An Overview Of Our Solution
Mangroves are trees or shrubs that are found in the intertidal zone of coastlines, or that area between the coastal environment and the terrestrial environment. These florae are well-adapted to living in saline (salty) and brackish environments, which is one of the reasons that they are so unique. There are about 70 species of mangroves found along tropical and sub-tropical coastlines, with a particularly heavy presence in Asia, followed by Africa and South America. The largest area of mangroves are found in Indonesia, followed by Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, and Mexico. Mangrove trees are equipped with impressive filtration systems that allow them to filter out or exclude salt altogether, despite their twice-daily inundation by saltwater due to changing tides. Perhaps their most notable feature, mangroves have complex root systems that extend above and below the water line. These roots allow mangroves to stabilize themselves and prevent erosion to the coastline, and also provide habitat, nurseries, and feeding grounds for a vast array of fish and other organisms.
- Population Impacted: Population of Kiang West District
- Continent: Africa
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Last name
Organization type
Context Analysis
The Bintang Bolong used to have an extensive belt of mangrove forest on both sides of the river, with numerous dead stumps showing the remnants of the forest today. The extent of mangrove degradation along the Bintang Bolong is estimated to be more than 90% and have had big impacts on the local wildlife and agriculture (Ibrahima, 2012, M’koumfida, Yaffa and Bah, 2018). One example being the protected West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis), that have decreased in numbers after the degradation of the mangroves along the river (Dodman, Ndiaye and Sarr, 2008).The majority of the dieback is believed to have been caused by a severe drought in the 1970s, the Sahel drought, leading to deeper tidal penetration and higher soil and water salinity (UNEP, 2007).
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
Technical solutions on research on survival and growth rate of trees planted.
Describe your behavioral intervention.
The project was divided into two phases, the beekeeping as a microeconomic enterprise for the organization, and the restoration of mangrove forest by the Bintang Bolong river. The community was successfully engaged by training selected committee members, both male and female, as active participants in the program. The National Bee Association of Gambia has contributed to the training of participants in modern beekeeping practices. Additionally, I have gained experience in procedures in monitoring the mangrove ecosystem management program with the little time I have with the students from Napier University, measurements in the length and circumference of mangrove tree stems with monitoring the growth and survivals of trees. This year’s planting exercise is scheduled to take place in July 2018, through the participation of the community and volunteers.
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
We are replicating our restoration activities in other affected communities through support and patnership building.
Describe your implementation
I. Objective 1)- to plant 700,000 mangrove propagules on degraded former mangrove sites. Our organization already has experience of mangrove restoration, using local volunteer labour. To achieve this next phase we will recruit local volunteers, some of whom are experienced mangrove planters and others new to planting, to restore an area of 50 ha of degraded former forest.
II. Objective 2)- to monitor the survival and growth of trees We aim to eventually plan 10 000,000 new trees but will need additional funding for this. Our initial projects has allow us to refine our techniques and to demonstrate the success of our planting approaches to the future funders.
III. Objective 3)- to establish 300 beehives and train a core contingent of 40 local community members in the practice of beekeeping. We will introduce 30 people( community members of Sankandi, Jattaba, Bajana and Jiffarong) to beekeeping, using hives located near the mangrove forest, as a means of personal and collective income and reducing local poverty with a targeted 80% adoption rate.
IV. Objective 4)- to provide training and experience for community members, particularly women, in the practice of beekeeping and project management. We will involve key community volunteers, especially women, in helping to run the project and report on the outcomes from the start, helping to build capacity in the local community. If possible we will include formal training for these volunteers, through match funding for example from Edinburgh Napier university.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
The leadership of the organization comprises of both male and female youth of the community of Sankandi. Additionally, we host student researchers from universities for data collections, also out principal investigator is one of leading professor in Environmental Biology from Edinburgh Napier University.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
Association of Coastal Ecosystem Services
Edinburgh Napier University
Reforestation World, Switzerland
Network for Social Change
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
(I) Relationship between traditional honey harvesting and modern beekeeping for honey (II) Apiary site selections and bee hive installation and management (III) Challenges of beekeeping (IV) Role of bees in agriculture sector development (V) Bee hives(Kenyan Top Bar) component and construction (VI) Solidarity and confidence group formation (VII) Beekeeping concept (VIII) shortcomings of traditional honey harvesting (burning of bees when harvesting, not knowing when honey is ready for harvesting, (IX) importance of bee keeping (source of income to farmers, no formal education needed to start apiculture, little space required for placement of hives, not expensive to start, gender neutrality) (X) importance of bee keeping to the environment (encourages agroforestry, environmentally friendly, biodiversity conservation) (XI) record keeping, book keeping and enterprise budget development (XII) beehive construction and site selection for processing of honey and wax from honeycomb.
How did you impact water pollution? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
Tree survival and growth – rates of survival and growth will be monitored after 6 and 12 months, and analysed with Professor Huxham’s help. Based on previous experience we aim for 75% survival after 12 months, so this will be the target indicative of success.
Bee hives – number of hives established and producing honey will be recorded after 12 months. Our key indicator of success here will be the successful establishment of eighty hives.
Training and capacity building – all volunteers recruited into leadership roles will be interviewed for their perspectives after 6 months. Indicators of success here will include documented training for 20 volunteers and positive evaluations
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, gender, ethnicity, social class/income, or others)?
a) Established community bee-farm with 10 Kenyan Top-Bar hives b) Partnership with student volunteers from Edinburgh Napier University to establish a mangrove ecosystem monitoring program for the first time, which will enable the organization and the community in future and further maintaining of the program. c) The student volunteers are producing a map of the mangrove restoration site and the additional area that will be reforested if funds are sufficient. d) 20 members of the community participated in a two-day training course lead by the National Bee Association of Gambia.
What were some environmental co-benefits?
Increase in rice productions
Increase in fish for consumption
Protection of wetlands in rural Gambia
Developing environmental protection policies
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
Creating beekeeping as source of income and job opportunities for youth and women
The use of solar in cooking and drying
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
The sustainability of this action is foreseen and built in the project. This the integration of an income generating activity such as beekeeping demonstrations that will enhance the generation of revenue. 25% of which will be reinvested in to the project for sustainability while the remaining 75% will be use for youth and community development as an incentive to motivate youth participation. Capacity building of 50 youth in nursery management and composting is a strategy to enhance skill transfer to enable the sustainability of the actions after the phase out of the project. The nursery will also serve as a permanent center for the production and commercialization of both agricultural and forest tree species.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
From 2017 to date, we the project has cost about £8000 for a pilot in Beekeeping Demonstrations and productions of baseline data by the students from Edinburgh Napier University
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The project is inspired by Makiko Pamoja Project(Kenya), which was nurtured by Earthwatch. We hope to build new W/Africa partnership.