Mangrove reseeding at Mahanadi Delta

The Devi distributary channel of the Mahanadi is one of the primary estuarine channels in Jagatsingpur district of Odisha. Mangrove tracts in the region have borne multiple damage from local land use changes and climate change induced damage due to cyclone surges. The remnant mangroves are fragmented and unable to naturally regenerate. The nearby beaches and estuarine channels are important breeding grounds for turtles and brackish water fish species. Thus the mangrove tracts offer a number of ecosystem services like wildlife refuge, nutrient cycling, flood protection, and livelihood opportunities for local communities.

Our solution will create capacity for local communities, restoration of the site through reseeding, create livelihood opportunities via integrated farming-aquaculture systems and eco-tourism. These are simple solutions which can be scaled up globally in tropical and sub-tropical estuarine areas.

The proposed area of intervention is a degraded mangrove site which used to be rich in bio-diverse flora and fauna. The site is home for nesting of Olive Ridley turtles (vulnerable under the IUCN Red list, Schedule I species under Indian WPA 1972). Due to change in land use pattern, and repeated heavy storm surges from climate change driven changes, these sites have been damaged and are unable to provide required ecosystem services or regenerate naturally.

Sea shore soil erosion is another threat to turtle survival, along with egg predation by feral dogs, and fishing with mechanized trawlers and gill nets. Mahanadi Delta beaches remain an important nesting habitat for Olive Ridleys. 

Devi River is the main southern distributary of the Mahanadi and due to mangrove cover loss, 50,000 odd inhabitants of local fisherfolk villages are threatened by storm surges in the Devi River estuarine wetland areas. 31 out of 50 villages in the region depend on fisheries for part of their income. Fisheries are getting damaged and overexploited through unregulated commercial fishing by non-local actors. Ponds for brackish water  aquaculture are another important land use change.

Our solution aims to reverse fragmentation and degradation of protective mangrove habitats.

Outreach, education and awareness of mangrove ecosystems: Workshops will be conducted in schools and colleges to raise awareness of mangrove ecosystems and sensitize students and local citizens to become advocates of restoration 

Capacity building of Mangrove experts: Outreach and awareness will be followed by creating local experts and guides on mangrove forest trails, from among students and local citizens. Trained educators will lead both future capacity building and can act as guides in sustainable eco-tourism initiatives. 

Mangrove Restoration: First, seed and propagule collection from the wild, raising seedlings in nurseries of mangrove species will be initiated. Secondly, identification of degraded tracts and restoration activities will be undertaken by the community. 

Livelihood activities: Local livelihoods, like estuarine fishery, farming and farm-based aquaculture will be made more resilient by connecting the mangrove ecosystem and agro-ecosystem. A participatory, community-led approach will seek to build local capacity of local fisherfolk, farmers, women and village institutions and enable them to govern and manage their natural resources while addressing disaster and climate risks. Restored mangroves and more sustainable local livelihoods can also be showcased for nature-based tourism - including raising tourist awareness of ecosystem and human connections and promotion of scientific management.

The solutions target the local marginal income fisherfolk, farmers and rural citizens with limited access to livelihood opportunities. These communities are further marginalized on account of their geographical location in a shifting estuarine landscape. The region is also singularly prone to climate-change driven hazards like cyclones, coastal erosion, storm surges due to intensifying storms, ingress of seawater into local groundwater aquifers and rising salinity in farmlands. 

Restoration of the original mangrove ecosystems serves a number of extant ecological and increasingly critical economic conditions. The prior studies in the region with our local partner (Baitarani Initiatives) have already indicated the necessity of such restoration activies to address these multiple issues in the region. Continuous engagement, awareness raising and capacity building on the ecological aspects of the problems which have a direct bearing on the economic conditions of the local community will be undertaken to fine-tune the solutions being offered as part of this restoration initiative. Institutional capacity building will also be undertaken to make the knowledge gained during the project future-proof and adaptable to changing conditions. 

While the local government has become much more aware of the prevailing climate change driven hazards, and has done globally-recognized work on disaster and hazard management to reduce casualties, the issues of significant economic loss and ancillary loss of livelihoods remain a critical problem.  Restoration activities of the kind that we are proposing will enhance the resilience of the ecosystem and the human infrastructure that exists within these ecosystems - thus addressing the under-served need of climate resilience of ecosystem dependant livelihoods.

Degradation of mangrove ecosystems due to human land use changes and climate change driven ecological changes have long been implicated in aggravated ecosystem degradation of estuarine areas. Millions of marginalized people live in these dynamic ecosystems in the developing and less developed countries of the world (e.g. Ganges, Mahanadi, Mekong deltas). 

Restoration and rejuvenation of mangrove ecosystems thus provide a key mode of increasing resilience in these regions which are prone to issues like cyclones, storm surges, coastal erosion, soil salinization etc. Our work in the Mahanadi delta thus aligns well with the Resilient Ecosystems Challenge.

Ecosystems restoration, of which estuarine mangrove restoration is a part - is globally accepted as a  solution to increase resilience in marginalized landscapes and communities. Our deployment of restoration of degraded estuarine mangroves in the Mahanadi River delta of Odisha, India is an attempt to deploy this tested solution in a new landscape in a handful of communities which have suffered tremendously in the past 5 decades,  especially since 1999 with multiple severe cyclonic storms making landfall in the North Odisha coast. 

The Mahanadi delta is the largest and most populous estuary in Odisha. The communities living in the coastal mudflats are among the most vulnerable and economically deprived communities. While casualties have reduced with rapid disaster management action, economic deprivation and loss of livelihoods is extant. Testing pilot solutions and rapidly deploying it subsequently is thus necessary to improve the climate-resilience of the livelihoods of these marginal communities.

The solution of estuarine mangrove restoration with local capacity building and awareness raising that is being deployed at a pilot scale in this project is relatively untested in the southern Mahanadi River delta region. The key to success of these solutions is the local fine-tuning and incorporation of local stakeholder interests in the solution building process. 

Since these diverse ecosystems have various dependencies at the village and community levels, and available livelihood opportunities depending on proximity to urban centers, we must ensure that solutions incorporate a right mix of community stakes, scientific principles, acceptable degree of local institutional involvement and financial and economic incentives. 

We have thus designed this pilot scale deployment of a tested ecological solution to test out the various parameters that results in the highest community involvement, capacity building and coverage of degraded areas while ensuring a fool-proof model for future upscaling and large-scale deployment across the 5,500 sq. km. Mahanadi Delta region.

Currently - None
In 1 year - 50 people (trainees and workshop attendees) in and around Bandar village, District Jagatsingpur, Odisha.
In 5-years -  1,000 (local populace)

* Number of trained personnel with expertize developed in mangrove species recognition, explanation of ecological processes and service provisioning in layperson terms.
* Number of schools and colleges covered in awareness/outreach programs in the sub-district level
* Number of households engaged with for ecological farming-aquaculture activities and in mangrove restoration initiatives

* Diversity of mangrove species planted, their survival numbers, numbers of seedlings raised for future deployment
* Faunal biodiversity indicators and monitoring for increase/decrease
* Monitoring of C stocks in soil and vegetation in restored mangrove tracts

1 x Full-time program manager (SayTrees)
2 x Full-time project officers (local community) for community liaison and managing logistics of nursery and propagule, seeds and saplings storage, raising and transport.
1 x Part-time (research and monitoring & evaluation)
10 x Community volunteers for project timelines (seed, propagule collection - sapling and nursery management)

We (SayTrees) are a Bangalore based organization working on ecosystem resoration initiatives across India since 2008 in different ecosystems with considerable experience in fund raising, liaising with corporate fund raising and carbon offsetting activities engaging with governmental agencies and communities for deploying restoration solution in forestry, water and waste management and sustainable agricluture.

We already have a local collaborating community partner (Baitarani Initiative) operating in Odisha since 2006 who have experience in working on environmental awareness raising, restoration activities and in community institution development and capacity building. The staff of our partner have experience in assesment of mangrove ecosystems for nearly a decade. 

Our research & scienctific partner (ATREE) has experience since 1996 in scientific and policy assessments of ecological interventions, engagement with communities to deploy sustainable solutions with tribal and marginal communities and in deep analysis and design of restoration frameworks from a variety of scientific disciplines (soil science, ecology, water resource management, economics and conservation biology). Our analysis of carbon metrics, species diversity and nativity assessments, soil health assessment and forestry and landscape conservation will be conducted by our ATREE collaborators. 

Our team will involve partners from the state (provincial) to the national levels with considerable experience in engagement with international stakeholders and multi-lateral institutions. 

Since this is a community driven pilot-scale initiative, we are designing the whole project based on inclusivity of the community starting from capacity building, training of children and youth, addressing gender equity in target training groups and workshop participants. 

We will require participants and volunteers to be equally representative of the community itself including women youth and local marginal groups. 

For this project a starting capital is the key requirement since this is a new region of operation with significant incoming expenses in a dynamic landscape with a very diverse restoration requirements. 

We will like to partner with Technical organizations which can help us in assessing hotspots requiring restoration. We will also like to partner with organization which help in raising acumen for fund raising for small scale initiative in marginal and dynamic landscapes.

Sustainable agriculture and Mangrove restoration is a subset of carbon offseting practices which reduce release of or improve sequestration of GHGs.

Our solution is targeted for Ecosystem Restoration in vulnerable mangrove ecosystems in a dynamic deltaic landscape in Eastern India. We have targeted the Resilient Ecosystem Challenge of the GSR Prize.