Participatory Stakeholder Assessment for Drivers of Mangrove Loss to Prioritize Evidence-Based Conservation and Restoration in Bhitarkanika and Mahanadi Delta, India

S. no.

Comment

Response

1.

Improve on the logical flow in the write up. There are some sections with mixed-up in the write up. For example, the authors could rework on the paragraphs 46-53 and 70, 74 with the latter two lines being a reemphasis and/or repetition of the former. They also should consider merging 67-69 and 71-73 to avoid redundancy. It would be appropriate if line 76 could be made a start of a new paragraph on regional (South Asian) description of mangrove status preceding the global description. The description would then be cascading to national, subnational and site/local levels. Line 79-80 appears to be an abrupt description of regional description of status to national drivers of mangrove loss. There is also a lot of mixed-up in the write up. For example, the authors seem to describe some methodological techniques in the result sections (e.g., lines 213-4).

Secondly, the authors could consider using precise and concise sentences. Most of the sentences are long and sometimes ambiguous and repetitive, making it difficult to follow presentations being made.

We are thankful to the esteemed reviewer for the valuable suggestions.

The entire manuscript has been revised according to the suggestions, to avoid redundancy, repetition, and to substantially improve the flow of the writeup. The methodological techniques have been added to the appropriate sections.

The sentences have been revised appropriately for better clarity of the readers.

3.

The authors emphasized mangrove decline, without making reference to some reviews which have demonstrated decline in mangrove rate of loss (e.g., Goldberg et al. 2020 - Global declines in human‐driven mangrove loss - Goldberg - 2020 - Global Change Biology - Wiley Online Library)

We are thankful to the esteemed reviewer for this important suggestion. The reference has been cited accordingly in the introduction section.

4.

Be consistent in citation format. Most of the citation format used in this manuscript is the numbering system, but there are some instances which other formats have been used or citations failed to be numbered (e.g., lines 324, 325, 326, 330, 416, 418).

The entire manuscript has been revised to maintain the uniformity in citations.

5.

The methods need to be clarified. Line 156 should be rephrased. Likewise, Lines 157-159 confusing; hence should be clearly defined or omitted. Were the activities described in lines 161-8 different from those in lines 170-6? The Likert analysis should be clearly defined in the methodology section rather than in the results section.

“The Likert analysis is based on a psychometric response scale which provides a comprehensive overview of the impact and uncertainty of potential drivers as perceived by the respondents. This method is adopted to provide quantitative value to a qualitative data.”

6.

Presentation of results should be improved. Figure 3 is confusing and difficult to decipher what the two sets of values displayed represented. Why display for only two? Aren't the shading effects sufficient to indicate the percentage proportions of the different variables? The figures could be mentioned in the text. Other results could be illustrated either as tables or figures, rather than narratives. 

7.

Other observations: what value does photo c add?

The photo has been replaced by a picture of “Women engaged in fuelwood collection” as a depiction of the services provided by the mangroves in the study area.

S. no.

Comment

Response

1.

i) Keywords

-Suggestion to include “mangrove loss”, “Bhitarkanika and Mahanadi delta” – as a study area.

- Delete “aquaculture” from the list.

- Keywords are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers.

We are thankful to the esteemed reviewer for the valuable suggestions. The keywords have been revised as per suggestion.

2.

ii) Abstract

- The author should include the central questions or statement of the problem your

research addresses.

- Please clearly stated the objective of the study as direction to the readers.

- The abstract is ambiguous as refering to mathematical models in Line 29, as there is no mathemathical model throughout the article.

As per suggestion, the abstract has been revised to include the problem statement, objectives and to remove ambiguous statements as pointed out by the esteemed reviewer.

3.

iii) Introduction

- This section should include tangible and intangible benefits offer by mangrove ecosystems. Explanations on their strong potential for supporting valuable ecosystem services to vulnerable communities, mangroves are often side-lined in national and international agendas.

- Provide citations and prove previous studies on this matter from other countries/areas. What are the different threats with mangrove forest? Is it similar?

- Problem statement is not clear in this section. It should be significant enough to contribute to the existing body of research. Back up your claims and propose a solution. Then what is your proposed solution? Explain the benefits of your proposed solutions.

- Problem statement can be supported with UN Sustainable Development Goal, for

instance, addressing conservation and sustainable use of marine resources (SDG 14). Mangrove conservation can contribute to achieving a range of international targets and commitments, including multiple SDGs.

- Page 3 Line 103 Rephrase the sentence to highlight the objectives of the study clearly

Authors thank the esteemed reviewer for the valuable insights. The sentences have been revised as per suggestions. The benefits offered by mangroves are provided in the following paragraphs, while the ecosystem services provided by the mangrove ecosystems have been discussed in detail in the succeeding sections of the manuscript.

“Mangrove forests are well-established as carbon-rich tropical ecosystems across the world that offers variety of vital ecological and economic services to the coastal inhabitants in the area and beyond [2,3]. Mangroves stabilize shorelines by reducing the im-pact of cyclones, tsunamis, sea surges etc. Further, they also regulate and support multitude of ecosystem services which help in erosion control, protection of coastline and mitigate climate change.”

“More often, the tangible and intangible benefits offered by mangrove ecosystems can be unknowingly undervalued by almost all stakeholders, especially its potential as bio-shields”

The problem statement has been described in the following lines:

“While the analysis of existing LULC data provides a better understanding of ongoing land degradation and deforestation, the present study provides useful insights by engaging with local stakeholders to improve our understanding and accurately assess the drivers of mangrove loss. Understanding the regional causes of mangrove decline is essential to develop accurate predictions and enforce mangrove conservation policies in a proactive manner.”

Study Area

- Highlighting the threats of the mangrove forest in order to support selection of the study area.

- Dividing the Study Area topic into 3 paragraphs. A paragraph is too long for the topic.

- If data / statistic about the mangrove losses are available, please provide it.

- Figure 1. Missing to include the Source of the map.

- Writing direction should move from macro to micro aspect.

 We thank the reviewer for the valuable suggestions.

- Threats on the study area have been discussed in the introduction section, along with the relevant statistics in order to avoid any  repetition.

- As suggested the study area section has been divided into 3 paragraphs along with significant changes to the writing part.

- Source of the map has been added as per suggestion.

4.

Literature Review

- check to make certain that you have covered all the important, up-to-date, and

pertinent texts.

- it is important that your literature be quite recent, at least in previous five years.

The entire manuscript has been revised to include pertinent texts and to provide citations from recent literature.

5.

Method

- In the methods that describe why the participants were chosen, the choice of

respondents were not adequately explained. Please elaborate in the Methodology section.

- Need to include detail of how validity and reliability were addressed in the design e.g., where there any confounding variables that needed to be controlled for?

- The author should consider including examples of the types of questions included in the questionnaires or include a list of all questions in the appendix and reference this in the paper accordingly.

- It would be helpful to include the questions or categories of questions that you asked in the interview to better contextualize participant responses.

- Table 1, Line 2, “Major drivers” of what? It is not clear for layman readers.

6.

Results and Discussion

- Be concise and make your points clearly.

- Please make sure any table /figure /equation supported with clear explanations. As the author should assume readers from different background (layman).

- Please include other socio-demographic characteristic in a table gender, age,

households’ income and many more) as an introduction to your sampling.

- Where are mathematical models that you have mentioned in the Abstract section?

- Is there any thorough and proper data analysis in this study?

- Line 243 is vague. Is there any findings that you have found in the study? Is it related to Figure 3a and 3b?

- Explain specific contribution that this study is making to the field of mangrove conservation/protection.

- Line 351 The table should be in Introduction section to support selection of topic/study area.

7.

Conclusion

- The conclusions should better explain what the novelty of the paper is, highlight the importance to protect mangrove forest in the area, merit in this research. What is the difference with previous index? Highlight any improvements.

- Relate your findings with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Restoring mangrove forests also support the achievement of many other SDGs, including eliminating poverty and hunger (SDG 1 and SDG 2), ensuring livelihoods and economic growth (SDG 8), taking actions against climate change impacts (SDG 13) and halting biodiversity loss (SDG 15).

- Propose recommendation for further study clearly thought process and help them to apply your info and ideas to their research or to see the broader implications.

- If there were any limitations of the study these could be included.

We thank the reviewer for the comments. The significance of the paper has been highlighted and correlated with the sustainability goals, SDG1,2,813&14.