On 01/11/2010 10:03, echinosum wrote:
'Jeff Layman[_2_ Wrote:
;904115'] But as for
mangroves, it would encourage coastal erosion if these were harvested
for charcoal. They are pretty fussy as to where they will grow, too,
which is why they are only in certain tropical and warm temperate areas.
Now if mangroves were grown in places where they do not currently grow
at all, why should the subsequent economic harvesting cause coastal
erosion? Surely quite the reverse would be the case. And surely if
they were economically managed, rather than cut down for free by anyone
who can get at them, the owners would look after them carefully
regardless of their cultural background.

It was an extrapolation. Once people find out that something can be
exploited, they start exploiting it from areas where it hasn't been
artificially planted. Just think of places like Bangladesh; if
mangroves were able to be exploited for charcoal, I am sure it would
have been done there, and goodness knows what would happen to that
low-lying land if the mangroves went.

--

Jeff