees swaying in the breeze.” She explained that nature meant for the coconut palm to be only one among the many beach forest species and not the only one.

She said, “It is time we heed nature’s laws and replace our stereotype of a romantic but vulnerable palm beach devoid of other vegetation with the lush forest greenbelt that our coastlines used to have.”

Primavera, who holds a Ph.D. in marine science and was, in September last year, conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in natural science by the Stockholm University in Sweden, is not alone in her call for the reforestation of coastlines.

The Mangrove Action Project (MAP) also called for the re-establishment of a mangrove buffer zone or "greenbelt" along affected or threatened coastal zones to avert future disasters such as the so-called Asian tsunami.

MAP said the “severity of the disaster could have been greatly lessened and much loss in human life and suffering could have been averted had healthy mangrove forests, coral reefs, sea grass beds and peat lands been conserved in a healthy state along these same, now devastated, coastlines.”

It criticized the foolish degradation of the “vital protective buffers that nature provides against wind and wave” in favor of “unsustainable developments such as industrial shrimp aquaculture, tourism and urban expansion into these fragile and now quite vulnerable coastal regions.”

Since 1992, MAP has been opposing unsustainable developments that threaten mangrove forests around the world. Today, over half the world's mangrove forests have been lost. Less than 16 million hectares remain on coastlines that once were predominantly lined with thick stands of resilient mangroves.

MAP expressed sadness over the “fact that national governments have been unable to adequately regulate their industries that have sprouted up along much of the coastlines replacing nature's buffer zones with unprotected developments. The recent tsunami event has tested this fragile development model and proven it to be quite unsound.”

Rexcel John B. Sorza is a journalist from the Philippines and a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communication and Management. He was recently the runner up in the Water Media Network Journalists’ Competition and received his award at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. Your emails will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.

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