MangroveWatch is a community-science partnership and monitoring program addressing the urgent need to protect mangroves and shoreline habitat worldwide.
MangroveWatch currently involves around 500 people, with mangrove monitoring activities coordinated and conducted by local community groups in Australia, USA, and 5 Pacific Island Nations. The MangroveWatch hub, responsible for networking, training, feedback and data assessment, is based at the James Cook University, Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER), Townsville.
Being a part of the MangroveWatch program helps community volunteers to monitor mangroves as indicators of environmental impact and change.
The MangroveWatch mission is to provide coastal stakeholders with a tool to assess and monitor local shoreline habitats that;
• is scientifically valid
• engages and empowers local people
• promotes effective natural resource management
• provides a visual baseline from which to assess future change.
The MangroveWatch program began in 2008 in the Burnett-Mary region of Australia with support from Caring for Our Country; an Australian Government Initiative. MangroveWatch currently involves around 500 people, with mangrove monitoring activities coordinated and conducted by local community groups in Australia, USA, and 5 Pacific Island Nations; Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The MangroveWatch hub, responsible for training, feedback and data assessment, is based at the James Cook University, Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER), Townsville.
In Australia, MangroveWatch monitoring is taking place in the Torres Strait, Daintree River, estuaries in the Port Curtis and Coral Coast region, the Burnett, Elliott and Burrum rivers, Tin Can Bay, Noosa River, Pumicestone Passage, Brisbane River and Moreton Bay. There are currently over 300 registered MangroveWatch Australia volunteers from 20 different corporate, non-government and government organizations.