Mangrove Forest as a line of defense in Quelimane City, Mozambique
Coastal City Adaptation Measures Using Mangroves
The City of Quelimane is vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic disasters. As a response measure to events such as cyclones and the high winds, the city has adopted the increase of the mangrove forest as a defence mechanism. This has been achieved through sensitization campaigns to raise awareness on the importance of mangrove ecosystems as a unique, special and vulnerable ecosystem and to promote solutions for their sustainable management, conservation and use. The communities have also been supplied with the mangroves seedlings and trained on how to plant and nurture them. Successive years of natural coastal erosion and landscape changes for agricultural use, as well as urbanization, have reduced the extent of the mangrove forest in certain areas. This has exposed the coastal communities to the devastating negative effects of climate change, particularly sea level rise.
Quelimane population has most economic activities situated along the coast and is now experiencing, more than ever before, a major threat from the rising sea. Sea level rise, flooding, saline intrusion, land erosion and decreasing biodiversity are phenomena of which occurrences have increased due to the impacts of climate change.
In Quelimane, mangroves are growing along the riverbanks, in estuaries and further inland, as well as along the entire muddy coast. The most commonly known mangrove specie is Avicenia marina. Seeing that the loss of the mangrove negatively affects their standard of living, the community has actively been involved in the mangrove reforestation and, some neighbourhoods close to the mangrove, formed local mangrove management committees that oversee the use of the mangroves. Some committees proposed use of the mangroves for bee keeping which has been a co-benefit to the initial project. The fear of being stung by bees also keeps people away from the mangroves.
