News: Mangrove Planting at Mida Creek

Stanley Baya reports on the day the students took to the creek.

Ignoring the slippery mud-flats and pricking shells under their feet, 33 enthusiastic beneficiaries of the ASSETS programme gathered at Mida Creek. They were to participate in the ongoing restoration of the fascinating ecosystem that has supported the livelihood of many Mida residents for nearly a century.

Steve and Kahindi of Watamu Local Ocean Trust equipped the students with the knowledge about mangroves and the role they play in the ecosystem with a very moving talk. Students then lined up with seeds in hands to plant a mangrove forest, which they will be proud of in the next couple of years. Also sharing their many years experience were Arafa and Said, two of the creek guides. Within just a morning, 1300 seeds were planted on a 50 square metre area.

Once a year students receiving bursaries from the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-Tourism Scheme will be participating in this event during their April holidays when tons of seeds, mainly Rhizophora mucronatta and other species, get washed ashore. The event is aimed at restoring the ecosystem as well as raising awareness on the effects of deforestation.

I visited Magangani, one of the eight landing sites within the creek, where I spent my first fifteen years of childhood either just fishing for fun or swimming in the still waters of the creek. It was a shocking venture. I could not believe how much destruction could take place in just a decade.

As if in a dream, I recalled those days when the mangrove canopy formed a very nice hedge between the water and shambas (farms) on the other side. You could only see the top of the coconut palms in the plantations bordering the creek due to the dense canopy formed by the mangrove thicket. After wading through the mangrove forest for nearly quarter of an hour, appearing at the openness of the creek was breath taking.

Today this once dense canopy of mangrove has been reduced to nothing more than a very thin, open strip of crooked mangroves. These mangroves only survived as they could not be used as poles and were therefore not worth a cent in the market. While mature mangroves are a target by poachers, young regenerating mangroves are struggling to survive as fishermen destroy scores of them every day in search for bait.

Our greatest hope lies in the awareness raising on the importance of the mangroves to the eco-system and practically replacing lost mangroves.