Mangrove of the Heart of Voh, New Caledonia

Mangrove swamps are aquatic and terrestrial tropical forests and develop on silt soil exposed to alternating tides. They are made up of various halophyte (or salt-tolerant plants), with a predominance of mangroves, that cover nearly a quarter of tropical coasts and 37 million acres (15 million hectares) in the world. This fragile environment recedes continually before overexploitation, agricultural expansion and urban development of shrimp farming and pollution. However, the mangrove swamp is indispensable to the marine animal-life and to the balance of the seashore, as well as to the local economy. New Caledonia, a group of islands in the Pacific which is spread over 7.170 square miles (18.575 square kilometers), has 77 square miles (200 square kilometers) of mangrove that is quite low (25 to 33 feet high or 8 to 10 meters) but very dense, especially on the Western coast of the largest island, Grande-Terre. Inland, where sea water only penetrates during Spring tides, vegetation is sometimes replaced by naked and over-salted stretches of land, called tanne, like near the town of Voh where nature has drawn this glade in the shape of a stylish heart.