The Mida Creek Conservation Community in Kilifi County received a major boost after KOICA Alumni Kenya Chapter (KAKC) together with partners organised a grand mangrove planting exercise to help in the restoration of a key marine ecosystem.

KOICA Alumni Kenya Chapter consists of Civil servants who received scholarships to do masters and PhDs from the South Korean Government and normally give back to the communities they came from through such initiatives.

This year they chose to plant 3600 mangrove seedlings at Sita area within the Mida Creek Marine ecosystem which was graced by the National Museums of Kenya Director General Prof. Mary Gikungu who is a marine Biologist.

Prof Gikungu said the program was inline with President William Ruto’s initiative to ensure the country plants 15 billion trees by 2032 so as to increase forest cover and carbon credit.

The Director General of NMK said restoration of the ecosystem was one way of mitigating the effects of climate change and hence there was a need for collaboration with communities to restore ecosystems around them.

“Mangrove sequestrate carbon and they are able to store 1,000 tons of carbon per hectare on a monthly basis and this will help us moderate the microclimate of this area,” she said.

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through the KOICA Alumni Kenya Chapter (KAKC) headed by its president Angela Mukiri led the restoration exercise at Sita area on Saturday.

Mukiri said that as alumni students of the Kenya- South Korea education program, they are dedicated to helping communities in various spheres of lives including restoration of ecosystems.

She assured the Mida Creek community of continued support in restoring the mangrove forests in the area.

 “We go into communities and understand what they do and that is why we came here to plant mangrove seedlings as a restoration campaign of the ecosystem and we will continue supporting the community,” she said.

Already the Mida Creek Conservation community has expressed a massive reduction in logging and destruction of mangrove which they attributed to their conservation efforts.

Mwanyale Kafulo, the MCCC Chairman said they are currently eyeing the funds from the carbon credit that’s why they are keen in planting more mangrove to increase the forest cover and also position themselves in the blue economy projects benefits.

 Mida Creek Conservation Community (MCC) comprises 37 conservation groups.

“Restoration activities in the Mida creek have seen a decrease in logging and an increase in fish stock since their breeding sites have been restored. We call upon individuals and organizations to continue helping us so that we can completely restore the worst depleted Mida Creek ecosystem,” he said.

He thanked KAKC for joining them to conserve Mida Creek and urged other organizations to come and buy mangrove seedlings from them.

Truphena Njaka, Gede Forest Station Manager said forest destruction has reduced drastically and attributed it to the community engagement in conservation.