Assessing, Mapping and Modelling of Mangrove Ecosystem Services in the Asia-Pacific Region

This book presents the state-of-the-art of knowledge in assessing, mapping, and modeling mangrove ecosystem services and outlines various scientific tools and techniques, including environmental scenario-building, spatial and econometric modelling to understand the fluctuations and future availability of mangrove ecosystem services.  The book also highlights the current gaps and measures in policy planning and outlines the avenues for capacity building. Through case studies and thematic reviews, the book plans to cater to a wide range of audiences, including students, researchers, and decision-makers at various levels involved in mangrove conservation and land use optimization for sustainable and resilient development.  

This book is particularly useful to researchers and students in the field of landscape and spatial ecology, coastal zone management, ecosystem services, and resilience planning. It is also a must-read for policymakers, conservators, coastal zone managers, foresters, and general administrators in understanding the current and future roles of mangroves in ecosystem-based adaptation through informed decision-making. 

Rajarshi DasGupta is a Senior Policy Researcher in the Institute for Global Environmental Stratgies. He received his Ph.D. in Global Environmental Studies from Kyoto University, Japan. He has worked extensively with the mangrove communities in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Philippines, and authored several research articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He served as a Lead Author (LA) for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Asia-Pacific Regional Assessment Report and currently serving as the Lead Author for the IPBES assessment on Sustainable Use of Wild Species. His current research interest includes assessment and management of mangrove ecosystem services and their effective utilization for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction through proactive landscape planning. 

Shizuka Hashimoto is an Associate Professor at the Department of Ecosystem Studies, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo. He has more than ten years of experience in ecosystem services evaluation and scenario analysis. He is a member of the Science Council of Japan. At the international level, he contributed to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment and the Asia-Pacific Regional Assessment as a Lead Author, and IPCC-IPBES Co-sponsored workshop report as a Scientific Steering Committee member. Since 2018, he has served as one of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel members of IPBES and a co-chair of the Task Force on Scenarios and Models. 

Osamu Saito is a Principal policy researcher and an expert in the field of biodiversity and ecosystem services. He has been working on the interlinkages between ecological, human and social systems through sustainability science approaches. His research experiences include socio-ecological studies on the ecosystem services provided by traditional rural production landscapes (Satoyama) in both Japan and other Asian countries. He worked for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) as Academic Director from 2011 to 2020. He has been also actively promoting various activities for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as a lead author of both regional and global assessments.