Eritrea

Vegetation description

Mangroves are found scattered along the coast but mainly along the southern and central coastal zones. They are composed essentially of Rhizophora mucronata and Avicennia marina, while Ceriops tagal and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza are also present. They are found along the coast and on the Dahlak Islands.

FAO.1997. Support to Forestry and Wildlife sub-sector. Pre-investment study TCP/ERI/6721.
Inside Eritrea.com. 2003. Fauna-Marine life. http://www.insideeritrea.com/Fauna/fauna01.htm

National level mangrove area estimates

Year	Area (ha)	Source	Trend	Methodology/Comments
1997	6 400	FAO. 1997. Support to Forestry and Wildlife sub-sector TCP/ERI/6721. Pre-investment study. FAO, Rome.	X	Remote sensing.
1997	58 100	Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. and Field, C.D., eds. 1997. World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp.		Information from aerial photographs combined with detailed personal knowledge of the region was transered onto a base map with a scale of approximately 1:1 000 000, and the area calculated from their map. The “Year” is the publication year, since the map was undated.

Trends in mangrove area extent over time

The estimates for 1980, 1990 and 2000 have been calculated applying FRA 2000 (FAO, 2001) annual forest cover change rate for 1990-2000 (-0.3 percent) to the most recent, reliable figure.