On Tuesday, 7th December, 13:00-14:30 Indian Standard Time, WII-C2C hosted a webinar on "Mangroves of Plenty: Ecosystem Services in World Heritage Sites". Dr. Gautam Talukdar, Faculty In-Charge, WII-C2C initiated and anchored the webinar emphasising the importance of mangroves as an ecosystem. Dr. Shizuka Hashimoto, Associate Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan spoke on “Exploring Ecosystem Services of Ishigaki, Japan”. He provided a brief introduction to the Asia-Pacific Network's (APN) Mangrove Project before detailing the research done on the natural and cultural ecosystem services provided by the mangroves in the popular Japanese tourist destination of Ishigaki Island.

Dr. Rajarshi Dasgupta, Senior Policy Researcher, IGES, Japan presented the “Insight into Conservation & Management of Mangroves in Indian Sundarban”. He conveyed the landscape history of the Sundarban Delta before extensively discussing the plausible future scenarios and two studies done in the mangroves for various factors like market forces, climate change, sustainability and non-material values. Around 30 participants from across the Asia-Pacific region participated in the webinar.