Towards adaptive co-management of the Mimika-Asmat coastal wetlands

Coastal wetlands include saltwater and freshwater wetlands located within coastal watersheds — specifically USGS 8-digit hydrologic unit watersheds which drain into the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, or Gulf of Mexico.

Wetland types found in coastal watersheds include salt marshes, bottomland hardwood swamps, fresh marshes, mangrove swamps, and shrubby depressions known in the southeast United States as “pocosins.” Coastal wetlands cover about 40 million acres and make up 38 percent of the total wetland acreage in the conterminous United States. 81 percent of coastal wetlands in the conterminous United States are located in the southeast.The diagram to the right illustrates the range of wetlands which can be found in a coastal watershed. These wetlands can be tidal or non-tidal, and freshwater or saltwater The Mimika-Asmat coastal wetlands of south-west New Guinea include approximately 575,000 ha of mangroves and 2,000,0000 ha of swamp forest and are amongst the world’s most extensive, bio-diverse and carbon rich coastal wetlands. They are home to the indigenous Kamoro, Semapan and Asmat people, who depend heavily on mangrove and swamp forest resources. Contrary to the trend of rapid deforestation and degradation of mangrove and swamp forests in Western Indonesia, up until around 2001 these and most of Papua’s other coastal wetlands remained largely intact, but since then threats from logging, mining, plantations, infrastructure development and urban encroachment have resulted in the rate of degradation and deforestation rising to approach the national av