Peninsular Malaysia still have substantial areas underb mangroves totaling 101,877 ha. The mangroves are found in all states ranging from 20.0 ha in Perlis to 43,502 ha in Perak.

Mangroves area in Kedah cover only 0.85% of the total land area in the states. The biggest mangroves forest is in Merbok Forest Reserve while the other areas of mangroves forest are located in Pulau Langkawi.

Merbok Forest Reserve
These are the most extensive and best mangroves on mainland Kedah and comprise 4,037 ha. of mangroves and about 1,000 ha of waterway. The areas were gazetted as forest reserve in 1951.

In the pursuance of development, mangroves like ather natural habitats are not spared and have been reduced in size over the years (Table 1). However of late the threats to the preservation of mangroves are somehow much reduced due to the better understanding of importance and functioning of the mangroves especially among the land administrator and policy maker.

The Resources
Flora
Mangroves botanists have divided mangrove vegetation into three broad categories: exclusive, non-exclusive and associate. "Exclusive" mangroves are those vegetation that are found only within the mangroves habitat covered by tides, i.e between low water levels of neap and high water levels of spring tides. Meanwhile, the "non-exclusive" species are those vegetation that have some role and importance in the mangroves habitat but their existence are not restricted to the mangroves habitat alone. Additionally, they are not able to form conspicuous elements of the vegetation and rarely form pure communities. The "associate"  mangrove vegetation, on the other hand are those that can be found elsewhere and not retricted to the proximity of mangrove though it occurs primarily in transitional vegetation either land-ward or sea-ward of the exclusive mangroves. Detailed vegetation surveys have been done on the Merbok Forest Reserve ( Ong et a1.1980) and a complete list of two classes of mangroves vegetation ( exclusive and non-exclusive) are recorded.

Fauna
Data on fauna are most comprehensive for the Merbok Forest Reserve ( Gregory-Smith, 1993 ) which deals mainly with the bird . A total of 80 birds species is listed with 15 species under the category of "mainly mangroves dependent". 

In another study (Noske, 1993), 48 species of birds were recorded from Merbok Forest Reserve .

Among the mammals recorded at the site are three species of monkeys: Long-tailed macaque (Macaca Fasicularis), the Dusky (Presbytis Obscura) and Silvered (P. Cristata) Leaf-Monkeys; platain squirrels (Callosciurus Notatus) and others ( possibly Lura Perspicillata )      
   
The fish fauna has been listed by Khoo (1989); consisting aimost 50 species of finfish and shellfish. 

Forestry
The management plan on the Merbok Forest Reserve is based on 30 years rotation with the annual coupe of 100 ha. The mangroves have been successfully managed more or less sustainably for the extraction of poles for the production of charcoal.

Fishing
The common fishing activities conducted inside the Merbok mangroves are crab trapping, net trapping and shellfish harvesting. There is also floating cage aquaculture carried out at some parts of waterways.

Eco-Tourism
Eco-tourism in mangroves has great potential and should be taken advantage of Boardwalk will be constructed in Kompartment 10.

Scientific Research and Education
A lecturer with LESTARI, University Kebangsaan Malaysia and Research Officer from Institut Penyelidikan Perikanan together with scientish from Forest and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan had chosen Merbok Forest Reserve for their study.

Compartment 18 has been set aside for education, while Compartment 11 as seed stand.