**4. Conclusions**

From the perspective of long-term development, the mangrove areas need to be considered as a multiple-use management area (MUMA) given the different interest groups that exercise jurisdiction over the area. As a MUMA, each stakeholder will be given an opportunity to have its interest addressed, while at the same time, the potential for conflict will be reduced. Sustainable management of mangroves is likely to be impacted by land tenure issues in the communities where the study was conducted. While the households expressed willingness to support mangrove protection, they were unaware of the legal status of the vegetation. Among the concerns raised was their right to deforest their private land whenever the need arose. The general trend was that most households showed willingness to transfer ownership of the land, which has mangrove if compensated accordingly. The effects of human activities and development and land tenure issues on the mangrove sustainability were in part compensated for by the natural growth of mangroves in the study area. So, with the support of local authorities and environmentally friendly use of the community forest, as well as appropriate management of stand structure, the coastal mangrove ecosystem in this area should be able to thrive successfully.
