Earthwatch and Aviva - Mangrove Conservation and Management

Aviva and Earthwatch, building on their existing partnership, are into their final year of a five year project that aims to quantify the carbon sequestration potential of mangroves, and to develop a community-run plantation that supports local people through the sale of carbon credits.

Mangroves are highly effective carbon sinks, capturing up to six times more carbon per hectare than undisturbed rainforests. This study, based at Gazi bay on the southern coast of Kenya, is led by Earthwatch scientist Professor Mark Huxham and funded by Aviva. It explores the potential for using carbon finance as a means of conserving mangroves and benefiting local communities.

Although mangroves account for less than half a percent of all forests, they provide many valuable services to mankind; for example as a nursery habitat for numerous fish species and a natural barrier protecting coastal communities. But mangroves are being destroyed and degraded at an alarming rate and these impacts will be exacerbated by climate change.

By quantifying and costing out the carbon sequestration potential of mangroves, this research is supporting the establishment of a community-run plantation, which will provide funding to the inhabitants of Gazi bay from the sale of carbon credits; a tangible incentive for mangrove conservation. Professor Huxham and his team are currently working with Plan Vivo on the final stages of accreditation and it is hoped that the first credits will go on sale later this year, making this one of the first projects worldwide to sell credits derived from mangroves.

Credits from mangroves have a number of potential advantages over those derived from terrestrial forests. They avoid some of the issues relating to “permanence” (how do we know that the carbon locked up will not be released?) because they are unlikely to catch fire and are capable of storing carbon in their soils, which may remain even if the trees are destroyed. Mangroves are also highly specialised, growing in a saline environment that most other trees cannot tolerate, meaning that mangrove plantations are unlikely to compete with other species (e.g. those needed for food production).

This project has also provided an opportunity to increase scientific capacity within Kenya by investing in the training of early career scientists. Aviva supported a young Kenyan scientist, Joseph Lang’at, to carry out his PhD thesis on this project, under the supervision of Professor Huxham, and we are delighted that Joseph has recently been awarded his Doctorate.

As Huxham reports, "Joseph’s success shows how promising young Kenyan scientists can be supported in the field, all the way through to PhD level, without the need to remove the student from Kenya to study abroad. We believe this model of support is much more likely to produce scientific leaders of the future who are rooted in Kenyan communities and ecosystems."

As we look to the future, this work will provide a model for other projects along the coast, influencing mangrove conservation and management throughout Kenya and beyond.

 

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