By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Three villages in Kwale County of Kenya have launched the Vanga Blue Forest project in 2019, a community-led mangrove reforestation initiative that aims to conserve and restore, Vanga Bay’s coastal ecosystems.
Jacinta M. Kimiti, an associate professor at South Eastern Kenya University’s School of Agriculture, Environment, Water and Natural Resources, says the Vanga Blue Forest project fits within Kenya’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the country’s emissions reduction pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The plan focuses on avoiding losses to precious natural resources to achieve economic, social and environmental benefits. It affirms that mangroves are central in combating climate change and conserving biodiversity. Kenya has committed to emissions reductions of 32% by 2030.
More than 20 years ago, along the lush southeastern coast of Kenya, the area known as Vanga Bay was home to a mangrove forest spanning 4,428 hectares (10,942 acres). But some 18 hectares (44 acres) of mangroves have been lost every year for the past 25 years, a total of 451 hectares (1,114 acres) during this period.
Mangrove harvesting has been underway here since 1991 by local communities, according to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, approximately 87% of the Kwale county’s households use mangrove wood as fuelwood and building material.
The overharvesting of the trees destroys the mangrove forest’s capacity to act as the first line of defense against ocean-related catastrophes. Studies show that mangrove forests offer multiple benefits related to both mitigating and adapting to climate change.
They absorb three to four times more carbon than tropical upland forests and reduce the debilitating effects of floods, and their complex root networks are known to serve as a buffer against strong waves, high winds and storm surges for coastal communities.
In Vanga Bay, the loss of the forests is being keenly felt.
“We are vulnerable to recurrent floods from heavy rains in April and October, and sea level rise,” says Harith Mohamed Suleiman, a member of an Indigenous community at the forefront of promoting mangrove conservation and restoration. Indigenous ethnic groups living along the Vanga Bay coastline include the Digo, Duruma, Shirazi, Wapemba and Wagunga peoples.
“We also have floods and high tides when River Umba, which flows from Usambara Mountains in neighboring Tanzania, overflows into the Indian Ocean,” Suleiman adds.
Jacob Otieno, a conservationist working in Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said increased mangrove deforestation has endangered and significantly reduced the population of marine species such as the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) and dugong (Dugong dugon).