Along the Baie de Fort-de France there is a large area of mangroves. Smaller mangrove areas occur in the sheltered bays along the South and the East coast of the island. These forests are protected in three different areas. Some of the species that occur in Martinique, as well as in the other islands of the Lesser Antilles, are: Acrostichum aureum, Avicennia germinans, Conocarpus erectus, and Rhizophora harrisonii.
Mangrove forests cover about 1 850 ha in Martinique, including 650 ha in the bays on the Atlantic side and the South of the island, and the remainder (1 200 ha) in Fort-de-France Bay. These mangrove areas feature a succession of different zones: a saline Rhizophora zone gives way to a zone of shrubby Rhizophora, Avicennia and Laguncularia, followed by an inner woodland zone dominated by Rhizophora and finally an outer woodland zone of Avicennia and Laguncularia.
Brossard, M., Imbert, D., Menard, S. & Cuny, P. 1991. La mangrove de la baie de Fort-de-France: relations sols-végétation et dynamique actuelle. Rapport PNUE. 91 pp.
IFRECOR. nd. State of the Environment at La Martinique http://www.environnement.gouv.fr/ifrecor/domtom/mastata.htm.
Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. & Field, C.D., eds. 1997 World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp.
Year |
Area |
Source |
Trend |
Methodology/Comments |
1983 |
1 900 |
Saenger, P., Hegerl E.J. and J.D.S., Davie. 1983. Global status of mangrove ecosystems. Commission on Ecology Papers No.3. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland. 88 pp. |
X |
Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year. |
1986 |
2 000 |
FAO. 1986. Sintesis de siete seminarios nacionales en América Latina. Rollet, B (ed). FAO, Rome. 105 pp. |
It could be a rough estimate based on Saenger. et al. 1983. | |
1991 |
2 200 |
Snedaker, S.C. 1991. Personal communication |
Cited in: Fisher, P and Spalding, M.D. 1993. Protected areas with mangrove habitat. Draft Report World Conservation Centre, Cambridge, UK. 60 pp. | |
1997 |
1 587 |
Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. and Field, C.D., eds. 1997. World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp. |
Map analysis. Scale 1:100 000. Map undated. The “Year” is the publication year. | |
1998 |
1 840 |
DAF-Agreste. 1998. |
X |
Cited in: Office National des Forêts. 1998. Inventaire de la ressource forestière de la Martinique pour la FAO. Martinique |
The estimated for 1980, 1990 and 2000 are based on the trend analysis but have been rounded to the nearest 1000 ha indicating the level of accuracy of one or more of the estimates used for the trend analysis.
