Mangrove forests are ecologically important coastal
ecosystems (Lugo and Snedaker, 1974) composed
of one or more of the 69 species of plants called
mangroves (Duke, 1992). These ecosystems currently
cover 146,530 km of the tropical shorelines of the
world (FAO, 2003). This represents a decline from
198,000 km of mangroves in 1980, and 157,630 km in