Our trees in Madagascar

Elliot Coad

Elliot Coad

From Ecologi’s inception in July 2019 up to November that year, all of the trees funded by our subscribers were planted across Madagascar, in various locations operated by our planting partner Eden Reforestation Projects (‘Eden’).

It had always been our aim to bring us all closer to the positive impact that we’re having, but having our subscribers’ trees spread thinly across the island meant we couldn’t see our impact growing. There wouldn’t be somewhere that our team could go to visit, to see a forest growing.

As of November 2019, though, we have established a designated planting location with our partner Eden Reforestation Projects, for Ecologi’s subscribers to support.

These connected sites, which we call our Marotaola sites, are situated just West along the coast from Mahajanga in Northern Madagascar, are being restored through the planting of mangroves funded exclusively by Ecologi subscribers.

The sites of our mangrove reforestation work through Eden are contained within the polygon on this map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1jI22Yex9nZrXr483mkOoUZa0J70gFT5J&ll=-15.84914715303768%2C45.701876209569654&z=10

Please note that as reforestation projects grow and evolve, polygons may be updated to reflect an accurate approximation of the total area of planting.

Community involvement

Programmes to preserve forest resources must start with the local people who are both victims and agents of destruction, and who will bear the burden of any new management scheme. They should be at the centre of integrated forest management.

 (Brundtland Commission, 1987)

This is exactly what we’re aiming to achieve with our mangrove restoration projects. It’s not just about paying for somebody to plant trees; it’s supporting the launch of a new community-based restoration project: one that adheres to the highest levels of responsible reforestation practices, and incorporates local people at every level.

Eden hire local people to grow, plant, and guard to maturity the trees planted through funding from our community – on a massive scale. This “Employ to Plant” methodology results in multiple positive socioeconomic and environment impacts through helping to provide reliable income to local Malagasy people.

Why mangroves?

In January 2020, a joint letter from 11,000 scientists declared a climate emergency. In it, signatories had singled-out restoring mangroves as a major natural climate solution which “contribute[s] greatly to sequestration of atmospheric CO2”.

Mangrove forests can store four times as much carbon as a tropical rainforest, and they also provide crucial ecosystem services like safe habitats for tropical fish, the cycling of nutrients, and highly-effective coastal storm protection.

Learn more about mangrove forests in this video:

We also know that coastal wetland restoration – including mangrove forest restoration – is a key climate solution as listed by Project Drawdown. They list coastal wetland restoration as one of the top 100 solutions which will enable us to reverse global warming.

Here’s what Drawdown have to say about this particular solution:

Coastal wetland restoration

Along the fringes of coasts, where land and ocean meet, lie the world’s salt marshes, mangroves, and sea grasses. These coastal wetland ecosystems are found on every continent except Antarctica.

 

They provide nurseries for fish, feeding grounds for migratory birds, a first line of defence against storm surges and floodwaters, and natural filtration systems that boost water quality and recharge aquifers. Relative to their land area, they also sequester huge amounts of carbon in plants aboveground and in roots and soils below.

 

Coastal wetlands can store five times as much carbon as tropical forests over the long term, mostly in deep wetland soils. The soil of mangrove forests alone may hold the equivalent of more than two years of global emissions—22 billion tons of carbon, much of which would escape if these ecosystems were lost.

From drawdown.org

 

Stay tuned for more updates from our Madagascar planting sites, and read more about the projects we support. You can also read our Public Impact and Operations Ledger for full insights on our tree-planting impact.

If you haven’t joined our community yet, feel free to explore your options to join our movement of collective action – and ensure you are having a positive impact on the world.

 

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