Mozambique battles to protect 300,000 hectares of mangrove at risk

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Mozambique battles to protect 300,000 hectares of mangrove at risk

11:25 CAT | 16 Feb 2018

File photo: Rádio Moçambique

Mozambique’s National Institute of Fishery Investigation announced in Maputo on Thursday that the country is fighting hard to protect 300,000 hectares of mangrove at stake due to climate change and human impact.

With more than 60 percent of the country’s population living along the coast, the mangrove forest constitutes one of the main sources of income and building materials for houses and boats.

“We are currently discussing potential models that could be considered for the management of the mangrove in the rural and urban areas. If we look to the expansion of our cities they are occurring in areas close to the mangrove, the city of Quelimane, including the capital Maputo, are examples for that,” said Salomao Bandeira, a consultant working with the institute.

The Institute, its partners and other stakeholders are seeking to develop a strategy for an efficient management of the mangrove, taking into consideration the causes that lead to its destruction either from human activities or natural causes.

Mozambique in the southern African region has the largest mangrove ecosystem and it committed in 2017 during the United Nations conference to replanting 5,000 hectares by 2022, so far the country has finished 15 hectares.

“Because of the commitment with the United Nations we want to start structuring our intervention. We will start replanting according to a program well designed. And to reach that goal, we have done a study in every province of the country and defined what the critical ones are. Later with the action plan, we will distribute goals for each province and implement it,” said Jorge Mafuca, National Director of the Investigation Institute.

The study carried out by the institute revealed the southern province of Maputo, the central Zambezia and Sofala, and the northern Nampula are the mostly hit provinces in terms of mangrove devastation.

The institute said that it has a clear idea on how the restoration process should be conducted in order to guarantee its efficiency and the strategy should be ready by April.

Source: Rádio Moçambique