Food

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Located 65 kilometers south of Mombasa, Kenya, Gazi Bay
is home to several villages surrounding a mangrove forest.
Local communities depend on the mangroves for wood and
non-wood forest products and services such as seafood,
firewood, building poles and traditional medicine. However,
mangroves have been extensively used and degraded since
the 1970s, through commercial logging and conversion of
mangrove land to other land uses particularly agriculture
and coastal development. Loss of mangroves has led to
shortages of firewood and building poles, a decline in
fisheries and increased coastal erosion, hence the urgent
need for the rehabilitation, conservation and sustainable
utilization of the mangroves at Gazi Bay.
One of the major services provided by mangroves is
their role as a breeding and nursery habitat for fish. The
intertwining mangrove roots provide a home and shelter
from predators for juvenile fish, crabs and other marine
life, supporting biodiversity while also filtering water and
protecting shorelines. The mangroves at Gazi Bay support
both on- and offshore fisheries, providing food and income
to local communities. Researchers have estimated that
approximately 31 per cent of the fish landed in Gazi in 2010
was directly related to the mangrove habitat (UNEP 2011c).
The total economic value of the rehabilitated mangroves in
Gazi Bay has been estimated at US$3,000 per hectare per
year (Kairo et al. 2009).
Thought to be the first community-led mangrove carbon
project in the world, the Mikoko Pamoja project, translated
as Mangrove Together from the Kiswahili language, aims
to use carbon finance to support sustainable management
practices. Mikoko Pamoja is verified under the Plan Vivo
Standard, a certification framework for projects supporting
the rural poor with sustainable natural resource management,
using payments for ecosystem services – in this case carbon.
The project includes requirements and processes to ensure
that it benefits livelihoods and ecosystems, and provides
ethical and fairly traded climate services.
Mikoko Pamoja includes community-based mangrove
reforestation, restoration and avoided deforestation
activities in an area of 107 ha. The 3 000 tonnes CO2 -
equivalent of carbon credits generated through the project
are to be sold onto the voluntary carbon market, generating
approximately US$12,000 for the local community per
annum. One-third of the annual carbon income generated
through the project will be used for the rehabilitation and
protection of mangroves.
Through the Mikoko Pamoja experience, it is expected
that coastal fisheries and communities throughout Kenya
and potentially internationally will benefit from mangrove
conservation, restoration and protection supported with
revenue from carbon credits.
Mikoko Pamoja – community-led mangrove conservation protecting local fisheries resources