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Mangroves: how they help the ocean
- Global mangrove ecosystems are at a "breaking point," with human activities like shrimp farming, palm oil expansion, coastal development, and fuel wood extraction causing the loss of over half the world's original forests.
- At the current rate of loss, projections suggest all mangroves could disappear within the next 100 years without intervention.
- The Ghazi Bay mangrove forest in southern Kenya spans 615 hectares and serves as a critical nursery habitat for marine species and a water filtration system via tangled root structures.
- Mangroves store significantly more carbon than terrestrial forests; the Ghazi Bay site contains 6 to 8 times more buried carbon in its sediment than typical tropical forest soils.
- One hectare of the Ghazi Bay forest stores approximately 1,500 tonnes of carbon, which is converted to carbon dioxide equivalents for trade.
- Mikoko Pomoja ("mangroves together") is the world's first community-based mangrove conservation project funded by selling carbon credits on the Voluntary Carbon Credit Market.
- The project is verified to sell over 2,000 carbon credits annually, representing the additional sequestration ensured by conservation efforts.
- Over the past five years, the initiative has generated more than $60,000 for surrounding villages, funding clean water, local clinics, schools, and forest rangers.
- Financial incentives have successfully shifted local behavior, making it more profitable for communities to preserve the forest than to harvest it for timber or fuel.
- Critics argue that carbon accounting is difficult to calibrate accurately due to variable factors and warn that offsetting should not substitute for broader, coherent policy needed to reach a zero-carbon world.
- Despite being a "drop in the ocean" relative to the scale of climate change, the Mikoko Pomoja model is being replicated in nearby Kenyan villages and has inspired similar projects, such as one in Madagascar.
- Local residents view the project as essential for preserving their fishing livelihoods and ensuring financial stability, though they acknowledge the long road ahead to fully protect the ecosystem.