Coastal Kenya is one of the least developed regions of the country. These communities are dependent on the mangrove ecosystems for employment, livelihood, and nutrition. In recent decades, coastal areas in Southern Kenya have been urbanized at unprecedented rates. Mangrove forests were converted into other land use. Coupled with lack of effective governance, mangroves were overexploited and overharvested. The destruction of the mangrove forests also contributed to the loss of critical habitats for many organisms. Threatening the livelihoods of these impoverished communities, pushing them further into poverty.
With your support, we are restoring the mangrove forests in Kenya. The goal of this project is to empower the impoverished coastal community to break the poverty cycle. In restoring the mangrove estuary, which is rich in biodiversity, this project will provide fishing grounds for local people. This helps to create additional income streams, including sustainable harvests from the mangrove forests. The restored forests will also help to stabilize coastlines. This will act as a vital line of defense to protect the land and the communities during tropical storms.
Mangroves support biodiversity by creating complex root systems that provide shelter, breeding grounds, and nursery habitat for fish, crustaceans, birds, and countless marine species. Their unique transition zone between land and sea sustains a wide range of organisms, forming one of the most biologically productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet.
Mangrove forests are one of the most effective natural systems for carbon sequestration. As mangrove trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, roots, and especially in the deep, waterlogged soils beneath them.
Mangroves are critical to coastal health, stabilizing shorelines with their dense root systems that reduce erosion and buffer communities from storm surge and flooding. They also filter pollutants, trap sediment, and create rich nursery habitats
