A Methodological Tool to Assess Mangrove Forest Health: Case Studies from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia

Mangrove forests provide essential ecosystem services but are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures and climate-related disturbances. Effective and accessible tools for assessing mangrove ecosystem condition are therefore needed to soundly support their conservation and management. This study adapted the “Coastal Health” framework originally proposed for assessing coastal ecosystems health to evaluate the health status of mangrove forests along the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Using freely available high-resolution imagery from Google Earth Pro 7.3, complemented by field observations, technical reports, and unpublished literature, 56 mangrove sites distributed across eight coastal departments were assessed according to their ecological integrity, hydrological connectivity, sediment dynamics, freshwater and marine inputs, mangrove species condition, and their potential for landward and seaward migration. The results showed that 54% of the evaluated sites were classified as being in “Good Health”, while 2% were categorized as “Health Warning”, 3% as “Surface Wounds”, 14% as “Minor Injury”, 25% as “Major Injury”, and 2% as “Deceased”. Mangroves in good condition were generally associated with protected areas, river mouths, estuaries, and relatively isolated coastal systems, whereas degraded ecosystems were affected by urban expansion, tourism infrastructure, hydrological alterations, coastal engineering works, and reduced freshwater inputs. The proposed methodology proved to be a simple, low-cost, and easily replicable tool for large-scale mangrove health assessment. It provides valuable information for prioritizing conservation and restoration actions and can be adapted to support mangrove monitoring and ecosystem-based coastal management in other regions worldwide.