Mangrove Cell

Mangrove Cell Recruitment Details

About Mangrove Cell

The Mangrove Cell was created by the Government of Maharashtra on January 05, 2012 to protect, conserve and manage the mangroves of the State. The creation of the Mangrove Cell is an important step in the conservation and management of mangroves in the State. The Cell has also been given the additional responsibility of conservation of coastal biodiversity; an area seldom paid the attention it deserves. The Cell is headquartered in Mumbai and headed by a Chief Conservator of Forests.

Objectives
Since its establishment, the Mangrove Cell has made concerted efforts for better understanding of the mangrove diversity of the State, to create awareness about the importance of mangroves and to train staff for effective conservation of mangrove areas. With a view to increasing the mangrove cover of the State, the Cell has undertaken several plantation programmes in degraded mangrove areas.

In the days to come, the Mangrove Cell shall strive to achieve the following objectives:
To conserve, manage and enrich the mangrove ecosystems in Maharashtra State;
To substantially increase mangrove cover in Maharashtra State;
To spearhead the marine and coastal biodiversity conservation efforts in Maharashtra State;
To promote advanced research in areas like the biology, management and species associations of mangroves and other critical aspects of coastal and marine biodiversity.

The Mangrove Cell is also the nodal agency for implementing the GOI-UNDP-GEF Project on “Mainstreaming Coastal and Marine Biodiversity into Production Sectors in Sindhudurg Coast”. Unsustainable fishing, an expanding tourism sector, pollution from fishing vessels and other maritime traffic are some of the major issues affecting the Sindhudurg Coastal and Marine Ecosystem (SCME). The existing institutional arrangement in the SCME is inadequate in addressing these issues. The project adopts a cross-sectoral approach to address these issues, by involving all production sectors like fisheries, tourism, agriculture and forestry, while also improving livelihoods of coastal communities through sustainable fishing, agriculture, horticulture, small scale aquaculture, value addition of low-value fishes, eco-tourism amongst others. The project has also been supporting conservation of mangroves, marine turtles, corals, marine mammals etc.