Mangrove lagoons on Sri Lanka’s east coast have been severely depleted through mismanagement by the local community and tsunami damage. However these vital ecosystems provide valuable income generation opportunities, habitat for native flora and fauna and vital coastal defences.
We worked with nine fishery societies, in six communities in Ampara, to restore mangrove ecosystems. The planting and community empowerment programme brings together several stakeholders including community members, government and fisheries officers, to address the many different needs of the community and to ensure the success of the programme.
Alongside the planting we ran six workshops. Initial sessions built up participant’s knowledge of mangrove ecosystems and team-work skills, and the final ones were used to develop lagoon management plans. These workshops gave each community the skills and structures needed to enable them to nurture and sustainably manage the newly restored area.
A local nursery was established to propagate trees for planting, as well as utilising two existing nurseries. Following a lagoon survey, mapping and planting design, the community planted 105,000 mangrove plants and trees, and through the management plans, will monitor growth and replant as required.
Achievements:
- Empowerment of local community to sustainably manage their environment
- Re-establishment of coastal defences and ecological services
- Better habitat created for coastal and marine wildlife to live and breed, thereby increasing biodiversity and opportunities for the fishery industry to increase their income
|
» Want to support our work? Get involved!
» Download the case study for this project (PDF, 155KB)
» Download our mangrove poster which has a selection of Sri Lanka's mangroves and their ecosystems (PDF, 1.47MB)
|
