Hunched over the soil, Malagasy villagers work feverishly — deft fingers planting stalks of mangrove to replace the swathes destroyed for firewood and building material.
In just two decades, Madagascar lost about a fifth of its mangrove forest area, exposing its coastline to the ocean’s ravages and shrinking the nursery grounds of crabs and shrimp — two key exports.
With sea levels forecast to rise further due to global warming, coastal villagers are rushing to try and undo the damage, with the help of conservation group WWF.
“The ocean keeps rising and rising, and it takes everything with it,” lamented 36-year-old crab fisherman Clement Joseph Rabenandrasana, who travelled several kilometres (miles) from his home in Beanjavilo to Amboanio on the island’s west coast to volunteer in a two-day reforestation drive.
Amboanio is a hamlet of about 50 people in the Melaky region, heavily dependent on aquaculture.
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Source: Seychelles News Agency
