Distribution and drivers of Vietnam mangrove deforestation from 1995 to 2019

Vietnam mangrove forests have long been recognized to play important roles in coastal protection against soil erosion and storms/strong waves, supplying seafood, land reclamation, and carbon accumulation. Mangrove forests were severely damaged by the Second Indochina War and the shrimp aquaculture boom of the 1980s and 1990s. In recent decades, the rate of mangrove forest decline has been reduced due to increased efforts in mangrove restoration, though mangrove conversions to other land uses still occur locally. In this study, we analyzed Landsat data using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to (1) determine the national distribution of mangroves; (2) identify the spatiotemporal change of mangrove cover; and (3) quantify the proportional conversion of mangroves to different land uses in Vietnam between 1995 and 2019. Vietnam lost 13,261 ha (7.3%) of its mangrove forest during the study period at a rate of 0.3% per year. Mangrove extent decreased 24,966 ha during 1995–2010, but increased 11,705 ha during 2010–2019. Spatially, mangrove extent decreased in southern regions, but increased in northern and central regions. Aquaculture and agriculture expansion were the major drivers that accounted for 43.4% and 24.8% of the total mangrove loss, respectively. In northern and central regions, infrastructure development was also identified as an additional driver of mangrove deforestation, while in the southern regions, erosion was identified as an increasing threat to mangroves. These results can assist managers and decision makers in mangrove, management, and ecological service evaluations as well as in forest inventories and national reporting. Our findings also suggest using the GEE platform to analyze public archive satellite images is an effective tool to monitor nationwide mangrove forest change over time in Vietnam.