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. breathe. It could be the purified air or the rhythmic soft splish and thunk of oars slicing through the water and landing gently in their cups.

Or, possibly, it's the forest's innate power. But as our Pok Chun boat weaves through the mangroves surrounding the tiny, Muslim community of Tung Yee Peng, a hypnotic calm descends. Our forest tour has barely started, but I'm already so relaxed that it's freaky.

Hugging the shoreline, we slip down an ever-widening klong (canal), with the immense mangroves – their waxy verdant foliage gilded in sunlight – leaning out over our heads in search of space. The lowering tide means we're at eye level with the forest's root system: a twisted maze sculpted by tides and time, akin to a vast eyrie fashioned from gnarled, skeletal fingers. Mangrove forests are nature's ultimate multitaskers.

They defend coastlines from tsunamis, provide nursery habitats for countless aquatic species, and sequester up to four times more carbon per acre than mature tropical rainforests. They're crucial for the planet's health but disappearing at an astonishing rate. Over the past 60 years, up to 35 per cent of the world's mangroves have been lost or severely damaged, mainly due to human encro.