“There’s always this idea of, “Oh, restoration is just planting,” but I think it’s actually a combination of things. You need to understand the root causes that brought the degradation in the first place, and then evaluate the need for restoration.
Here in Mozambique, and I think also in many other parts of Africa, mangroves are a big part of our way of life. Sixty percent of Mozambicans live on the coast, and many of them use mangrove forest products every day.
But Mozambique is very cyclone- and flood-prone, so people are also coming to understand that mangroves are a key component for the mitigation of such elements. Where we work in the Limpopo estuary, there was a big drama: there were massive floods, and the river, which is usually about 100 meters across, widened to over 10 kilometres, and about 60 percent of their mangrove forests were wiped out. So that was a major shock, and the communities requested support with reforestation there, and it has been quite successful so far.
I think you have to have community members who want to make it happen. Restoration cannot rely on school kids, or university academics, or others who are just coming and going.”