more lives could have been lost. oh, it's vitally important, it's the heartbeat of the island. without the mangroves, the island would be exposed to natural disasters like typhoons and tsunamis and storm surges, which is a regular occurrence in the philippines. this february, the philippines government recognised siargao's mangrove forest of del carmen as a wetland of international importance. this is good news when you consider in bygone decades, mangroves were ripped up for firewood and building materials. when we came out the day after odette, you could clearly see that all the leaves of the mangroves were gone, it was bare, it was like a nude mangrove. but the roots and the trunks were all intact, you could really tell those communities