Abstract
Ecosystem services are now strongly applied to mangrove forests, though they are not a new way of viewing mangrove-people interactions; the benefits provided by such habitats, and the negative interactions (ecosystem disservices) between mangroves and people have guided perceptions of mangroves for centuries. This study quantified the ecosystem services and disservices of mangroves as written by colonial explorers from 1823–1883 through a literature survey of 96 expedition reports and studies. Ecosystem disservices were most commonly discussed (60%), with settlers considering mangroves as reservoirs of diseases such as malaria, with wide-ranging implications, such as the global drainage of wetlands in the 19th–20th centuries. Multiple ecosystem services were discussed, especially provisioning services for export, representing colonial views of new lands as ripe for economic use. Interestingly, regulating services of mangroves such as erosion control and sediment accretion that are a focus of much contemporary research were recognized as early as 1865. This study shows that the ecosystem service paradigm has a long history in mangroves. We should not underestimate mangrove ecosystem disservices, and how contemporary perceptions of mangroves may be influenced by such historical viewpoints. Archival materials provide a rich resource to study human-environment interactions, and how they change through time.
Highlights
The ecosystem services paradigm—the benefits that ecosystems provide to human populations [1]is strongly applied to threatened tropical coastal forested ecosystems such as intertidal mangrove forests
Mangrove forests were heavily used by many indigenous communities due to the provisioning ecosystem services described previously, though interactions between these groups in the mangrove zone meant that this was perceived by colonial writers as an ecosystem disservice of mangroves; mangroves and other forested habitats were viewed as dangerous as they were seen to be the refuge or hiding place of ‘dangerous’ indigenous communities [69]
Mangrove forests are located in a position in the landscape where human populations abound [81]; the myriad benefits mangroves provide to these coastal populations means that mangrove forests have long been viewed through the lens of ecosystem services and disservices, even if this paradigm is considered a recent one
Summary
The ecosystem services paradigm—the benefits that ecosystems provide to human populations [1]. This study quantifies the uses and colonial perceptions of mangrove forests between 1833 and 1883, through the lens of ecosystem services and disservices (both perceived and actual) Such information provides an important baseline with which to further analyze how contemporary perceptions of mangroves differ from, or were formed by early written (albeit, colonial) views of this ecosystem. This covers a time period that encompasses the exploration and early colonization of many regions (e.g., East Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia) and their increasing colonial industrialization Articles prior to this period were searched, though when these articles were read manually, no specific mention of explicit mangrove ecosystem services were found.
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