<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/women-preserving-worlds-largest-mangrove-forest-sundarbans-asia/>
"Straddling the border between India and Bangladesh, where the rivers Ganges,
Meghna and Brahmaputra converge and flow into the Bay of Bengal, an ancient
forest of mangroves stretches over 3,860 square miles. This labyrinth of misty
saltwater channels, mudflats and marshy land known as the Sundarbans is the
world’s largest mangrove forest, and home to millions whose lives are tied to
the tides.
But over the years, those living here — all mostly dependent on farming and
fishing — have watched these tides turn hostile, with rising sea levels,
increased salinity in the soil, and cyclones like Aila (2009), Amphan (2020)
and Remal (2024) battering both the Sundarbans ecosystem and the communities
that depend on it.
“With every high tide and storm surge, more salt is deposited in our fields,
making them infertile,” Poornima Bhunia says. Her son is among tens of
thousands of Sundarbans locals who have left their villages to diversify
household incomes in the face of vulnerability to extreme weather and
environmental degradation.
Traditionally after a natural disaster, NGOs come in for a period of time,
bringing relief that focuses on urgent needs, such as repairing homes,
distributing food and restoring water.
But after Cyclone Amphan wreaked havoc in the region in 2020, the Sustainable
Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), an NGO that works to
develop resilience to climate change impacts across India, realized recovery
couldn’t just be about rebuilding what was lost. As they worked with people who
were bearing the brunt of increasingly more intense climate events year on
year, it became apparent that they needed to help prepare the land, as well as
the people, for the next storm.
In the Sundarbans, the solution was all around them: Mangroves, often referred
to as one of the “big three” marine ecosystems, together with salt marshes and
seagrass beds. Between them, they account for over 50 percent of carbon storage
in oceans, and mangroves are surprisingly effective in reducing the speed and
intensity of tsunamis and tidal surges. “We decided to plant mangrove saplings
along degraded coastlines so that they’d provide a natural green buffer against
the waves,” says Yezdani Rahman, chief of programs at SEEDS.
The key, says Rahman, was integrating the initiative into the local community.
Many living in the villages dotting the Sundarbans landscape had been battered,
not just by the frequent cyclones and tidal surges but also by a crippling lack
of jobs and opportunities. “We realized that the only way to ensure the long
term sustainability of our mangrove restoration project was to link local
livelihoods directly to it,” Rahman says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
