Great Indian Ocean Tsunami
Tokio Marine & Nichido practices provision of 'safety and security' set out in its corporate philosophy from an environmental protection perspective with its mangrove reforestation activities. Recent events have shown that these mangroves also provide 'safety and security' from a disaster prevention.
The Ranong Mangrove Reforestation Zone. Although the tsunami swept away small boat piers and huts, land behind the mangroves was protected.
Regions lacking vegetation like mangroves were struck directly by the tsunami, and suffered enormous damage (a photo showing this kind of damage in Sri Lanka)
Similarly, a ship struck directly by the tsunami in an coastal area lacking vegetation (in SriLanka)
The role that mangroves play
Tokio Marine & Nichido kicked off the Mangrove Planting Project in April 1999, and by 2003 had reached its target of reforesting a 3,000 hectare area in the five Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia,Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam. This project began with the aim of offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the business activities of Tokio Marine & Nichido by replanting an area of mangroves sufficient to absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide, neutralizing the global warming burden of our company. At present, having succeeded in reaching our 3,000 hectare first phase reforestation target, we are now in the second project phase starting in April 2004 that plans to reforest a further 2,000 hectares of mangroves over a five-year period.
These mangrove forests played a major role in preventing damage resulting from the Great Indian Ocean Tsunami that was caused by the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. As was widely shown in the media, the tsunami caused extensive damage to buildings in regions along Indian Ocean coastlines. However, in regions where mangroves were present, those mangroves slowed the momentum of the tsunami, minimizing the damage caused.
Mangroves flourish in coastal areas, and are firmly attached to the ground with uniquely shaped roots. The upper part of these plants is soft and flexible, and can grow to a height of around 10 to 20 meters. These mangrove characteristics acted as a natural wavebreak against the Indian Ocean Tsunami waves often seen as being around 10 meters high, proving effective in absorbing the enormous energy of the tsunami. Not only were the mangroves reforested by Tokio Marine & Nichido undamaged by the tsunami, but also the damage suffered by people living behind them was held to a minimum. While it has previously been well known that mangroves play a role in preventing coastal erosion and storm damage by protecting coastal and surrounding areas, there had been no such previous confirmation of their effectiveness in mitigating such large coastal disasters as tsunamis.
Over the last 30 to 40 years, mangrove deforestation has advanced with up to 80% lost in some countries within the Southeast Asian region due to their conversion into prawn farms, construction of factories and roads, and use as an energy source, Here at Tokio Marine & Nichido, we will continue to expand these forests of the sea that provide safety and security to the Earth and to people with a view not just to ecosystem protection and preventing global warming, but also to disaster prevention.
