Plant a Mangrove Forest
Climate change is the social and environmental issue of our time. You cannot open a newspaper or switch on the news without hearing talk of a changing climate and the devastating impacts this global phenomenon is having upon our planet.
In the most basic terms, climate change is occurring due to an increase of ‘greenhouse gases,' such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. These gases are causing the planet to warm up. Climate change is predicted to have devastating affects, causing land, food, and water shortages, and therefore decreasing global human security.
Mangrove trees have been proven to sequester (capture from the air) 1.36 metric tons of carbon per year. This makes mangroves a valuable means of mitigating impacts of climate change.
Earthwatch funding is helping Dr. Mark Huxham and his team of scientists work closely with the local population of Gazi Bay, Kenya to restore mangrove ecosystems degraded by years of deforestation.
Mangroves are a critically important ecosystem as not only do they sequester carbon, they are also a vital resource for coastal communities, acting as a nursery for economically important fish, protecting the coast from erosion and neighbouring coral reefs from siltation, and mangroves help to protect coastal regions from natural disasters, such as tsunamis and hurricanes.
This Earthwatch project helps to maintain and restore a threatened mangrove habitat, provides a valuable resource for the local people and has wider consequences in the face of climate change.
The donation will be used where it is most needed on Dr. Mark Huxham's Earthwatch project Tidal Forest's of Kenya.