AKP Phnom Penh, January 29, 2021 --

Protecting mangrove will be a main agenda of the World Wetlands Day to be held on Feb. 2, 2021, according to a press release from the Fauna&Flora International (FFI)-Cambodia programme and other partners.

Cambodia has about 50,000 hectares of mangrove in four coastal provinces: Kampot, Kèp, Preah Sihanouk, and Koh Kong.

Mangrove plants are halophytes. They have the ability to survive in seawater by filtering out 90 percent of the salt. Its aerial roots broaden the base of the tree to stabilise itself in soft and loose soil. It also plays an important role in providing oxygen for respiration.

Like desert plants, its stores fresh water in thick and succulent leaves, which are covered in waxy coating to minimise evaporation.

The other reasons to preserve the mangrove is it can protect coats from strong waves, prevents coastal erosion, filtrates water, stores carbon, which helps mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and marine species, and so on.

By Heng Panha