survey conducted in 2007 and 2008 evaluating mangrove social value in three Niger Delta communities indicated approximately 85% of participant households had previously utilized mangrove vegetation as a medicinal remedy and between 65% and 71% of villagers recognized the mangrove forests as a place of repose. Further, each study village relied on the local mangrove forest for carrying out cultural traditions (relying on forest as an ancestral burying site or place of festivity such as in Buguma), spiritual significance, and the survival of locally resource-dependent communities. Another study evaluating the socio-economic importance of mangrove forests to 950 households residing in Akassa, Bayelsa revealed a strong connection between mangroves and the primary and secondary occupations of individuals living in proximity to the forests. The study noted that while not all residents’ vocations directly relied on mangrove resource extraction, all households depended on the forest for resources to fulfill their basic physiological needs (such as fuelwood, mangrove material for medicine, wood to construct shelter, and forest space for hunting sustenance staples like snails, fish and crab). The Niger Delta mangrove forests directly (through raw materials) and indirectly (through forest-based products) offer economically beneficial resources for Nigerian rural and urban communities alike, with eight out of the ten most lucrative vocations dependent on thriving mangrove populations. These occupations include: canoe carving, logging, timber harvesting, building, fishing, sawmilling, traditional medicine, and trading. Biodiversity The ecological importance of mangroves expands well beyond the resources of their roots and wood. Playing a key part in many fish, invertebrate, crustacean, and mollusk species’ lifecycles, mangroves offer organisms a breeding ground, shelter, and sustenance (mangroves are capable of producing 3.65 tons of leaf matter per hectare per year, which is a key contribution to the food web that supports juvenile fish). Mangroves offer these services to approximately 75% of the local commercially harvested fish population; in a properly functioning mangrove ecosystem, this means ~1.08 tons of fish can be supported by one hectare of mangroves each year. Mangroves are also used as shelter and breeding grounds by small mammals, shore birds, reptiles, and insects. One study analyzing local species dependency on mangrove populations in Pagbilao Bay, Quezon, discovered that nearly 128 fish species, 56 bird species, and 9 species of paneid shrimp relied on mangrove survival for breeding and shelter requirements. Beyond supplying a sundry of basic biological needs to marine and terrestrial organisms, mangrove populations are also