Mangrove forests still line most of Guinea-Bissau’s fringing shoreline along West Africa’s Atlantic coast, a protective green halo along the many bays and estuaries. Uniquely evolved for the interface between land and sea, mangroves are a nursery for fish, shelter low-lying communities, store carbon, and more. Communities also cultivate rice in brackish soils of the mangrove swamps, using a method unique to West Africa. In the past few decades, environmental and socio-economic changes mean that many of these rice fields have been abandoned. Some may be reclaimed by the tides, but many are so altered they instead lie barren and cannot regenerate on their own. Since 2015 Wetlands International has been working with communities in and around Cacheu and Cantanhez national parks to regenerate these abandoned rice fields, using an innovative approach called Community-based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR). It differs from conventional restoration techniques in that it focuses on removing barriers to natural regeneration, instead of mass planting. That includes correcting imbalances in the hydrology, as well as tackling the socio-economic drivers behind mangrove loss. Mangrove forests, like this one in Indonesia, are adapted to thrive in tidal areas where most other plants can’t. In addition to acting as a protective nursery for juvenile fish and other marine wildlife, mangroves buffer coasts from sea swells, storms and erosion, and funnel more carbon into the soil than other types of trees. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Satellite data from Global Mangrove Watch show the 2016 extent of mangroves along Guinea-Bissau’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post How a holistic approach aims to heal mangroves in Guinea-Bissau first appeared on EnviroLink Network.