A degraded coastal ecosystem often undergoes erosion. Coastal erosion and habitat degradation often intensify each other, exacerbating the problem. Thus the first step in rehabilitating the coast is to halt the ongoing erosion. This paper presents a new method of coastal habitat rehabilitation which integrates detached breakwaters into mangrove restoration plans. On exposed beaches, calm area and stable substrate, which are favourable environmental conditions for natural recruits, could be provided by intervention of a detached breakwater forming a refuge on an exposed eroding shoreline. This refuge could facilitate the reestablishment of mangrove recruits which is expected to stimulate natural recovery process of coastal ecosystem. The approach was applied to a study site on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia; the main results of the project are discussed.
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