“Before there was nothing, nothing at all,” says Wilfred Bamba, gesturing to the thickets of surrounding mangrove forest that knot and tangle together as far as the eye can see.
“But each year we have been planting more and more.”
Navigating through claustrophobic, narrow passages of mangrove in his wooden pirogue boat, Mr Bamba, a 32-year-old fisherman from the tiny village of Eloubalir in southwestern Senegal, has come to love these jungles on water. Perched above the water surface on natural stilts that resemble hunched crab legs, they have revitalised the region.
“We use the wood to build our homes, we harvest the oysters that grow on them, and they protect our village from the wind because if a strong gust comes it could blow take away everything,” said Bamba.
Since he was a young boy, however, the tropical shrub had been on a near terminal decline. Mangroves are some of the richest ecosystems in the world, but over the past few decades they’ve been shrinking in Senegal.
A quarter of the total estimated surface area of mangroves in the country – thought to be around 45,000 hectares – have been lost since the 1970s due to a combination of deforestation for timber, drought brought on by global warming and the blockage of waterways by road building.
It’s been a huge challenge to indigenous communities, who rely on a mangrove’s special ability to consume saline water and later produce fresh water. They crucially act as filtration systems allowing other produce such as rice to grow. When waters become too salty, crops die.
In Senegal, which has 500km of Atlantic coastline, mangroves also play an important role in the defence against climate change, counteracting the pressure on receding shorelines. According to projections by the UN, as many as 200 million people around the world could be displaced due to shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and agricultural disruption by 2050.
Coastal nations around the world will be looking at the success of this mangrove plantation project as a blueprint
But that problem was recognised by Senegal’s former environment minister Haidar El Ali, who set up a non-profit organisation called Oceanium to tackle the problem. It has largely been a grassroots movement whereby local villagers have been trained and paid to plant mangrove seeds in their own regions.
The mangrove replantation project has spanned from the northern city of Saint-Louis to Senegal’s capital Dakar and towards the southerly regions of Sine-Saloum and Casamce and covered 350 local villages. Roughly 150 million mangrove trees have since been replanted, the equivalent of 15,000 hectares, since 2006, making it the largest replantation of mangroves in the world.
“Africa isn’t responsible for climate change and this transformation of the planet,” said Mr Ali at his large thatched home off a dusty road a few kilometres away from the Casamance city of Ziguinchor.
“That’s why it’s so important get these communities involved in the process and have them driving the work for their own benefit. It’s giving them the power back.”
Oceanium’s project has been hailed as revolutionary and has to date provided more than 100,000 Senegalese with work and greater livelihood security. The mangroves act as huge carbon stores in the battle against climate change, stocking an estimated 500,000 tonnes of CO2 over the project’s 20-year lifespan and will also provide 18,000 tonnes of fish, shrimps, oysters, and molluscs that thrive in the habitats created by the mangrove ecosystem.
“Coastal nations around the world will be looking at the success of this mangrove plantation project as a blueprint,” said Boubou Aldiouma Sy, a professor of geography at Senegal’s Gaston Berger University. “The effects of climate change are already very real in some parts of the globe, and mangroves have proved to be an incredible solution.”
The challenge that remains for Oceanium, however, is sustained funding. The non-governmental organisation (NGO) initially received support from French multinational food products company, Danone, and subsequently from the Paris-based Livelihoods Fund, but it is currently short of the €800,000 (Dh3.3 million) required for the next stage of the project in August.
Despite these difficulties the project, much like the mangroves themselves, has sprawled and spread to new ground, in the processing transforming lives.
“Before we were desperate and felt out of control of our lives,” says fisherman Bamba. “But now at least we have hope.”
MATCH INFO
Uefa Nations League
League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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PRO BASH
Thursday’s fixtures
6pm: Hyderabad Nawabs v Pakhtoon Warriors
10pm: Lahore Sikandars v Pakhtoon Blasters
Teams
Chennai Knights, Lahore Sikandars, Pakhtoon Blasters, Abu Dhabi Stars, Abu Dhabi Dragons, Pakhtoon Warriors and Hyderabad Nawabs.
Squad rules
All teams consist of 15-player squads that include those contracted in the diamond (3), platinum (2) and gold (2) categories, plus eight free to sign team members.
Tournament rules
The matches are of 25 over-a-side with an 8-over power play in which only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Teams play in a single round robin league followed by the semi-finals and final. The league toppers will feature in the semi-final eliminator.
Australia tour of Pakistan
March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi
March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi
March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore
March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi
March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi
April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi
April 5: T20I, Rawalpindi
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410
Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission Six-speed manual
Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km
Company%20Profile
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More on animal trafficking
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The five pillars of Islam
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Copa del Rey
Barcelona v Real Madrid
Semi-final, first leg
Wednesday (midnight UAE)
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Pakistan T20 series squad
Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shahzad, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammed Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Amir Yamin, Mohammed Amir (subject to fitness clearance), Rumman Raees, Usman Shinwari, Umar Amin
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
The view from The National
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Austrian Grand Prix race timings
Weekend schedule for Austrian Grand Prix - all timings UAE
Friday
Noon-1.30pm First practice
4-5.30pm Second practice
Saturday
1-2pm Final practice
4pm Qualifying
Sunday
4pm Austrian Grand Prix (71 laps)
Company%20profile
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends