Between 1986 and 2020 C.E., Pakistan expanded its mangrove forests from roughly 48,000 hectares to nearly 144,000 hectares — almost three times the original area. That growth runs directly against the global trend of mangrove loss, and it happened through a combination of government policy, international partnerships, and fishing communities whose livelihoods depend on these forests surviving.
At a glance
- Pakistan mangrove restoration: Satellite data analysis published in 2022 C.E. confirmed the nearly threefold expansion of mangrove cover between 1986 and 2020 C.E., driven by sustained restoration campaigns across Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
- Indus Delta mangroves: More than 90% of Pakistan’s mangroves grow in Sindh province’s Indus Delta, the world’s seventh-largest mangrove forest, supporting the livelihoods of at least 100,000 people in fisheries.
- Blue carbon credits: A 60-year public-private partnership launched in 2015 C.E. between the Sindh Forest Department and U.K.-based developer Indus Delta Capital had planted nearly 74,000 hectares of mangroves by end of 2021 C.E., with carbon credit auctions generating $40 million in revenues.
Why mangroves matter so much
Mangroves sit at the intersection of nearly every major environmental challenge facing coastal nations. They buffer shorelines against storms and rising seas, filter pollutants from water, and sequester carbon at rates that exceed most terrestrial forests. The IUCN estimates they sustain the livelihoods of some 120 million people worldwide.
For Pakistan’s fishing communities, they are simply the foundation of daily life. In Ibrahim Hyderi, a fishing village just northwest of the Indus Delta in Karachi, young fisherman Akbar describes the mangroves — called timar trees in the local Sindhi language — as the reason fish, shrimp, and crab remain plentiful. “These timar trees are the lifeline for the fishing community,” he says.
Those communities have not just been beneficiaries of restoration efforts. They have been workers, guards, and nursery operators. The Sindh Forest Department hires local people to develop nurseries, transport saplings, and patrol restored areas against illegal woodcutters and camel grazers. That integration of community benefit into conservation design has been central to the program’s durability.
What has driven the expansion
Pakistan’s national and provincial governments have run major tree-planting programs under successive administrations since 2008 C.E. The Ten Billion Tree Tsunami, launched in 2018 C.E. under then-Prime Minister Imran Khan, explicitly included mangrove restoration. The Sindh Forest Department established a dedicated mangrove conservation wing as far back as 1990 C.E., when the province’s mangrove cover had fallen to about 80,000 hectares. It has since recovered to around 240,000 hectares, with a target of 350,000 hectares ahead.
International science has also played a role. A five-year project begun in 2019 C.E. by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanography has planted mangroves across 16 hectares at sites in Balochistan and Sindh, including the coastal town of Dam, where government researcher Rashid Rasheed oversees nurseries holding 50,000 saplings ready for creek planting.
Survival rates, a persistent weak point in mangrove restoration globally, have improved with restocking practices — replanting gaps where saplings failed. Water expert Pervaiz Amir puts initial survival at 40–45%, consistent with the global median. With restocking factored in, researcher Bilquees Gul of the University of Karachi estimates the two-year survival rate at 90%.
Real threats that haven’t gone away
The story is not one of uncomplicated success. Pakistan faces severe economic pressure, and roughly 68% of households rely on firewood for fuel. Mangroves are cut illegally — sometimes by individuals, sometimes by organized syndicates who disguise freshly felled wood as deadfall before loading it onto boats. Camel grazing destroys newly planted saplings across large parts of Sindh and Balochistan. Plastic waste and untreated sewage slow growth and damage root systems in urban areas like Karachi.
More structurally, upstream dams and barrages have reduced freshwater flow into the Indus Delta for decades. Less silt, rising salinity, and encroaching seawater have pushed residents out of the delta and reduced the habitat range of multiple mangrove species. Of eight species present at Pakistan’s founding, four have disappeared and two more are at risk, according to architect and conservationist Tariq Alexander Qaiser.
Pakistan’s National Adaptation Plan, released in 2023 C.E., acknowledges that saltwater intrusion is shrinking arable land and freshwater supplies in the delta region, and that parts of Karachi are already submerged. Mangrove restoration is named as one tool for addressing these pressures — but the plan is clear that restoration alone cannot reverse hydrological changes driven by decades of river management and accelerating sea level rise.
A model worth watching
What Pakistan has achieved in mangrove restoration since the mid-1980s is rare enough globally to warrant serious attention. The Global Mangrove Alliance has documented widespread decline across Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Latin America over the same period that Pakistan was expanding. The mix of national policy, provincial implementation, international science, carbon finance, and community employment that drove Pakistan’s growth offers one model for what sustained commitment can achieve.
The Living Indus Project, launched in 2022 C.E., aims to make the entire Indus Basin more climate-resilient by centering wetland restoration. If it succeeds, Pakistan’s mangroves may expand further still — not just as a conservation outcome, but as a buffer for millions of people living on a coastline that climate change is actively reshaping.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay — Pakistan bucks global trend with 30-year mangrove expansion
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Indigenous land rights recognition reaches 160 million hectares ahead of COP30
- Ghana establishes marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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