Mangrove restoration and livelihood support through community participation in Limpopo River Estuary, Mozambique
To improve mangrove management in Mozambique through restoring mangroves, empowering the community, and generating baseline information to support decision making
Specific Objectives of Project:
Objective 1: To expand mangrove rehabilitation to other degraded areas in the Limpopo estuary
Objective 2: To improve community-based management system in the Limpopo Estuary, providing capacity building to the local community and designing a local management plan.
Objective 3: To provide baseline information for implementation of the REDD+ project as a means of creating long-term sustainability of the program
Objective 4: To explore other options for long-term financial sustainability through partnerships with the private sector
Mangroves are important ecosystems for communities in coastal Mozambique through the various goods and services they provide including food, fuelwood, coastal protection, and temperature regulation, among others. These important ecosystems are however threatened by anthropogenic activities such as over-harvesting, coastal development and conversion of mangrove areas for urban development. The loss of mangroves has several implications on the socio-economic aspects of the communities through loss of access to wood resources, minimized food security, protective and regulatory services, thus increasing the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. The project on Mangrove Restoration and Livelihood Support through Community Participation in Mozambique will be implemented at the Limpopo River Estuary (Mahielane community), and will complement an existing mangrove restoration initiative that started in 2010 in Limpopo River Estuary where about 59% of the forest had been lost during floods in 2000. The project will build upon the successful experiences of the mangrove restoration initiative at the site through monitoring, scaling up restoration activities in the Limpopo River Estuary and creating a baseline to secure financial sustainability of the project. The project will involve directly about 400 people and benefit about 27,000 people living in the Limpopo estuary. The Limpopo estuary mangrove restoration initiative is one of the most successful mangrove restoration initiatives in the country and serves as an important demonstration for mangrove restoration and community involvement in the country and in the region.
