Munje, Mswambeni Kenya, In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 15 women came together to preserve a portion of mangrove forest along the Vanga-Funzi Bay section on the southern coast of Kenya. Four years later, the Tunusuru Conservation Women’s Group has grown into a 30-member conservation group with separate youth and children’s conservation wings.
By December 2023, the women had propagated about 400,000 propagules in nurseries. Mwanadiwani says all of these have matured and have been permanently planted within the forest block. By the end of February 2024, about 50,000 propagules were in the nursery.
Mwanadiwani Yusuf, the Tunusuru Conservation Women’s Group chairlady, told the Africa Climate Conversations that the primary issue at that time was the community’s indiscriminate clearing of the forest, which resulted in significant degradation of the area. “We recognised that our community was in imminent danger. As coastal people, we depend on the sea as our husbands earn a living there; hence, we decided to conserve the forest for the purpose of fish breading.”
Elsewhere on the north coast, a youth group rehabilitating mangroves has invited back village delicacies.
Mwandadiwani says the community used the forest for medicine, but as the community grew in numbers and jobs became impossible to find, the community, now solely depending on fishing, ventured into the forest and started harvesting the trees for commercial purposes, building and burning charcoal, and digging out fish baits found on the mangrove roots, a practice that fell trees.
To preserve the portion of mangrove forest, the women have been planting mangrove propagules. Additionally, the women are enhancing their livelihoods through activities such as beekeeping, eco-tourism, waste management, conservation education, and basket weaving.
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The 2017-2027 National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan shows that the Vanga-Funzi system occupies 7,638 hectares, constituting 40 percent of the entire mangroves in Kwale County.
Increased demand for mangrove wood products in the area has led to the degradation of the forest in many parts of Kwale County. There are approximately 3,559 ha of degraded mangrove areas in the Vanga-Funzi system that need rehabilitation.
Well done …my Kenya , your Kenya…Our Kenya….