IN an effort to mitigate the effects of coastal erosion and sea water intrusion, villagers of Naividamu in Macuata undertook a mangrove planting program along their coastline recently.
Villagers are targeting to transplant as many mangroves they can for the remainder of this year.
Naividamu Village headman Tomasi Moli said mangrove seedlings were collected from the nearby mangroves before they were directly transplanted along the coast.
“The plan now is to rehabilitate our eroding coastline throughout the remaining months of this year to protect our school and village,” said Mr Moli.
“The dire need for the rehabilitation efforts is because of the erosions that have taken place over the last few years.”
Head of Ligaulevu clan in Naividamu Village, Apenisa Rawaqa said their old village site had been claimed by the sea.
“As a community, we are worried that our coastline is eroding at a very fast rate that soon, if we don’t do anything, the sea water will reach the school in the near future,” he said.
In celebration and contribution to International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem that was held last month, WWF-Pacific and C3 carried out an informative session with the community on the importance of mangroves.
The information session was followed by the transplanting of 1500 mangrove seedlings by 30 community members along with conservation officers of WWF-Pacific and C3 along a designated eroding section of the village’s coastline.
Non-government organisations, World Wide Fund for Nature — Pacific (WWF-Pacific) and Community Centred Conservation (C3), have agreed to assist the community in the replanting activities.
