To Plant or Not To Plant?
Novel Mangrove Restoration Success in Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Tanzania
Wetlands International and partners are restoring mangroves using a novel, inclusive and much more effective approach.
On both the Atlantic and Indian coasts of the African continent, Wetlands International is working to restore and protect mangrove ecosystems alongside communities using an approach developed by the Mangrove Action Project. The approach is known as Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) and works in a holistic way to ensure mangrove forests replenish and flourish on their own, with minimal human-led replanting.
Guinea Bissau’s Cacheu National Park, the Saloum Delta in Senegal, and the Rufiji Delta in Tanzania were Wetlands International’s three focus regions to implement this restoration practice and train the surrounding communities. 200 hectares (close to 500 acres) of forest was restored in Guinea Bissau and the areas that implemented the CBEMR approach saw rapid recovery and success. The Rufiji Delta region has presented a different set of restoration challenges but extensive work is underway to give the land back to mangroves. The success of this restoration region is being monitored with the Global Mangrove Watch forest monitoring platform.
The full report on Wetlands International’s restoration work in the countries is on pages 34-37 of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association magazine, Issue 11.
Additional detail on the Rufiji Delta restoration project can be found here.
