CGMFC-21 was developed to allow for high-resolution global mangrove loss trends to be extracted on an annual basis. This need has been identified by the mangrove community for some time with the only other global mangrove database (non-temporal) representing data from the late 1990s. The indicator measures mangrove forest cover on many differing scales. It addresses policy questions related to mangrove cover and is a component of addressing wider forest trends.