Day 19: Mangroves and People, Community Based Conservation and Restoration of Mangroves for Poverty Alleviation Through Funds Earned from Carbon Trade
By Josphat Mtwana Mwamba, Gazi bay in Kwale County, Kenya, 15 November 2017
Gazi bay in Kwale County, Kenya is the home of Mikoko Pamoja Community Based Organization; the first and only community led initiative in the world to trade in mangroves carbon credits. The project is built on quality scientific research on mangrove ranging from forest structure, benefits of conservation, restoration and monitoring to carbon accounting. Knowledge and understanding of these critical ecosystems is still inadequate to a wider range of people including the Gazi bay communities.
As the Mikoko Pamoja project coordinator I had the desire to capacitate the community with relevant knowledge and skills on the above mentioned scientific work. This prompted me to organize a day of learning aimed at increasing awareness on community based approaches to ecosystem conservation, management and restoration. This is key for integrating scientific and local ecological knowledge on mangrove restoration and conservation.
The training was conducted at Gazi women mangrove boardwalk which is located in the middle of mangroves an environment that would provide practical explanation on mangroves ecology, their importance and challenges and carbon accounting information.
The event brought together technicians and research officers from Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, university students and community members volunteering with Mikoko Pamoja Community Based Organization.
The major knowledge shared was:
1. Introduction to mangroves
· Ecology
· Importance and
· Challenges
2. Mikoko Pamoja community based organisation
· Project design document
· Constitution
In a bid to integrate both scientific and local knowledge about mangroves, the two sections were conducted interactively. This was through sharing general understanding and perceptions on mangroves, their importance and the challenges they are exposed to with clear first hand demonstration.
Mangroves ecology
This entailed participatory discussion on mangrove zonation, adaptations to surviving in the harsh marine environment and the challenges they face as well as their importance with emphasize on climate change mitigation. This followed demonstrative discussion on monitoring and carbon accounting techniques.
Mikoko Pamoja Community Based Organization
A simplified story of Mikoko Pamoja was shared emphasizing on the projects commitments, the key project partners and their roles, the role of the committee as well as the carbon market.
The event offered a baseline for a series of training envisioned to be conducted at Gazi bay that aim at capacitating the community on mangroves conservation and restoration work.
For more information about Mikoko Pamoja please follow the links below
- http://www.mikokopamoja.com/
- http://planvivo.org/docs/Mikoko-Pamoja-PDD_published.pdf
- http://www.planvivo.org/project-network/mikoko-pamoja-kenya/
- http://www.aces-org.co.uk/portfolio/mikoko-pamoja-2/
Acknowledgement
Sincere gratitude to the age of wonderland for the support.
Age of Wonderland is a global platform for knowledge exchange that offers support to individuals to hold 100 days of learning. It facilitates scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, innovators and indigenous communities among others to share their stories which are hardly found on textbooks. These are global events to exchange knowledge and wisdom based on life experience to inspire others.
