The Burmese or Myanmar Coast mangroves are an ecoregion in Burma, Malaysia, and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 where there were once thick forests of mangroves but today most has been cleared, resulting in loss of habitat for wildlife.

Location and description

Mangroves were once common in the Irrawaddy River Delta

Irrawaddy Delta

The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Ayeyarwady Region , the lowest expanse of land in Burma that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, 290 km to the south at the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River...

 and today exist in three distinct areas, Rakhine State

Rakhine State

Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...

, Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi Regions.

Flora

The mangrove flora of Burma include Rhizophora

Rhizophora

Rhizophora is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the Red Mangrove but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. Rhizophora species generally live in intertidal zones which are indundated daily by the ocean...

 and Xylocarpus

Xylocarpus

Xylocarpus is a genus of plants in the mahogany family . It includes two or three species of mangroves, native to coastal mangrove forests of the Western and Central Indo-Pacific, from eastern Africa to Tonga....

 mangrove trees, Sonneratia

Sonneratia

Sonneratia is a genus of plants in the family Lythraceae. Formerly the Sonneratia were placed in a family called Sonneratiaceae which included both the Sonneratia and the Duabanga, but these two are now placed in their own monotypic subfamilies of the family Lythraceae...

s, other Rhizophoraceae

Rhizophoraceae

Rhizophoraceae is a family constituted by tropical or subtropical flowering plants. Among the better known members are mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora...

, Nypa fruticans

Nypa fruticans

Nypa fruticans, known as the attap palm , nipa palm , and mangrove palm or buah atap , buah nipah , dừa nước , Ging Pol in Sinhala in Sri Lanka and gol pata , dani . It is the only palm considered a mangrove in the Mangroves Biome...

 and Phoenix paludosa

Phoenix paludosa

Phoenix paludosa or Mangrove Date Palm is a species of flowering plant in the palm family, indigenous to coastal regions of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and peninsular Malaysia. Clustering, to 5 m high, usually forming dense thickets, the leaves are 2 to 3 m long and...

.

Fauna

The remaining mammals include a small group of wild Asian Elephant

Asian Elephant

The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m....

s in Rakhine State, while once common species of mammals and reptiles such as the tiger

Tiger

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...

, the Saltwater Crocodile

Saltwater Crocodile

The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...

 (Crocodylus porosus) and the mangrove terrapin (Batagur baska

Batagur baska

The northern river terrapin , also called giant river turtle or mangrove terrapin is a species of riverine turtle. It is one of the most critically endangered turtle species according to a 2003 assessment by the IUCN...

) have either disappeared or seriously reduced in number Bird life however is much richer including waterbirds such as Oriental Darter

Oriental Darter

The Oriental Darter or Indian Darter , sometimes called Snakebird, is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.-Taxonomy:...

 (Anhinga melanogaster), Little Cormorant

Little Cormorant

The Little Cormorant is a member of the Cormorant family of seabirds: Aptly named, the Little Cormorant is small in comparison with other cormorants, only 55 cm in length with an average mass of 442.5 g...

 (Phalacrocorax nigers), Pacific Reef Heron (Egretta sacra), Great-billed Heron

Great-billed Heron

The Great-billed Heron, Ardea sumatrana is a wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, resident from southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Australia. Its habitats are largely coastal such as islands, coral reefs, mangroves, large rivers. However, occasionally, it can be found inland in shallow...

 (Ardea sumatrana), Ruddy Shelduck

Ruddy Shelduck

The Ruddy Shelduck, Tadorna ferruginea, is a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae...

 (Tadorna ferruginea), Bronze-winged Jacana

Bronze-winged Jacana

The Bronze-winged Jacana is a jacana. It is the only member of the genus Metopidius. The jacanas are a group of waders in the family Charadriidae, which are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred...

 (Metopidius indicus), Lesser Sand Plover

Lesser Sand Plover

The Lesser Sand Plover, Charadrius mongolus, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as Lesser Sandplover, but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is Lesser Sand Plover....

 (Charadrius mongolus), Beach Stone-curlew

Beach Stone-curlew

The Beach Stone-curlew, Esacus giganteus also known as Beach Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird that occurs in Australasia, the islands of South-east Asia...

 (Esacus magnirostris), Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

The Black-winged Stilt or Common Stilt is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family . Opinions differ as to whether the birds treated under the scientific name H. himantopus ought to be treated as a single species and if not, how many species to recognize...

 (Himantopus himantopus), Nordmann's Greenshank (Tringa guttifer), Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

The Lesser Black-backed Gull is a large gull that breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from the British Isles south to West Africa...

 (Larus fuscus) and Common Moorhen

Common Moorhen

The Common Moorhen is a bird in the Rallidae family with an almost worldwide distribution. The North and South American Committees of the AOU and the IOC have voted on or before July 2011 to split the American forms into a new species Common Gallinule, however, no other committee has voted to...

 (Gallinula chloropus).

Threats and preservation

This is Asia's most depleted area of mangroves, a particularly vulnerable ecosystem. The mangroves have been depleted by increased sediment being brought to the coast by the Irrawaddy, this is a natural process but has accelerated in recent decades following deforestation in inland Myanmer. The mangroves have been even more seriously affected by the large-scale cutting of mangrove trees themselves for timber and to clear land for agriculture and coastal development, all of which is ongoing often illegally. This leaves the remaining mangroves in serious need of protection and planned and existing protected areas include Mein-ma-hla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary

Mein-ma-hla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary

Mein-ma-hla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary is a wetland reserve in Lower Myanmar . It is located in Bogale Township in Ayeyarwady Division.Mein-ma-hla means beautiful woman in Burmese, as the island is linked to a local Burmese myth....

.