How one man's passion for nature led to the largest mangrove re-planting project in the world
Record ID:
1438331
How one man's passion for nature led to the largest mangrove re-planting project in the world
- Title: How one man's passion for nature led to the largest mangrove re-planting project in the world
- Date: 23rd October 2019
- Summary: DJIBELOR, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (UPSOUND) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER AND HEAD OF OCEANIUM NGO, HAIDAR EL ALI, SAYING, TALKING TO LOCAL COMMUNITY WHO ARE PLANTING NEW MANGROVES: "Did you plant this over there? Last year? Look, it's not growing. It's proof isn't it? We plant so as to grow, agreed? So you need to choose your site well, come on." YOUNG RESIDENTS FOLLOWING EL ALI (UPSOUND) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER AND HEAD OF OCEANIUM NGO, HAIDAR EL ALI SAYING: "Take a team that goes to the right over there, ok? So we can start here in the water." VARIOUS OF YOUNG WOMEN SINGING WHILE PLANTING BUDS (PROPAGATES) FROM MANGROVES YOUNG WOMAN PLANTING BUDS YOUNG WOMAN PICKING BUDS FROM BUCKET AND PLANTING THEM UNDERWATER VIEW OF BUDS BEING PLANTED MANGROVE THAT STARTED TO GROW IN WATERLESS AREA BEING MOVED (SOUNDBITE) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER, HAIDAR EL ALI, HEAD OF OCEANIUM NGO, SAYING: "Some of the buds (propagules) that have been moved by the current ended up here but this is not a suitable area for them. And if we look around you see that there are plenty of buds that have ended up here but can't grow and they die. So I'm bringing them over there, closer to the water so we can try to make them grow." (SOUNDBITE) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER AND HEAD OF OCEANIUM NGO HAIDAR EL ALI, SAYING: "So I simply dig a hole and I place the bud with its roots." EL ALI AND RESIDENTS PLANTING BUDS DRONE AERIAL VIEW OF YOUNG MANGROVES WITH IN FRONT OF AREA WITH NO PLANTS (MUTE) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER AND HEAD OF OCEANIUM NGO, HAIDAR EL ALI, SAYING: "I was born with a lot of love for nature. I started diving very young, I dove twelve thousand times on the West Africa coast, mostly in Senegal. I saw what was being done to the sea, I started to show fishermen the damage caused by some of their fishing practices and after that I felt the need to get my head out of the water, to speak to people. And then I saw that the most important thing to do was to act and so I took action." MANGROVES YOUNG MANGROVES THAT HAVE BEEN PLANTED RECENTLY DRONE AERIAL SHOT OF NEW PLANTED MANGROVES (MUTE) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER, HAIDAR EL ALI, SAYING: "We started in 2006 in a village where we started planting with young people from Tobor 65,000 mangroves. In 2007, 15 villages joined us and we planted 700 thousand mangroves, in 2008 the Yves Rocher foundation got interested in what we were doing and with them we planted 6 million mangroves, in 2009 the Danone foundation and Voyageur du Monde (World Traveller) came to find us and we planted 30 million mangrove buds in 156 villages. And the climax was in 2010, 2011, when every year we planted 5,000 hectare of mangroves, 50 million mangrove buds in 428 villages mobilising 110 thousand people like those young people who were with us this morning." TOBOR, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TOBOR RESIDENT WORKING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION NGO OCEANIUM, ALBERT SEYDI, WALKING IN RICE FIELDS (SOUNDBITE) (French) TOBOR RESIDENT WORKING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION NGO OCEANIUM, ALBERT SEYDI, SAYING: "You see the rice paddies here? they were no arable land, with a lot of salt, but with the replanting that started in 2006, we were able to use this land for rice paddies. All that surface, was non arable land." DRONE AERIAL SHOT OF RICE PADDIES WHICH WERE CULTIVATED AFTER MANGROVE REPLANTING (MUTE) (SOUNDBITE) (French) TOBOR VILLAGER WORKING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION NGO OCEANIUM, ALBERT SEYDI, SAYING: "It has become a third religion, replanting mangroves has become a third religion in Tobor." DJIBELOR, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEN SORTING OUT MANGROVE PROPAGULES TOBOR, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) TOBOR VILLAGER WORKING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION NGO OCEANIUM, ALBERT SEYDI, SAYING: "Yes, it (mangrove planting) saved the community. With the rice, with the fisheries, the oysters and the fish." DJINDAREMA, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) OYSTERS STUCK ON A MANGROVE BRANCH UNDERWATER BEING PULLED OUT OF WATER MAN SHOWING OYSTERS ON MANGROVE BRANCH DJIBELOR, CASAMANCE, SENEGAL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FORMER SENEGAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER, HAIDAR EL ALI, SAYING: "You know when you plant a tree, it gives you so much and people all over the world realise that, but you just need to have to be there with them. Here it is possible, we have proved with the mangrove that it is possible and we will continue this operation and we won't stop, I hope more and more people will get involved and that further and further we shall go." DRONE AERIAL SHOT OF STORM STARTING ABOVE MANGROVES (MUTE) DRONE AERIAL SHOT OF SUNSET OVER NEWLY PLANTED MANGROVES (MUTE)
- Embargoed: 6th November 2019 11:17
- Keywords: mangrove global warming climate change replanting Senegal
- Location: CASAMANCE, SENEGAL
- City: CASAMANCE, SENEGAL
- Country: Senegal
- Topics: Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA001B2BILHZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Part of the reason for the success of Haidar El Ali's mangrove regeneration project in Senegal is that he is a hands on kind of leader who has totally immersed himself in the fight against the devastating effect of de-forestation, intensive farming and rising salt levels due to climate change on the fragile mangrove eco-system.
Wading across the water of a mangrove wetland near Djibelor, the former environment minister and CEO of the environmental protection NGO Oceanium walks alongside local farmers and residents towards a clump of young trees.
"Did you plant this over there? Last Year? Look it is not growing. It's proof isn't it? We plant so as to grow, we are agreed? So you need to choose the site well, come on," says Haidar as he is instructing young villagers on where to plant mangrove propagules.
"Take a team that goes to the right over there, ok? So we can start here in the water," he adds.
Feet deep in the mud residents plant mangrove buds one by one. They are fast and their spirits are high because the local community is equally committed to seeing the mangrove grow back.
Some of the mangrove buds, or propagules, are carried here by the farmers whilst others are picked up where the current carried them on un-propicious sand.
"Some of the buds (propagules) that have been moved by the current ended up here but this is not a suitable area for them. And if we look around you see that there are plenty of buds that have ended up here but can't grow and they die. So I'm bringing them over there, closer to the water so we can try to make them grow," El Ali says. "So I simply dig a hole and I place the seed () with its roots," he adds while replanting a mangrove.
The mangrove restoration programme, which El Ali and Oceanium started in 2006 in Casamance, southern Senegal, is the largest in the world says the Livelihoods Funds, which brings private companies together to build solutions to overcome the damaging effect of climate change on the environment.
It was 10% funded by the government and the rest by private companies.
Drought in the 80s and early 90s, deforestation for timber used locally and for export and road building that cut off waterways all contributed to the loss of about 45,000 hectares of mangrove in Senegal said El Ali. Over the years Senegal lost almost half of its mangroves. Some neighbouring countries lost up to 80 percent.
In other countries it was intensive farming, notably shrimp farming, urbanisation and pollution that killed the mangroves.
When they are healthy, mangroves, found in coastal and tidal areas, absorb excess water and protect the land around them from becoming too saline, vulnerable to floods and soil erosion.
They also absorb and store carbon dioxide emissions that are one of the main causes of global warming.
El Ali said they started small but quickly grew to become the largest mangrove restoration project on the planet.
"We started in 2006 in a village where we started planting with young people from Tobor 65000 mangroves. In 2007, 15 villages joined us and we planted 700 thousand mangroves, in 2008 the Yves Rocher foundation got interested in what we were doing and with them we planted 6 million mangroves, in 2009 the Danone foundation and Voyageur du Monde (World Traveller) came to find us and we planted 30 million mangrove buds in 156 villages. And the climax was in 2010, 2011, when every year we planted 5,000 hectare of mangroves, 50 million mangrove buds in 428 villages mobilising 110 thousand people like those young people who were with us this morning," he said.
As a result, Senegal regained more than 10,000 hectares of mangroves enabling villagers to cultivate rice on land they had previously lost when the trees disappeared.
"You see the rice paddies here? They were non arable land, with a lot of salt, but with the replanting that started in 2006, we were able to use this land for rice paddies. All that surface, was non arable land," said Albert Seydi, a Tobor resident working with Oceanium.
Albert says every one in the villages of Casamance is involved and no one underestimates the importance of the project which has not only saved agriculture by absorbing salt from the sea but also brought back fish, oysters and shrimps and created a safe habitat for wildlife, whilst protecting the coast from land erosion and storms that have become more frequent as the planet's temperature rises.
"Replanting mangroves has become a third religion in Tobor," Albert says.
Haidar El Ali believes he has found an easy and lasting solution involving local communities critical in ensuring the programme will endure.
Mangroves are a living bioshield and protector against storms, filters pollutants, provide a critical food source and have a carbon storage capacity up to five times bigger than rainforests.
Although El Ali has now left Oceanium to lead another re-forestation project in Senegal commissioned by the government, he is proud that he helped people re-conquer their land and build a barrier to the devastating effects of climate change.
His wish today is that more countries will follow the example of the more than 100,000 Senegalese who made it happen.
"You know when you plant a tree, it gives you so much and people all over the world realise that, but you just need to have to be there with them. Here it is possible, we have proved with the mangrove that it is possible and we will continue this operation and we won't stop, I hope more and more people will get involved and that further and further we shall go," he said.
(Christophe Van Der Perre/Yvonne Bell) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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