Kenya Commits to Restoring and Protecting Mangrove Forests

By Maureen Mwangi

The Kenyan government is planning to plant 300 million trees in the next 10 years in Kwale County alone to achieve 30 per cent forest coverage by 2032.

Principal Secretary in the State Department for Forestry, Gitonga Mugambi, said part of this project is the ongoing restoration of mangrove trees that have undergone wanton destruction over the years in the Coast region.

“Over the next 10 years, we shall grow 15 billion trees and restore 10.6 million hectares of our degraded forests and rangelands, including mangroves,” said Mugambi.

He spoke on the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, which is marked on July 26, every year.

This year’s ceremony was held in Mwenjeni Village, Kwale County under the theme ‘Forests Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet’.

This day was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2015 to create awareness on the significance of mangrove ecosystems.

Kenya is working towards conservation and restoration of mangrove forests in Gabi Bay, the world’s first conservation project to connect mangrove forests to the global carbon market. The project is called ‘Mikoko Pamoja’ (Mangroves Together).

The Mikoko Pamoja project is a ‘Blue Forest’ initiative that supports the planting and conservation of mangrove trees. Money is raised by selling carbon credits to people and organisations to reduce carbon footprints in a bid to benefit the local community.

As part of this initiative, 4,000 seedlings get planted every year, thus helping the community to understand the need for ‘Blue Carbon’.

According to the National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan 2017-2027, mangrove forests in Kenya cover about 61,271 hectares, representing approximately three per cent of the natural forest cover or less than one per cent of the national land area. Lamu County has the largest mangrove plantation.

The Plan further states that mangroves are facing various threats that are both anthropogenic and natural factors. The threats include over-exploitation of wood products, conversion of mangrove areas to other land uses, weak governance, inadequate knowledge and awareness.

“Between 1985 and 2009, the country lost about 20% of its mangrove cover; translating to about 450 hectares of mangrove cover loss and degradation per year. The loss was exceptionally high in the peri-urban mangroves of Mombasa where more than 70% cover loss was recorded; mostly due to human factors” reads the Plan.

The benefits of mangrove forests in the ecosystem cannot be gainsaid. They range from providing habitat for fish and other wildlife to shoreline protection, carbon sequestration, soil formation and food security.

Kenya has nine species of mangroves, although Rhizophora mucronata and Ceriops tagal are the most dominant ones.

According to Unesco Director General Audrey Azoulay, mangroves need to be protected to avoid extinction.

“Mangroves are in danger: it has been estimated that more than three quarters of mangroves in the world are now threatened and with them all the aquatic and terrestrial organisms that depend on them,” says Azoulay.

“This is why Unesco has decided to act to protect them, along with other valuable blue carbon ecosystems, through its geoparks, world heritage sites and biosphere reserves.”