Cultivation of mangrove propogules in outdoor nurseries. Transplantation into degraded habitat. Hand planting needed to be done due to the extent of destruction of the hurricane. The plants will not recover naturally fast enough to restore ecosystem benefits for local communicates. If the environmental and hydrological conditions remain suitable, mangroves can typically recover from storm damage. After Hurricane Mitch, however, the high percentage of mangroves destroyed, combined with geographic isolation from other mangrove areas, has resulted in very slow or no natural recovery. On-the-ground hand planting is the most effective way to help restore the ecological balance when mangroves cannot be restored naturally.