How to engage more local communities in mangrove restoration projects in Africa

By Amare Gebrie

Mangroves in Africa extend about 32,000 km² - nearly 19% of global coverage - mainly distributed along the  western Atlantic coast (37%), central Atlantic (14%) and eastern Indian ocean (14%) (Bunting et al., 2022). These mangroves provide various ecological, social and financially tangible ecosystem services to the local communities (Kuenzer et al., 2011). However, these ecosystems are facing alarming rates of degradation and loss across the African continent due to various natural processes but mainly anthropogenic activities. Over a 24-year period between 1996 and 2020, Africa lost 52.2 km² (2.15 %) of mangroves (Bunting et al., 2022). More than 60% of this loss in the region is attributed to fish smoking, cooking and housing construction activities (Ajonina et al., 2008). Therefore, restoration and conservation of mangroves is urgent in Africa and needs successful and sustainable strategies. The success of mangrove rehabilitation programs in densely populated areas, especially in developing countries, hinges largely on the active involvement of local communities, who are an integral component of the mangrove system (Rönnbäck et al., 2007).

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Understanding the local context

Since local conditions and causes of the depletion of the ecosystem vary from one country to another, it is essential to conduct thorough community need assessments to gain insights into cultural practices, livelihood dependencies, and existing community-led conservation and restoration efforts. Understanding attitudes and behavior of the local people enables the effective integration of local social-ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge to talk with the community in a ‘‘common language” (Zorini et al., 2004). Mangrove degradation in East Africa, for example, is mainly attributed to anthropogenic pressure, poor governance, and poverty of the local communities stemming from unequal distribution of resources (Ajonina et al., 2008). Understanding local perceptions on the values and use of mangrove forest and important ecosystem services is crucial to sustainable mangrove management.  (Teka et al., (2019) in the mangroves of Benin, where structured and semi-structured questionnaire surveys were conducted to gauge community perceptions. Local mangrove dependent communities in Benin value and use mangroves for timber and non-timber forest products, rich fishing grounds and salt. Thus, understanding the perceptions of local communities towards mangrove forest dynamics and their acceptable participation in mangrove restoration efforts is essential for sustainable management of mangroves (Teka et al., 2019).

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Enhancing community awareness, engagement and capacity building

Given the significance of mangrove forest to coastal communities, the only way to achieve sustainable restoration and conservation of these ecosystems is to involve and place local communities at the forefront in the management process (Teka et al., 2019). To do this, enhancing community engagement and capacity building will be crucial. Since human activities constitute the main pressures on African mangroves (Abuodha & Kairo, 2001; Ajonina et al., 2008; Onyena & Sam, 2020), raising awareness, and building local capacity through training workshops and skills development can empower communities to actively monitor, restore, protect and conserve the mangroves. A study by Rönnbäck et al., (2007) in two Kenyan mangrove villages found that most respondents (71%) were positive towards plantations. Negative attitudes were primarily attributed to perception of limited information given to the community prior to planting, emphasizing the importance of raising awareness and community education  for planting initiatives. The level of knowledge about mangrove species, threats, and goods and services may be markedly heterogeneous among the community, with certain groups such as women exhibiting poor understanding of these issues. It is also noted that community participation should take into account the heterogeneous nature of stakeholder groups, in terms of perceptions and valuations of ecosystem goods and services, to avoid conflicts over future plantation use (Rönnbäck et al., 2007).

In areas where impacts on mangroves is mainly from household exploitation income, such as on Inhaca Island in Mozambique, the local community have a deep knowledge of mangrove functions. This awareness has led the communities to become involved in mangrove planting schemes, managed by the communities themselves (Zorini et al., 2004). In contrast, a community-based mangrove plantation program in Douala -Edea Reserve, Cameroon, targeted to cover 10 ha of degraded mangroves, but communities out-planted only about 4 ha, attributed to different levels of perception about the importance of mangrove restoration (Jean-Hude et al., 2016). Local communities in Africa are more involved in implementing natural resource management programs but lack a sense of ownership of such projects, resulting in a lack of commitment and sometimes hostile reactions. Community participation is most effective when the local population are involved not as co-operating users but as natural resource managers or owners (Chirenje et al., 2013). Enabling local residents to participate in all stages of conservation plans and their implementation builds community ownership and stewardship, which ensures long lasting planting efforts.

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Incentivizing participation and cross-sectional collaboration

Community participation in mangrove management increases when the well-being of the community members is ensured, because lack of income generating options drives local communities to practice unsustainable methods of mangrove exploitation (Datta et al., 2012). It is important to develop sustainable livelihood opportunities that are directly linked to mangrove conservation. This can include providing daily financial incentives to mangrove planters and carers, alternative sources of income to reduce the pressure on the mangroves, improved food security and clean water access, and reward community efforts through carbon financing and ecotourism (Ferreira et al., 2022; Jean-Hude et al., 2016; Pham et al., 2022). In the Douala estuary of Cameroon, responses from 400 individuals indicated that 78.8% of them are conditioned on incentives (compensation for work done), highlighting that community participation in mangrove restoration is influenced by externalities such as meager financial incentives (Jean-Hude et al., 2016). Introducing ecotourism practices becomes essential as these have unique potential for both biodiversity conservation and economic growth (Datta et al., 2012). The government of Egypt and FAO selected areas in Egypt suitable for small-scale community-based mangrove ecotourism Bedouin lifestyle that empowered the community to manage the sites, and introduced alternative income sources like cultivating mangrove seedlings, beekeeping, landscaping, urban greening and producing mangrove based handicrafts (Cabahug, 2002). WeForest in partnership with Oceanium (a national NGO in Senegal) is spearheading a mangrove restoration project covering about 4000 ha of degraded area in the Sine Saloum estuary and other areas in the Casamance delta in collaboration with local government agencies in Senegal in a community-led mangrove planting project. Therefore, successful engagement of local communities in mangrove planting needs the collaboration of various stakeholders, including local authorities, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions. The collaboration facilitates knowledge sharing, exchange of best practice, securing funding, and policy support to enhance community-led efforts and ensure their sustainability.

References

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