Kneeling on a remote, storm-tossed beach, Salum Mapoy clears a path through plastic waste, driftwood and seaweed for some 30 turtle hatchlings struggling across the sand to the Indian Ocean.
When I see that the hatchlings have managed to get into the sea, I feel very happy, says Mapoy, a field officer with Sea Sense, a Tanzanian conservation group. And when I see a turtle has come back to lay eggs at the same place, I feel as if my own brother has returned.
Protecting endangered wildlife like sea turtles, whale sharks and dugongs is just one aspect of a sweeping initiative to restore land- and seascapes across eastern and southern Africa for the benefit of both nature and people.
Titled Restoring the Northern Mozambique Channel Region, the initiative acts to revive blue forests such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass meadows as well as green forests and rivers on the land. Other goals include improving fisheries and generating income for rural communities, for example through ecotourism.
The United Nations has recognized the initiative by naming it a World Restoration Flagship an award designed to inspire and accelerate efforts to restore ecosystems everywhere, as part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem of Restoration.
Pressures like climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution are making it harder and harder for communities around the Mozambique Channel to make a living from its rich natural resources, said Natalia Alekseeva, Coordinator of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
This initiative can turn it into a restoration lighthouse that gives both its resourceful people as well as its rich and astonishing ecosystems a sustainable future, she said.
Coral concentration
The Northern Mozambique Channel is among the most biodiverse marine and coastal regions in the world. Home to extensive mangroves and saltmarshes as well as about 350 species of coral, its highly productive ecosystems are a haven for wildlife and a key resource for some of the worlds most vulnerable people.
But many of those ecosystems are suffering degradation, including from overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction. Poverty, population growth and climate change are driving and accelerating the decline.
To ease the pressure, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania are already working together under the flagship initiative to manage, protect and restore more than 1.2 million hectares of land- and seascapes across the region.
With adequate finance, a total area of 4.85 million hectares could be restored by 2030. In addition to protecting biodiversity, the initiative could deliver a significant boost to socio-economic development, including a 30 per cent increase in household income in target areas, and lift the regions resilience to climate change. Healthier reefs and coasts boost incomes through fisheries and alternative livelihoods, like seaweed farming, while protecting against coastal erosion and extreme weather events.
Land and ocean
The initiative encompasses activities at many levels and across multiple sites, but all according to an approach that recognizes how terrestrial, coastal and ocean ecosystems are linked and interdependent.
In Mozambique, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other partners are working to conserve or restore tens of thousands of hectares of mangroves in and around the archipelago of the Primeiras and Segundas Islands.
On the island of Madagascar, projects support about 20 communities who manage critical bird habitat, including another 54,000 hectares of mangroves.
In the Comoros, officials and non-governmental organizations are engaging local communities to strengthen environmental protection and preparing management plans for four marine protected areas.
The initiative also includes forest landscape restoration activities covering millions of hectares across several African countries, combatting the soil erosion and pollution that has degraded rivers feeding into coastal areas with negative impacts on, for example, seagrass meadows and coral reefs.
Lifting livelihoods
In Tanzania, WWF and partners are building on the 2023 declaration of the Rufiji-Mafia-Kibiti-Kilwa (RUMAKI) seascape as a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve.
The reserve covers more than 1 million hectares of land and sea, including 62,000 hectares of no-take zones and more than 500,000 hectares of buffer zones, where communities are supported in managing their fisheries sustainably. That includes Mafia Island, where Mapoy and his colleagues are protecting sea turtles and their nests.
An important way to reduce the pressure on coastal ecosystems is developing new sources of income for coastal residents, for instance by attracting tourists with the opportunity to see whale sharks and humpback whales as well as turtles and the kaleidoscope of marine life in and around the regions coral reefs.
Communities protecting sea turtles is great for tourism, says David Obura, founder of Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa, a partner in the flagship. It can bring some income into the villages, and that income supports individuals and some community projects.
On Mafia Island, the initiative has also provided training to communities to develop seaweed farming. In Juani village, for example, a womens group cultivates seaweed on long cords tied to stakes sunk in the shallows. Once dried and turned into a powder, the women use it to make blocks of white soap and a purple-coloured body oil for sale to tourists.
Mwajuma Madi Mwinyi, a member of the group, says her earnings have paid for the construction of her house and her childrens school fees. She also uses the proceeds to buy raw materials for her business weaving bags.
I get to make my own money and improve my life, says Mwinyi.
Global goals
The initiative is a standout example of thousands of restoration projects underway around the world under the umbrella of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The aims of the UN Decade include helping countries deliver on their commitments to restore about 1 billion hectares of land.
The Northern Mozambique Channel initiative is also advancing the goals of the Nairobi Convention, a partnership between governments, civil society and the private sector working for a prosperous Western Indian Ocean region with healthy rivers, coasts and oceans, and of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). Other partners in the flagship include Wetlands International, CORDIO and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
As well as biodiversity enhancement, its all about the socio-economic enhancement of communities, said Severin Kalonga, Lead of WWFs Forest Landscape Restoration in Africa Program. Its important for nature, its important for people, and also for the climate.
The UN General Assembly has declared 20212030 a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
