Mangroves, A Blue Carbon Project: Communicating restorative benefits of mangrove ecosystems in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Blue Carbon is defined as carbon that is collected and stored in sediment from sources such as seagrass, salt marshes, and mangrove forests. This project focused on mangrove forest sequestration rates and how local communities can contribute to the preservation of these systems. These forests are being degraded for various reasons such as timber and fuel for fire. This project focused on an area of South Africa known as Kosi Lake, where mangroves occupy a small area along the North Eastern coast (Quisthoudt, 2013). Using Global Forest Watch, I determined rates of mangrove degradation over time and look at trends in which the forests are heading. Additionally, the study quantified and communicated to policy makers the importance of mangrove ecosystem services. This was done by providing the Tembe Tribal Council a list of recommendations that will be instituted at the local level; it contains information quantifying how much the community can gain through preservation. Given that communities can be incentivized to protect their ecosystem services if there is a greater alternative to not destroying them, I also designed and provided educational materials and hosted workshops in eManguzi, South Africa. The results demonstrated that perceptual changes are possible at the community level throughout meetings with fishermen and educators