Mangroves are considered to be "rainforests by the sea" and cover over 2.2 billion acres of the earth's surface.

Belize, the smallest country in Central America, has the third largest mangrove reserves in the region (excluding Mexico). Twenty percent of Belize's mangroves lie within protected reserves. Since 1989, all mangroves in Belize are protected from interference except selective trimming by permit.

Mangroves are highly productive ecosystems and perform three critical environmental functions:

	forming soil and stabilizing the coastline (under the soil surface, huge mats of thread-like mangrove roots form thick layers similar to peat moss)
	filtering upland runoff
	providing habitats for many forms of insect, plant, marine and animal life

Mangroves also protect coastal communities from storms and hurricanes by buffering the coastline against high waves and winds.   In fact, some scientists believe that the loss of 500,000 lives in the 1970 typhoon that hit Bangladesh was directly attributable to the clearing of mangroves for use as rice paddies.

Mangroves provide these benefits by absorbing nutrients from the sun and silt from upland rivers. These nutrients are stored in the mangroves' leaves that are continually grown and shed throughout the year. 

The fallen leaves then form the foundation of both water and land-based food chains. 

Most importantly in an area like Placencia, the fallen leaves and mangrove roots act as nurseries for most sport and commercial fish species. These fish species then carry the nutrients from the leaves to grass beds and coral reefs, resulting in more fish and more bountiful and beautiful coral reefs.

The barrier reef along the Belize coastline results in a protected environment that is ideal for the growth of mangroves. In fact, many of the cayes along the Belize coastline resulted from mangrove roots trapping sediment among their roots, which in turn nourished still more mangrove, which in turn, increased land mass - eventually resulting in a new caye. An outer ring of red mangrove, an adjacent ring of black mangrove and an innermost section of white mangrove (with an occasional buttonwood among the white mangrove) frequently characterize mangrove cayes (this grouping is called "zonation").

The type of mangrove that grows in an area is largely determined by how "salty" the water is (less "salty" water results from freshwater runoffs from the mainland or a caye). Also, some types of mangroves exclude (shut out) salt from their systems while other excrete (discharge or eject) salt from their systems. Water from mangroves that exclude salt is so fresh that it is drinkable by humans, even though the mangrove may be standing in very salty soil or water.

Mangroves are used by local populations in producing food, medicine, fuel wood and construction materials. Red mangrove is good for smoking meats.

The most common types of mangrove are the Red Mangrove, White Mangrove, Black Mangrove and Buttonwood.

Red Mangrove. The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) can be any size from a bushy shrub to a 30-foot tall tree. Its bark is red and the tree grows many arching prop roots that anchor it in the soil. The prop roots make the red mangrove a "pioneer" tree that is able to colonize new areas through the stability of its broadly spreading prop roots.

Red mangrove tolerates a wide range of salinities (saltiness) and may be found on intertidal mud banks and sand flats extending far up channels into nearly fresh water.

The red mangrove has numerous lenticels (breathing pores) located on its prop roots just above the high tide mark. These lenticels allow the red mangrove to get needed oxygen that is unavailable in the soil and water because of the high level of decaying organic matter formed by falling leaves from the mangrove. A single red mangrove can produce 8 grams of dry organic matter per square meter per day. Leaf and twig fall in a red mangrove forest is estimated to be over 3 tons per acre per year!

The leaves of the red mangrove are oval, thick, dark green above, yellowish green below. Its flowers are pale yellow with four petals. Red mangrove has reddish-brown fruit that produces long green seeds that actually germinate while still on the tree!

Germinated seedlings look like 6"-8" long green beans. The pods drop from the red mangrove and float horizontally in the sea. The pod eventually absorbs so much water that it begins to float vertically. If the sea moves the pod to a shallow area after it begins to float vertically, it will anchor in the soil and begin to put out roots. This method of starting new red mangrove colonies is apparently highly efficient since red mangroves are found all over the world.

The arched roots of the red mangrove support the greatest diversity of plant and animal life including algae, lichens, oyster toadfish (Crassostrea rhizophorae), mussels (Dreissena), barnacles, periwinkle, snails, starfish, brittle stars, conchs and many species of worms and large bird colonies nesting in the thicket of leaves and branches. Mud caves and overhangs formed when mud banks are washed out between the mangrove roots provide hiding places for a great variety of fish and some have even been known to harbor sharks up to six feet long.

Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans). Black mangrove trees are bushy-topped trees reaching a height of 60-70 feet. Black mangrove trees grow in less exposed areas than red mangrove. Black mangrove can't tolerate as wide a range of saltiness as can the red mangrove.

Black mangrove leaves are oval, leathery and downy white underneath. The tree has yellow tubular flowers with green oval fruits. Its seeds float and are highly tolerant of low-oxygen levels.

Shallow horizontal roots anchor the black mangrove in thick, low-oxygen mud. Sprouting from the horizontal roots are vertical aboveground shoots that grow straight up. These vertical shoots are called pneumatophores. Lenticels on the pneumatophores feed into wide air passages that connect with the underground roots and supply needed air to the oxygen-starved root system. The pneumatophores of the black mangrove are always (at maturity) taller than the high tide level which allows the lenticels to provide the roots with more oxygen.

White Mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa). White mangrove grows at slightly higher elevations than black or red mangrove and is less tolerant than red or black mangrove to long periods of submersion in seawater.

White mangrove has scaly, reddish-brown bark and greenish-white flowers. The tree reaches heights of 30-60 feet. The leaves have two swollen salt-excreting pores at the base of the leaf blade.

Buttonwood (Conocarpus erecta). Buttonwood resembles white mangrove, but grows well away from daily saltwater flooding since buttonwood is the least salt-tolerant of the four most common mangrove species (buttonwood was once not even considered to be a mangrove).