Mangrove survival rates have dwindled to an all-time low, forcing the group to adopt a method of transplanting the trees in select rows 1.5 meters apart to keep them alive for longer.
Salim, 30, told The Daily Beast how important this mangrove species is to his community.
It’s run entirely by young people, who have been thrust into the role of preventing the continued degradation of the mangrove ecosystems while the government remains absent.
The dense, tangled roots and branches of the plant life act as a natural barrier against storm surges, floods, and dangerous winds—preventing more than $65 billion in property damages for coastal communities, and protecting more than 15 million people from floods.
And in the age of climate change, mangroves play an invaluable role in helping limit the impact of greenhouse gasses.
Few countries understand the critical importance of mangroves better than Kenya, where these forests cover about 148,000 acres of land along the country’s eastern coast.
But since 1985, Kenya has lost one-fifth of its mangrove cover as a result of human activity.
Across Africa, however, many people are choosing to take matters into their own hands to save this important ecosystem that thrives along the saltwater shorelines of 118 tropical and subtropical countries.
Over the past few decades in Gambia, drought has laid waste to mangrove species near Anusmana Darboe’s home in the town of Sankadi, leaving the surrounding community in dire straits.
Several years ago, Darboe, 33, started the Sankadi Youth Development Organization, which works to restore mangroves in his community much in the same way that Salim and his group do so in Kenya.
The big driver behind this movement is the emergence of carbon markets, which have given private companies flexibility in reaching net-zero carbon emissions and allow them to compensate for emissions by investing money toward endeavors like forest conservation.
Mikoko Pamoja was the first community-led conservation group in Kenya to be certified for carbon credit trading by Plan Vivo, an international body that regulates carbon credits.
Salim Mwarima, who led Mikoko Pamoja’s carbon offset projects until recently, told The Daily Beast the group divides the mangrove forest into plots of 100 square meters and calculates the amount of potential carbon that can be stored in each plot.
Ultimately, ecosystem restoration is emerging as a new way for much of the developing world to reduce poverty and build economic resilience.
Jackson Kinyanjui, the founder of environmental organization Climate Change Kenya, told The Daily Beast he believes urgent attention should be shifted towards mitigating the climate crisis to save the future generation.
Last September, a survey run by UK researchers found that nearly 45 percent of global youths have been directly affected by climate change.
“It’s inherently important that youth take action against climate change as we will be the individuals to receive the direct, immensely destructive effects of climate change in the coming decades,” Gregor Sharp, one of the leaders of the American climate activist group Earth Uprising, told The Daily Beast.
Still, every action matters.