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So, that's one more reason to keep these plants around, apart from preventing soil erosion. But, the problem, as we've shown you, is that developers cut down large tracts of mangroves to make way for their development, which is something that the conservationists are very concerned about. They discussed this with us on Wednesday:

Roberto Pott
"As you fly into any one of these tourism destinations, San Pedro, Placencia, Caye Caulker, you begin to see the changes in mangrove cover and similar to shrimp farms. These mangroves help to remediate and remove some of the nutrients that's coming off from the various uses and so here we have industries that depend on high water quality. But at the same time those same industries are removing ecosystems that provide a service and help to remove a nutrient out of the system. It's not the solution for all, but it is one of those elements that add to the solution and it's not only on the mainland. We are starting to see that on very small cayes much like harvest Caye. We're starting to see dredging out at Turneff and that completely removes the cover of mangroves. We anticipate that we will see the same problems that we are seeing, in Placencia and San Pedro where you are starting to see the leachate from the septic tanks reaching out to the water and then reduction in water quality."

Nicole Auil Gomez, Executive Director, SEA
"One of the problems is that the fees for removing mangroves are minimal. It is as easy for a developer to remove the mangrove and pay the fine of 50 dollars and they would get away with cutting a lot of mangrove. Hopefully we look forward to a revision of the mangrove legislation. Dredging is a big issue with the lagoon where people might be removing more material than they have permit for. The removal of mangrove, but the penalties and the checks are not done as they should be to be able to stop this problem."