Douala, Cameroon’s economic hub in the Gulf of Guinea, is losing coastal land to ever more frequent floods. NGOs are planting mangroves to prevent erosion and sequester carbon, and educating locals about the ecosystem.
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00:00 Bringing new life to the deforested mangroves.
00:03 Each seedling is carefully planted by the Planète Ujeon's team.
00:08 They want to turn things around in this forest on the outskirts of Douala.
00:13 René Nungang works for the French NGO and is in charge of the project here
00:18 on a small island in the Wori River not far from Douala.
00:22 There's a lot to do.
00:26 The way we found it when we arrived in the field was twice as bad as we imagined
00:31 from analysing the satellite images.
00:34 Much more of the area was degraded.
00:37 The other difficulty is the invasive plants that are growing everywhere here.
00:41 So we're trying our best to carry out the reforestation techniques.
00:46 The organisation started the reforestation project in 2020.
00:51 The team is also employing local young people to help plant a total of more than 1,000 hectares.
00:57 Many mangrove forests in Cameroon look like this.
01:01 The UN estimates that 66% of them have been depleted.
01:06 Things are especially bad in Douala, a city of around 4 million.
01:11 It's gradually losing its protection at the mouth of the river where Wori River flows into the sea.
01:18 People in the metropolitan area have been cutting down forests in the surroundings for years.
01:25 They get it from areas, from the little islands inside Douala and out towards the sea.
01:35 That helps to break these rising sea levels.
01:39 And because of that, the cutting of these mangroves is exacerbating the situation of flooding,
01:47 like I said, rising sea levels, which is affecting the increase in flooding.
01:55 Mangrove wood is used to build houses and as firewood,
01:58 especially by the people on the outskirts of Douala and on the islands.
02:03 Many women also use it to smoke fish that they sell.
02:07 One fish vendor uses two trees' worth of wood every month.
02:11 And it is estimated that over 100 fish vendors work in the region.
02:16 So a lot of wood gets destroyed.
02:19 René Nungang is trying to convince the women to use more efficient methods of smoking the fish.
02:26 It's a business that brings in money, but we need to try and limit the problem.
02:36 The proposal is to use less wood and to reduce the amount of mangrove wood that's used to around 75%.
02:45 We've seen that these women use an enormous amount of wood to smoke the fish.
02:51 But we've also learned that there is another method using a chimney, which reduces the amount of wood.
02:59 Along with the planet Ouzones, there are also local activists who want to raise people's awareness of the problem.
03:11 Like Ayamba Achare Elvis.
03:14 He grew up here and regularly visits the various communities living along the river.
03:19 Our natural mangroves, they are all being degraded, they are destroyed.
03:26 So it's a big threat. And most of the streams where we used to bathe when we were kids, today they have disappeared.
03:32 The loss of the mangroves is affecting development in the entire region.
03:36 This makes rapid reforestation all the more important.
03:40 To make sure they have enough replacement plants available quickly,
03:44 they've set up a tree nursery in the area with more than two million seedlings.
03:48 They grow the two native species, Rhizophora and Avaisenia.
03:54 Annie Ndumbe has been here since last year and also knows what the plants need.
03:59 The soil quality here is good for the plant nursery.
04:03 We wanted to have our nursery in a place where we can produce high quality plants
04:07 that can be planted into the planting area that you see behind me.
04:11 So the nursery is very close to the planting site. That's very important.
04:16 They've already planted around 700,000 seedlings in the region on an area of around 300 hectares.
04:23 They still have 700 hectares to go to reach their goal, so they are a long way off.
04:29 But René Nyungang is confident.
04:35 We hope that in 30 years, all the areas of mangrove here which have been destroyed
04:40 will be restored completely.
04:44 And hopefully the communities will see the benefits again
04:49 and won't keep destroying the mangroves anymore,
04:52 because we've made a huge effort in raising awareness.
04:57 They need a lot of patience to raise awareness and for planting.
05:02 René Nyungang and his team regularly check whether the seedlings are thriving.
05:07 Using marked sticks, they can see how well they are growing.
05:12 After all, the success of the project also depends on this.
05:17 (water splashing)