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Protecting and restoring mangroves in the Western Indian Ocean region using new guidelines

GEF-UNEP/Nairobi Convention WIO-SAP

By IW:LEARN

September 7^th, 2020

For many coastal communities in the Western Indian Ocean, mangroves – trees that thrive in saltwater – are essential to everyday life, providing food, economic, and even physical security. The fish and invertebrates, who use mangroves as fishing grounds, form a large part of their everyday diets. Selling these fish also provides these residents with a steady source of income. These same communities further benefit from the protection from coastal erosion provided by mangroves, which help blunt impacts from hurricanes, floods, and other storms.

But the goods and services provided by mangroves – estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year – don’t stop there. Mangroves sequester up to five times more carbon than terrestrial forests, making their protection a key element in the fight against climate change. They support many threatened or endangered species, like the dugong, hawksbill turtle, or the Madagascar Teal bird. They also filter nitrates and phosphates carried by rivers to seas, contributing to cleaner water.

Yet over 67% of mangroves worldwide have been lost to date, with some mangrove forests in the Western Indian Ocean region deteriorating by more than 88%.

Without mangroves, coastal communities around the world would lose their sources of livelihood, food, and protection from storms. 39 percent more people would be flooded annually and flood damage would increase by more than 16 percent and US $82 billion.

That’s why the Nairobi Convention and partners, under the GEF-funded WIOSAP project, are implementing demonstration projects on mangrove restoration in three countries in the Western Indian Ocean region.

NGO sponsored mangrove planting at Ambanja, Madagascar. Photo: GIZ.

The first, in the Mahielene community near the Limpopo River of Mozambique, aims to help restore mangroves to an area destroyed by Cyclone Eline in 2000, a storm that wiped out fields, homes, and 60% of the local mangrove forests. The project, led by the National Agency for Environmental Quality Control, Eduardo Mondlane University, and other partners, will combine traditional planting techniques with a unique hydrological method that will essentially recreate the natural conditions so that the mangroves can restore themselves. The community will dig channels in the estuary to allow seawater to flow in towards the mangroves, which will feed the existing trees and allow their own seedlings to thrive.

Mangrove seedlings in a nursery near the Limpopo River estuary in Mozambique. Photo: Nairobi Convention

In the Rufiji Delta of Tanzania, meanwhile – home to 50% of the country’s mangroves – another project is working to create sustainable management of the mangrove forests. Residents in these communities rely heavily on mangroves, harvesting their wood for sources of building materials, firewood and income. In other areas, mangroves are cleared to make way for rice fields or for livestock grazing. That’s why this project, led by the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) of Tanzania in partnership with the Tanzania Forest Service, Wetlands International, the Kibiti District Council, and the Pakaya Culture and Environment Group, is working with officials and local communities to develop a plan to manage the mangrove forests, setting rules on where and when trees can be harvested. The models will also test approaches for restoring areas that have already been impacted by development.

Young mangroves in the Rufiji Delta. Photo: Nairobi Convention

In the Boeny region of Madagascar, a third project is also addressing the degradation of its mangroves. Mangroves in Boeny, which account for 20% of all mangroves found in Madagascar, are under a myriad of pressures, including overharvesting; conversion of mangrove forests to other uses; urban expansion; pollution, and more. The problems have been compounded by communities being unable to previously participate and influence decisions in mangrove sustainability efforts. This project, led by the National Centre For Environmental Research, Ministry of Environment, Ecology, and Forests (MEEF), University of Mahajanga, and partners, therefore strives to create a management plan that incorporates the views and needs of all stakeholders to ensure sustainable use of the forest. In addition to restoring at least ten hectares of mangroves, the project will also result in: a) a system of governance for the mangrove forest in three villages; and b) the identification of three alternative livelihoods for local communities.

The projects will be supported by the Guidelines on Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration in the Western Indian Ocean Region, a new publication from the Nairobi Convention and partners that provides a step-by-step guide on how to build successful restoration projects and avoid common replanting pitfalls. analyze risks and challenges to restoration projects and point to potential solutions.

They were developed by the member states of Nairobi Convention with support from UNEP–Nairobi Convention, the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association and the Western Indian Ocean Mangrove Network.

The Guidelines can be used by Governments, resource managers, scientists, civil society, and communities at large as they embark on mangrove conservation and management initiatives.

Protecting and restoring mangroves in the Western Indian Ocean region using new guidelines

About the GEF-UNEP/Nairobi Convention WIO-SAP Project

The Project entitled ‘Implementation of the Strategic Action Programme for the protection of the Western Indian Ocean from land-based sources and activities’ (WIO-SAP) is working ‘to reduce impacts from land-based sources and activities and sustainably manage critical coastal-riverine ecosystems through the implementation of the WIO-SAP priorities with the support of partnerships at national and regional levels’. The project builds on the WIO-LaB Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for the protection of the WIO Region from land-based sources and activities that was developed under the auspices of the GEF-UNEP WIO-LaB project and which identified key actions that need to be undertaken in the region in order to reverse the degradation of the coastal and marine ecosystems.

For more information on this project, please contact or more information, please contact the Project Manager, Jared Bosire (jared.bosire@un.org) or the Public Information Officer, Angela Patnode (angela.patnode@un.org). Additionally, please access the project on the Nairobi Convention website and the dedicated project page on iwlearn.net.