Community-based mangrove restoration
Coastal communities restore mangroves by repairing tidal flows and protecting natural regrowth, storing carbon and rebuilding fisheries and coastal defences.
Start small
Over a few months, a group of 10 to 20 community members with a mangrove ecologist visits a degraded site at low and high tide, maps where water flow is blocked, notes which species grow nearby and at what elevation, and asks older residents what the site looked like before. Choose one small abandoned pond to reopen to the tides by hand-digging a breach, then monitor natural recruitment for a year before any planting. Costs are mainly community time, simple tools and a field visit by a trained practitioner.
The problem
Climate change brings rising seas and stronger storms while mangrove loss to aquaculture, timber cutting and development releases stored carbon and strips coasts of protection. Community-based ecological mangrove restoration rebuilds these carbon-rich forests in a way that survives, led by the people who live with them.
Where it fits
Thrives on former mangrove sites, especially abandoned shrimp or fish ponds, where tidal flow can be restored and seed sources are nearby. Needs secure community tenure or a management agreement, an understanding of local hydrology and which species grow at which elevation, patience while natural recruitment takes hold, and livelihood benefits (fisheries, carbon payments, sustainable aquaculture) so protection is worth the community's time. Cannot outpace land subsidence or uncontrolled cutting.
The principle underneath
Mangroves regenerate themselves when the right tides, sediment and seed supply return. Fixing the underlying cause of loss (blocked water flow, cutting, wrong elevation) lets nature choose the species and sites that survive, while community ownership and direct benefits keep the restored forest protected over the decades it takes to store carbon.
A pattern in nature
Natural recolonisation: mangrove propagules float on the tide and establish wherever elevation and flooding suit them, so the forest spreads itself once conditions are right.
Who to call
Mangrove Action Project (CBEMR training and field manuals); Blue Forests (Yayasan Hutan Biru, Indonesia), including Ben Brown and Rignolda Djamaluddin who led Tiwoho; Mikoko Pamoja Community Organization and the Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES), Kenya; Plan Vivo Foundation (community carbon standard); Wetlands International (Building with Nature Indonesia).
Watch out for
Planting single species such as Rhizophora on mudflats, seagrass beds or the wrong tidal elevation. Rapid, target-driven planting with no aftercare. Ignoring hydrology. Cattle grazing, algae and insect damage on young plants. Small project size limits access to carbon markets, and soil carbon may not be counted. Leakage: cutting shifts to nearby forest if community needs are ignored. Subsidence and upstream pressures that local action cannot fix alone.
Where it comes from
CBEMR builds on Ecological Mangrove Restoration, set out in a 2014 field manual by restoration ecologist Robin Lewis and Ben Brown, and was adapted for community use by the Mangrove Action Project and partners. MAP set up a CBEMR e-group in 2005 and ran 12 CBEMR demonstrations in Thailand between 2009 and 2018. Tiwoho in North Sulawesi applied the approach from 2004. Mikoko Pamoja in Gazi Bay, Kenya, began in 2010 as a community carbon project with Plan Vivo and ACES. Coastal communities hold detailed local knowledge of tides, species and history; draw on it with consent and credit, and respect local tenure and resource-use rules.
Where it's worked
Gazi Bay, Kenya · Mikoko Pamoja · 2010 to present
After losing about 20% of their mangroves to timber harvesting, residents protect 117 ha with full-time guards, with nearly 500 community members taking part in planting. 9,880 carbon credits (9,880 t CO2) were generated from 2014 to 2018 under a Plan Vivo payment for ecosystem services agreement, with $58,591 paid to the community, funding a project manager, guards, school books and clean water pumps.
DocumentedSource
Tiwoho village, Bunaken National Marine Park, North Sulawesi, Indonesia · Mangroves cleared 1991; ecological restoration from 2004
After six planting attempts failed, villagers with universities, NGOs and ecologists repaired the hydrology of a 20 ha abandoned shrimp pond complex so mangroves could regrow naturally. The approach has since been used to rehabilitate over 2,000 ha elsewhere in Indonesia.
DocumentedSource
Demak, Central Java, Indonesia · Building with Nature · 2015 to 2020
Villagers built 9 km of permeable structures to trap sediment and let mangroves return, converted damaged ponds back to mangrove, and coastal field schools introduced sustainable aquaculture on about 400 ha, reported to triple local incomes. The government replicated the structures in 13 districts. Mangroves behind some structures were lost again to land subsidence.
DocumentedSource
Where it failed
In the Philippines, long-term survival of planted mangroves is generally only 10 to 20%, mainly because the favoured Rhizophora was planted on the wrong sites, often lower intertidal to subtidal zones, seagrass beds and tidal flats where mangroves never grew (Primavera and Esteban 2008, Wetlands Ecology and Management). In Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, of 23 project sites with 67 planting efforts, nine sites had no surviving plants and only about 200 to 220 ha of roughly 1,000 to 1,200 ha planted showed successful restoration, linked to poor sites, lack of aftercare, cattle, and rapid donor-driven planting (Kodikara et al. 2017, Restoration Ecology). At Tiwoho, Indonesia, six planting attempts failed before hydrology was repaired. In Demak, Indonesia, mangroves that returned behind permeable structures disappeared again due to land subsidence of up to 8 cm per year from industrial groundwater extraction (Wetlands International).
Related Fruit
- TreeParticipatory budgetingResidents directly decide how part of a public budget is spent, which moves money toward basic services in poorer areas.
- TreeCommunity forest managementLegal rights to manage, use and earn from forests go to organised local communities, which then protect them better than many parks do.
- TreeCommunity seed bankA locally run store of farmers' own seed that members borrow, grow out and return, so diverse, adapted varieties stay in community hands.