- The first global map of mangrove forests using remotely sensed data (Giri et al. 2011): this map uses over 1,000 Landsat scenes acquired between 1997 and 2000, with supervised and unsupervised digital image classification, to construct a 30 resolution map of global mangrove distribution, and estimates a total mangrove extent of 13.7 million hectares in 118 countries and territories in the world’s tropical and subtropical regions. mm<sup>2</sup>

Spalding, Blasco and Field (1997) estimate that there are 880,173 hectares of mangrove forest in the 29 countries and territories selected for this study. Of these, Cuba and The Bahamas have the most extensive mangrove areas, with approximately 556,900 and 211,400 hectares, respectively. Giri et al. (2011), on the other hand, find that mangroves extend over 616,440 hectares in the 26 Caribbean countries and territories studied (excluding Dominica, Montserrat, and Sint Maarten). They also estimate that Cuba (440,641 hectares) and The Bahamas (82,408 hectares) have a larger mangrove areas, although these differ from Spalding, Blasco and Field (table 2).

**Table 2. Mangrove areas in Caribbean countries and territories (hectares)**

|Country/Territory|Spalding, Blasco<br>and Field (1997)|Giri et al.<br>(2011)|Country/Territory|Spalding,<br>Blasco and<br>Field(1997)|Giri et al.<br>(2011)|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Anguilla|90|5|Haiti|13,400|15,496|
|Antigua and Barbuda|1,316|973|Jamaica|10,600|9,817|
|Aruba|420|79|Martinique|1,587|1,197|
|Bahamas,The|211,400|82,408|Montserrat|31|–|
|Barbados|30|40|Puerto Rico|9,200|8,831|
|Bermuda|10|9|St. Kitts and Nevis|43|57|
|Bonaire, Sint Eustatius,<br>and Saba|n.a.|252|St. Lucia|125|158|
|British Virgin Islands|435|82|St. Vincent and the<br>Grenadines|154|46|
|Cayman Islands|7,100|8,063|St. Barthélemy|–|3|
|Cuba|556,900|440,641|St. Martin|–|17|
|Curaçao|n.a.|81|Sint Maarten|–|–|
|Dominica|156||Trinidad and Tobago|5,400|7,419|
|Dominican Republic|32,500|19,180|Turks and Caicos<br>Islands|23,600|17,921|
|Grenada|536|229|Virgin Islands,U.S.|106|199|
|Guadeloupe|3,983|3,229|The Netherlands<br>Antilles<br>(leewardgroup)|1,051|n.a.|

_Source:_ Authors’ calculations, based on estimates by Spalding, Blasco and Field 1997 and Giri et al. 2011. _Notes: Grenada_ includes St. Martin and St. Barthélemy. _The Netherlands Antilles (leeward group)_ is formed of Bonaire and Curaçao. The Netherlands Antilles dissolved on October 10, 2010. Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius now fall under the direct administration of the Netherlands.

The services provided by mangroves are threatened by anthropogenic processes, including deforestation and sea level rise (Schuerch et al. 2018), and Caribbean mangroves have historically been reclaimed for urbanization, industrialization, and increasingly, tourism. Although global mangrove deforestation rates have slowed since the turn of the millennium, with annual loss rates of 0.2–0.7 percent (Hamilton and Casey 2016; Friess et al. 2019), the Caribbean region is losing mangrove forest at an overall rate of 1 percent per year. This is higher on the mainland, where the rate is approximately 1.7 percent than on the islands, where it is approximately 0.2 percent (Ellison and Farnsworth 1996).

Despite the lack of a robust database of post-2000 mangrove change, numerous studies of this change at the global, national, and local scales express concern over mangrove deforestation (for example, 11