Significance of mangrove biodiversity in fishery production and living conditions of coastal communities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island nation where ~ 59% of population lives in coastal regions. The main income source of them are fishery and related activities which contributes to ~ 44% of national GDP. Fishery resources depend on the... [ view full abstract ]

Sri Lanka is an island nation where ~ 59% of population lives in coastal regions. The main income source of them are fishery and related activities which contributes to ~ 44% of national GDP. Fishery resources depend on the mangrove diversity associated with them especially in estuaries and lagoons as mangroves provides the best nursery grounds for both brackish and marine species who are significant in island’s fishery industry. But it’s an inevitable fact that growing pressures from increasing population and development activities are posing irreversible damages to mangroves. We analyzed how and whether variation of mangrove diversity along a lagoon system affects aquatic food production and livelihood diversity. We found the sites with the highest diversity also had the highest fish catches. Our results confirms that the higher mangrove diversity supports higher variation of income generation methods which signals for a development which prioritize biodiversity conservation in coastal regions.