Indigenous and Minority Women Driving Kenyas Blue Forest Conservation [Video]

TSUNZA, Kenya, Feb 22 2024 (IPS) – Tsunza Peninsula is a natural wonder that sits just inside the many inlets of Mombasa Island on the border between Mombasa and Kwale Counties—a little-known spectacle of lagoons, islands, and thick mangroves in Kinango Sub-County, Kwale County, on Kenya’s coastal region. 

This natural paradise is a beehive of activities, with fishers meandering through the creeks and returning to the shores after a dawn harvest. Dhows and motorboats glide from shore to shore, with tourists and locals travelling between the two neighboring counties.

What holds these activities together are the efforts of the 45 people, 35 of them women, of the Tsunza Fish Pond and Mangrove Restoration community project. They protect, preserve, conserve, and restore Tsunza’s mangrove forest and the entire ecosystem. Mangroves are not only a critical biodiversity hotspot; they are also coastal superheroes, a first line of defense against climate-induced coastal hazards.

Mangroves are one of the most carbon-dense habitats on Earth. Its entire ecosystem of …