Ethnobotanical knowledge in mangrove rehabilitation: A systematic and bibliometric review of species-use patterns and community-based practice

Abstract

Background: Mangrove rehabilitation is commonly evaluated through planting area, seedling survival, and ecosystem services. The ways in which coastal communities know, use, and discuss mangrove species are less consistently synthesized, particularly in relation to rehabilitation practice.

Methods: A PRISMA-based review of 262 Scopus-indexed studies published between 1991 and 2026 combined metadata-based thematic coding with descriptive bibliometrics, Mann-Kendall trend analysis, negative binomial regression, country-level summaries, and keyword-network analysis. Practical themes were summarized from an empirical-oriented subset of 229 records, while 33 secondary publications were flagged separately.

Results: The 262 studies were published in 177 normalized sources and received 6,071 citations. Annual publication counts increased over the review period (Kendall's tau = 0.753, p < 0.001); the negative binomial model estimated an annual incidence rate ratio of 1.148 (95% CI 1.123-1.174). Across 87 identified countries, full-count document contributions were unequal (Gini = 0.604) but not dominated by a single country (HHI = 361). Document counts and citations were not associated across the ten leading countries (Spearman's rho = -0.006, p = 0.987). The author-keyword network contained 25 nodes and 90 edges with weak modular separation (Q = 0.166). In the empirical-oriented subset, cultural or ritual and livelihood or economic themes accounted for 149 and 81 of 380 metadata-based use flags, respectively.

Conclusions: The reviewed literature consistently places local plant knowledge, species use, and community participation within discussions of mangrove rehabilitation. These patterns identify practical considerations for species selection and long-term stewardship, but they do not demonstrate that local use causes a species to be selected or improves field survival. Field-based studies are needed to test those relationships directly.

Keywords: Ethnobotany, Mangrove rehabilitation, Systematic review, Bibliometrics, Traditional ecological knowledge, Species-use patterns, Community participation, Blue carbon