Increase community awareness and involvement

Celebrating World Wetlands Day 2023

Mangrove Maniacs

International Day of Biodiversity

Mangrove Maniacs

This project encouraged the participation of youth and community volunteers to gain support and increase local knowledge of the importance of protecting local ecosystems. Increased community involvement will work to build capacity while empowering and strengthening local conservation efforts. The group of volunteers we currently work with is a mix of residents and visitors, men and women, young and old and from a wide range of backgrounds.

Efforts are made to keep policymakers involved and inform them of the importance of mangroves in general and restoration in particular to gain their support.

Supportive community, whenever activities are anounced they respond readily
the actvities organised for engaging the community are diverse (tours in the mangrove forest, events, presentation evenings) and thus cater to a variety of groups like school groups, junior rangers, general public, science community and stakeholders operating in the area.
Easy access to media outlets.
Momentum reached (having reached a lot of local, regional and international exposure).

Collaborating with other nature organisations helped reach more people.
Advertisements for events could be improved by divulging information through other media channels, e.g. radio.
Organising different forms of outreach activities, such as public presentations, encouraged community engagement.
Even though most residents speak English, communicating in both the local language and English gives a better result.