Tulear, Madagascar, June 2024
This project aims to restore the natural resources of Madagascar’s coastline and tackle food insecurity through the sustainable planting of mangrove trees. This project has a very strong educational component since pupils from neighbouring schools can take part in a planting day as well as increasing their awareness of environmental issues throughout the school year. The project has been running in the region since 2021 and is now in its third planting wave.
Activities began in the field in November 2023 with environmental training and awareness raising for teachers and pupils from Les Salines school in Tuléar. The teachers were first trained in three modules:
- The life cycle of the forest
- The importance of the forest for the survival of humanity
- Biodiversity conservation methods
Next, the teachers, accompanied by an educationalist and an environmental technician, gave a ‘project presentation’ class for the pupils. The content was based on a Powerpoint presentation and video documents, as well as questions and answers with the pupils. Afterwards, the teachers taught about life in the mangrove (learning about the local flora and fauna).
The planting stages began by gathering together the mangrove plants and setting up nurseries. Depending on the species, mangroves are planted either:
- as propagules (yellow, orange and red mangroves) thatare collected and replanted rapidly after collection;
- or as seeds (grey or flowering mangroves) germinated in the nursery and planted four to six months later.
In south-west Madagascar, November is the mangrove germination season for propagules. The team of technicians, accompanied by villagers, visited the village of Fitsitiky Manombo-Sud, around 50kms north of Tuléar. Propagules were collected over a five-day period from 6 to 10 November 2023. In total, the team collected 5,400 propagules, more specifically:
- 1,200 yellow mangroves, Ceriops tagal
- 1,200 orange mangroves, Bruguiera gymnorhiza
- 3,000 red mangroves, Rhizophora mucronata
In November 2023, pupils from Les Salines school participated in a half-day planting of the propagules collected a few days earlier. The lower part of the propagules from the red, yellow and orange mangroves is sunk into the ground to a depth 1/3 its size.
For the other species: grey and flowering mangroves, seeds were collected at end January/early February 2024. The 3,400 seeds were sown and placed in nurseries near the reforestation area. These plants will be installed in the planned area between June and July 2024. Other students will meet in June 2024 to help plant the seedlings currently germinating in the project nurseries.
More in the next article!
