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Photographer Nacho Doce Reuters

THIS spectacular mangrove forest on Brazil’s Caratingui river is the hunting ground for local crab catcher Jose da Cruz. Such forests are among the world’s most productive ecosystems, home to a variety of birds, fish, crustaceans and molluscs, which provide vital income for fishing communities.

But Cruz’s average daily catch has halved in the past 10 years as commercialisation has brought pollution and overfishing. Since 1980, the global area covered by mangroves has shrunk by 25 per cent, with forests felled for firewood, wood chips and charcoal production, as well as to clear space for industry and tourism.

Worse, mangroves are important carbon sinks and coastal storm barriers, but climate change may soon take its toll. Mangroves cope with moderate rises in sea level by building up land height. They may be unable to keep pace with faster rises, though. This worries Cruz. Over the past decade, the Caratingui waterline has retreated 3 metres inland, he says: “Nature is upset. In Antarctica, it’s melting, nature is melting.”