Meet the Lamu women restoring local mangrove forests

Two years ago, you could hardly spot women idling around on this remote island of Matondoni in Lamu County.

The village houses at least 4,000 residents and their main economic activity, particularly for the men, is fishing and mangrove logging.

The women here have historically been known for weaving baskets, mats, hats, henna painting and fish mongering, to eke a living.

If you visit Matondoni Island today, however, you will find many women moving up and down, either holding small black paper bags holding seedlings, ferrying stick-like items and gathering them at a specified point; or carrying baskets and jerricans of water.

These mothers left their usual income-generating activities, including weaving, henna decorations, and fish mongering, two years ago, to engage in mangrove restoration activities. Their objective is to save the indigenous forest.

The more than 100 women have organized themselves into 12 groups and established mangrove nurseries at different points within the village.

Natural forest

Matondoni Tarazak Women Group on Matondoni Island, is one such.

The group’s secretary, Swabra Musa, says they resorted to mangrove restoration after receiving conservation and restoration training from the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) in the area, in 2020.

KFS is a state corporation mandated to rehabilitate degraded natural forest areas, develop and conserve public natural forests, and restock and sustainably manage all public forest plantations, among other duties.

Ms Musa says they initially lacked knowledge on mangrove restoration. For decades, therefore, they only watched as their men cut down mangrove poles for house construction, making furniture, and other wooden items.

This led to the destruction of various sites of the indigenous forest in the Lamu Archipelago.

Unfortunately, no efforts were made to replace the mangroves at the time, leaving the forest in danger of extinction.

“We didn’t think about restocking the felled mangroves until KFS came in. Its officials educated us about the role we can play to ensure there is sustainability in terms of mangrove harvesting and restoration,” says Ms Musa.

Nurseries

The 40-year-old says it was through such engagements that they acquired conservation skills, including the establishment of mangrove nurseries.

Currently, her group has more than 18,000 mangrove propagules being raised in a nursery.

“As women conservators here, we have set specific days when we go to the forest to collect the mangrove propagules and mud. We then germinate, raise and tend the seedlings in these small paper bags stuffed with soil. We’ve also set specific times of the day when we water the seedlings. We do so until they are ready for permanent planting,” she says.

Hafswa Mohamed Tola, the chairperson of another group Matondoni Umoja Women Group says they transfer the mangrove seedlings once they are ready for permanent planting in the forest.

Ms Tola notes that they have restored many degraded mangrove sites within Lamu. Those so far restored include the Mokowe Old Jetty, Bwaishe-Mwalimu, Bambari-Salama, Kipungani, Kililana, and Mkunumbi areas.

The 28-year-old reveals that her group has concentrated mainly on growing four species of mangrove trees in their nurseries. They include Mkoko (Rhizophora mucronata), Mchu (Avicennia marina), Muia (Brugueira gymnorrhiza), and Mkandaa (Ceriops tagal).

Degraded sites

These four are commonly used for the extraction of poles for house construction, fencing, dye, firewood, and charcoal. Other uses of these mangrove types include timber, furniture, and the making of boat masts.

Ms Tola reveals that through their efforts, they have, this year alone, sold more than 21,000 mature mangrove seedlings from their respective nurseries to various environmental conservation organizations.

The women of Matondoni Island offer free services to buyers of their seedlings, assisting in the transplantation to the designated degraded sites of Lamu.

“For Mkoko, Mchu, and Mkandaa, we sell a mature seedling at Sh50 while Muia goes for Sh70  because this species is hard to find and takes longer to germinate, raise and tend,” says Ms Tola.

The women have one goal; that one day, the mangrove restoration activities can turn into an income-generating activity to replace their old economic activities.

Fathiya Omar, a member of the group, is appealing to well-wishers to support them in their mangrove restoration and environmental conservation duties.

“We’ve been depending only on a few NGOs to buy seedlings from us which is very unreliable. Some seedlings even end up dying in these nurseries due to lack of buyers,” says Ms Omar.

Ecosystem

Lamu County Forest Conservator with KFS, Peter Mwangi, has lauded the women’s efforts, adding that through such activities, Lamu has replanted at least 750 acres of mangroves within the past year alone.

“We’ve replanted about 2.9 million mangrove trees in various places in Lamu this year alone. KFS has partnered with the women and other conservation groups, enabling us to make such strides. In three years’ time, we shall no longer be talking about mangrove degraded sites here, especially if the ongoing efforts don’t end,” says Mr Mwangi.

While all trees have important roles to play in the ecosystem, mangroves are extra special. They prevent coastal erosion and provide a buffer against storm surges.

Mangroves also absorb about four times more carbon than their terrestrial counterparts, making them important in tackling climate change.

They also provide important habitats for a variety of animals on land and under the water.

Most reef fishes and sharks, for instance, begin their early life in mangrove ecosystems, which serve as a hatching and feeding ground as well as protection from predators.

According to a 10-year national management plan published in 2017, Kenya has 61,000 hectares of mangrove ecosystem, 59 per cent of it found in Lamu.

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