water intrusion.
Most of the regeneration has been observed in the intertidal
zone. The gain in mangroves forest cover has been attributed to
conservation efforts in the area including intensive mangrove
plantation and raising awareness of the importance of mangroves
in the local communities. IUCN began its efforts to restore
degraded mangroves forests in Pakistan in the early nineties and
over 30,000 ha have been restored and restocked, mainly in the
Indus Delta. During this time fast growing and salt tolerant
mangrove species, Rhizophora mucronata (Kumri), and Avicennia
marina (Teemer) were planted in the inter-tidal zones of the Indus
Delta. The other possible causes of mangrove cover increase may
include changes in local morphology driven by changes in stream
flows and an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations suggested
by several studies (Archer et al., 1995; Eamus and Palmer,
2008; McKEE and ROOTH, 2008), which require further investigations
in context of Indus Delta.