In Gazi Bay, Kenya, a carbon-credit program is saving mangrove forests by encouraging fishermen to cash in instead of cutting down trees. As part of the Mikoko Pamoja (Mangroves Together) program, “[l]ocal people who are protecting and replanting mangroves are now selling 3,000 tonnes of carbon credits a year to international buyers, for about $5-$6 a tonne. The money goes into financing more forest protection and restoration, and to community-chosen projects,” including renovating two elementary schools, buying textbooks for students and piping water to communities, says Reuters.
According to James Kairo at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, which works with Mikoko Pamoja on the project, mangrove forests can capture five times the carbon as a similarly-sized land ecosystem. Since its start two years ago, the project has earned $30,000 through the sale of carbon credits. Over the next 20 years, the groups involved pledge to plant 4,000 mangrove trees a year to make up for illegal deforestation, says Reuters.
A 2016 UN Food and Agriculture Organization report found that Kenya’s mangrove forests had declined by one-fifth since 1985, largely to make way for houses, to gather building materials for boats, or to make charcoal.
But now, community members, especially fishermen, are seeing the connection between mangroves and the health of their fisheries. Another UN report discovered that “one-third of the yield of onshore and offshore fisheries in Gazi Bay is related to the presence of the mangroves,” says Reuters. The fish feed their young in the trees’ elaborate root systems. Fishermen Ali Zuberi told the outlet that since the carbon credit project began, the fish have returned. He said he no longer comes home with empty nets like he once did.