![]() The predominant animal species are crabs and shellfish. At the same time, they protect the population from invasion by sand dunes. Beach vegetation and sand dunes play an important role in stabilizing soil and preventing silting in coastal lagoons and rivers. These coastal forest systems are highly sensitive to change. They may merge with farmland or high altitude forests. Mangroves also serve as a shock-absorbing barrier against natural phenomena like storms, tsunamis and hurricanes that are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change.īeach forests are usually found above the high water mark in sandy soils. The coral reefs are essential for local food supply and for the reproduction of many species. Mangrove forests also protect coral formations in the Atlantic, where they act as a barrier to the silt carried down by rivers. Gathering activities are frequently carried out by women and provide the basis of the diet of many families. Mangroves are a food source for coastal populations. This creates dense woodland structures above the water that provide refuge for a large number of species and plants, especially fish, snails, shellfish and crabs, as well as birds. Mangrove branches hang down and take root in the ground, interlocking with each other. Mangroves, or mangrove forests, are made up of trees and woody shrubs that “grow and develop in intertidal zones and flood plains of coastal deltas and estuaries, in saline, sandy, muddy or clay soils that are deprived of oxygen and sometimes acidic,” according to Red Manglar International, an alliance of organizations that support communities living in and depending on mangroves (2). Together with cruise ships, residential tourism has transformed the physical landscape, displacing many fishing, agricultural and pastoral communities away from coastal areas (1). ![]() Rapid development of beach hotels and holiday houses is closely linked to the United States market. In the last decade, for example, the Pacific coast of Costa Rica has become a Central American tourist epicentre. ![]() Sometimes they have been substituted with other natural sceneries according to standardized aesthetic ideas of what ‘tourist landscapes’ ought to look like. Areas previously occupied by coastal forests have been destroyed by real estate or infrastructure projects to allow access from built-up areas to the sea. This has brought about reduction and degradation of what are known as ‘saltwater forests.’ Coastal forests include mangroves, beach forests, periodic swamps (tidal and flood plain forests) and freshwater swamps. One of the ecosystems most affected by the expansion of tourist and residential developments is mangrove forests.Ĭonstruction of hotels and homes right on the shoreline along the coasts has led in many places to reorganization of coastal territories to facilitate their use for tourism. The tropical and subtropical coasts of Latin America, in Mexico, Brazil and most Central American and Caribbean countries, have been subjected to waves of tourist development over the last forty years.
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