| Summary: | Ever since man realized the benefits of mangroves, the habitat has been impacted, but peaked in the twentieth century. Approximately 35% of the world’s mangrove area was lost between 1980s and 1990s with deforestation rates ranging from 1% to 8%. The major drivers of mangrove deforestation in recent times include aquaculture, agriculture, urban expansion, forest product extraction, salt pond conversion, and the oil and gas industry. The boom in the aquaculture industry from 1970s onwards resulted in almost 28% of the habitat being lost in Asia (Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia) and South America (Ecuador, Brazil, Peru) but by country, wise losses ranged from 7% to 63%. In South East Asia alone mangrove loss to aquaculture amounted to approximately 30% (1.66 million hectares). The total global economic value of mangrove loss to aquaculture is amounted at US$3.78-17.01billion/year. Three types of organisms are generally cultured in mangroves, namely fish, shrimp/prawns, and crabs. Mangrove conversion to aquaculture is a response to food security which is mainly to an increase in demand for protein and a decrease in marine capture fisheries. This is however is not without costs, such as habitat destruction, loss of ecosystem services, water quality reduction, exotic species introduction, and disease. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.
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