Waruni Karunarathne

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As the world is increasingly recognizing the critical role of blue carbon ecosystems to mitigate negative impacts of climate change, more attention is given to restoration and conservation of mangrove forests. Mangroves act as a natural carbon sink and a buffer between land and sea, protecting shorelines by preventing coastal erosion and providing storm surge protection. Alongside these benefits, mangroves contribute to restore and protect the biodiversity of marine and coastal ecosystems by providing feeding, breeding, as well as safe nursing grounds, habitats, nesting, and migratory sites for many aquatic species, birds, and other faunal species. Further, neighbouring communities can also benefit from a plethora of mangrove ecosystem products and services. Some livelihoods and businesses such as fisheries and ecotourism in coastal areas depend on mangrove forests, and mangrove fruit-based products can serve as a supplementary food source.

The conservation and restoration of mangroves is clearly linked to achieving multiple global goals including several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the aim of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with further efforts to bring it down to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Despite the significance of mangroves in mitigating climate change, helping communities adapt, and building a blue economy, the world’s mangrove cover is in serious decline, mostly due to the exploitation of natural resources and development-related activities. To address such threats to mangroves, SLYCAN Trust has recognized the essential role of youth in the mangrove conservation and restoration process.

As part of our ongoing efforts to engage youth in climate action, we opened a platform for youth across the globe to send their project proposals, targeting marine and coastal ecosystem conservation as one of four thematic areas under the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change that was held online from 16th to 18th of December 2020. Since its first session in 2016, SLYCAN Trust organises the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change annually as part of Sri Lanka NEXT Conference, organised by the Ministry of Mahaweli Development & Environment of Sri Lanka. Since 2018, the Forum has also introduced a continued capacity building process for participants on project development and implementation, and to effectively engage in climate action. The Forum took another step forward this year by calling proposals from youth all around the world to encourage climate action and to fuel much needed change.

Amongst the proposals we received, a number focused on protecting marine and coastal ecosystems through youth-led activities related to mangrove conservation. The “Community Based Adaptation and Mangrove Restoration Project” proposed by Samuel Adunreke from Nigeria and the project “Save the Ocean” proposed by Prasadie Karunarathne from Sri Lanka were selected to be carried forward to the breakout group discussions of the Global Youth Forum. Throughout the Forum, a group of youth assigned to this thematic area combined the above-mentioned two ideas to draft a proposal called “My Mangrove Planting Project,” which was introduced as a pilot project aimed at increasing mangrove forest cover within a selected coastal area. 

Apart from their main objective to spread the mangrove forest cover, the project encompasses the generation of income and employment opportunities for the community of the selected geographical area through youth-led activities. The proposed project is expected to predominantly address six SDGs: SDG1 (No poverty), SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG13 (Climate Action), SDG14 (Life below Water), and SDG15 (Life on Land). The proposed project activities are grouped into four phases, with the first phase taking place over a period of two months to engage in research, scoping, data collection, and stakeholder mapping. The second phase is planned for a period of two months to build awareness and engage with youth in the area, the third phase stretches over eight months to plant 10,000 mangrove plants in five stages. Finally, the last phase of the project includes two to three years for monitoring and maintenance.

Further expanding on the monitoring plan, the youth group envisions each plant to be personalized by giving it the name of the planter, creating a vested interest in looking after the plant’s wellbeing. The GPS location of each plant will also be gathered to develop a database and a map of the project. Every year, planters are supposed to gather and take photographs of their plants, so that those photos can be shared and show the time-lapse of the growth of the plant. The group also proposed creating an Instagram page and a Facebook page which would encourage continued engagement of the youth. In addition, a set of challenges in the project implementation process was identified, including but not limited to funding and financial issues, getting stakeholders on board, and acquiring land for the project purpose.

Following the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change, SLYCAN Trust has initiated the process of receiving further feedback and comments from the youth participants to develop this proposal into a workable model. The youth members of the SLYCAN Trust team are currently engaged in interacting with the other young participants to identify and address gaps in the above proposal. Several mentors, including some of SLYCAN Trust’s technical experts, have come on board to help the young participants further refine the proposal. The idea is to enable the proposal to be submitted for possible funding opportunities to empower and engage youth and give them ownership of the proposed project and its outcomes. We believe this will provide young people the opportunity to build their capacities and conceptualize ideas into implementable models to initiate climate action.