ABSTRACT
Reclamation of intertidal areas, including cutting mangroves, is the most radical change but not completely irreversible because reclaimed land can be flooded again, and mangrove can be replanted. Opposite to reclamation is the use of intertidal areas that leaves them largely undamaged, if not completely unchanged. This includes fishing, the use of salt marshes for collecting grass and cutting turf, the collection of wood, leaves, seeds, grasses, and other plants and fauna in mangroves as well as salt marshes. Reclamation and human use of intertidal areas, sustainable or not, involve local or regional in situ activities with local or regional effects. But also activities outside the intertidal area, in some cases located at quite a large distance, can have an influence: the most prominent are water and air pollution, dam construction, and a global change in climate, or more specifically, a global rise in sea level.
