<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-31/how-oyster-growers-use-mangroves-to-fend-off-west-africa-s-rising-seas>
"Waist-deep in brown water, Maria Ndong inspects a cord with rugged oysters
clinging to it just below the surface. She raises a knife and cuts the string,
slick with algae, measuring her catch before flinging it onto the deck of a
nearby boat.
As recently as a decade ago, the oysters would have been stuck to the roots of
the dense mangroves that cover this corner of southern Senegal’s roughly
5,000-square-kilometer Saloum Delta. Then, Ndong and the other women of her
village, Dassilame Serere, would have cut the tree itself to harvest the
mollusks that are their livelihood.
But three years ago, Ndong and her fellow villagers began replanting the
mangroves, which were overexploited for decades by villagers seeking firewood,
farmland or oysters, and have been battered by rising seas caused by climate
change. The mucky, tangled forests of the West African coast absorb and blunt
storms, nurture a diverse range of life—including young fish, crabs, and
shorebirds—and store vast amounts of carbon in their root systems. For the
villagers of Dassilame Serere, the mangroves offer protection against the
rising tide and the crashing waves that eat away at Senegal’s coastline.
“Without the mangroves, the animals would disappear, and so would we,” says
Ndong, 40."
Via
The Fixer November 2, 2022:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/new-york-car-free-open-streets-businesses/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
