KMFRI scientist wins grant for mangrove research
Dr James Kairo, chief scientist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, who will spearhead the implementation of a new research grant to map out mangrove conditions in the country.
What you need to know:
- Mangroves are extraordinary systems that capture and store huge stocks of carbon.
- In addition, mangroves serve as habitats for fish and other wildlife, protect shorelines from erosion, and provide harvestable wood and non-wood resources to millions of people around the world.
Kenyan mangrove researchers will benefit from a year-long grant awarded to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), whose aim will be to use machine learning to map out mangrove resources and get finer details of their condition in real time.
The grant worth Sh6.5 million is from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Future Earth –a global network of scientists, researchers and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet.
Apart from using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to geolocate mangroves' state, the grant will also introduce ocean accounting tools in valuing mangrove resources beyond carbon.
Ocean accounts are integrated records of regularly compiled and comparable data concerning ocean environment assets like the condition of mangroves, economic activity such as the sale of fish, and social conditions like coastal employment.
Dr James Kairo, a chief scientist at KMFRI, told the Nation that while Kenya has started to benefit from mangroves' carbon credits, there's little knowledge of what else the tropical plant can do.
KMFRI will work with Macquarie University of Australia to support Dr Kairo in assessing mangrove ecosystem health in Kenya, identifying degradation hotspots and determining economic value of multiple goods and services derived from these forests.
Dr Kairo will also work with two Kenyan students: Gilbert Kosgei, who is studying hydrology at Maseno University, and Mary Kisilu, who is studying environmental science at Chuka University.
"This is a special grant because it needs to take further what we have already been doing. We have been doing mangrove restoration and mapping, but we are now going further. We want to use machine learning to map mangrove conditions, their status, and how they are growing," he explains.
He says their aim is to link the status of the countries' mangroves with the hope of understanding how climate change affects their growth.
He tells the Nation that mangroves are extraordinary systems that capture and store huge stocks of carbon. In addition, mangroves serve as habitats for fish and other wildlife, protect shorelines from erosion, and provide harvestable wood and non-wood resources to millions of people around the world.
Unfortunately, mangroves are increasingly threatened by human activity and climate change. Understanding mangrove dynamics and associated benefits is crucial for conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable resource utilisation.
"We are now saying that we shouldn't just value mangroves for carbon; we are going beyond that and embracing a holistic approach to natural resources," he says.
The grant will propel the recognition of mangrove ecosystems beyond direct use values to a new storyline anchored on valuing mangroves for nature and community livelihood.
"During the Covid-19 period, for instance, carbon sales became very low, and as much as we have a new regulation on carbon trading, people should not lose other functions that mangrove forests do," he adds.
The valuation of the benefits of mangroves through their research will now embrace other things other than carbon credits.
"For instance, what's the value of mangroves to fish, to children's protection and to other creatures. We don't have that yet, but it is more valuable," he says.
According to the 2017-2027 National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan, about 40 per cent of the mangroves in the country are degraded.
"What we are coming up with is in the new dispensation under the Paris Agreement and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and we are looking at the government commitments and assessing what happens in real time," explains Dr Kairo.
In return, their analysis of the status of mangroves in the country will feed into Kenya's national policies and global commitments such as the NDCs, the Kenya National Biodiversity and Strategic Action Plan and the Blue Economy Strategy.
Dr Kairo's research will combine remote sensing and GIS tools, social surveys and ocean accounting to investigate changes in mangrove cover and associated drivers in Kenya.
Through this study, multiple stakeholders and policymakers will gain an essential understanding of the ecological and socioeconomic benefits of mangrove conservation by developing a structured, evidence-based framework for policies and practices aimed at sustaining mangrove ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
