Nigerians Strive to Bring Mangrove Forests Back to Life

On a riverbank in the Niger Delta, a group of residents in rubber boots has been working to restore one of Nigeria's most precious and damaged ecosystems -- its mangrove forests.
The team members plunge their shovels into the mud and slot in saplings at the site in Bundu, a shanty town on the outskirts of the southern oil city Port Harcourt, AFP said.
In recent years, human activity has destroyed swathes of the world's mangrove forests, which form a vital barrier against the tides and a sanctuary for wildlife.
But in this part of the Delta -- plagued by leaks from multinational oil company pipelines and a host of other threats -- a local community leader is pushing ahead with a project to restore the spoiled forests.
"We're going to bring our mangroves back to life," said fisherman David Oba, 53, who represents around 10,000 people in the town.
'Refuge'
Mangrove forests are a biodiversity paradise. The specialist saltwater trees' huge root networks provide nurseries for juvenile fish, which are crucial to supporting stocks.
The forests teeming with life above water too -- they are "refuges" for an array of birds that nest in their branches, explained Ijeoma Vincent-Akpu, a professor at the University of Port Harcourt.
Vincent-Akpu said the trees also protect against coastal erosion, storms and flooding, providing a key shield in the face of climate change.
Nigeria boasts some of the highest mangrove coverage in the world and more than anywhere else in Africa -- but its forests are shrinking.
The country had around 8,442 square kilometers (3,259 square miles) of mangrove forest in 2020, according to the monitoring platform Global Mangrove Watch.
Between 1996 and 2020 it lost 161.9 square kilometers of mangroves, the group said -- around two percent of the total and an area equal to more than 22,500 football pitches.
Experts say this is mainly due to human activity in the continent's most populous country.
Oil pollution
In Bundu, around 30 people have learned how to restore mangrove ecosystems with the help of a Nigerian NGO, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development.
They have been through several weeks' training, said Nabie Nubari Francis, coordinator of the NGO, which has been running the project in three other communities in the Delta for nearly 15 years.
Priority is given to training community leaders so they can pass on their skills. David Oba said he had trained 70 people in Bundu since starting the project there several months ago.
One of the greatest threats to the mangroves is pollution from the multinational oil industry in the Delta. Residents say whole areas have been wiped out by spills.
Oil spills are frequent in the region due to a lack of pipeline maintenance as well as vandalism. Over the last five years, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency has recorded almost 3,870 spills in Nigeria, mainly in the Niger Delta.
Kwani Dick Velvet, a retired journalist, recalled the first sapling he planted in his community, bought from a nearby nursery.
"If it was not for the fact that people came and planted some mangroves, this place would have been a very open field," he said, pointing to an area that he said was hit by an oil spill in 2020.
Residents said the spill was caused by vandals targeting an oil pipeline.
"When the spillage occurs, we cannot fish," 38-year-old fisherman Peter Opugulaya told AFP.
- Invasive palms -
Oil is not the only problem. Nigeria's mangroves are being damaged by illegal logging, waste dumping and urban expansion.
They face another threat, too -- the spread of Nipa palms, an invasive species that has muscled in among the mangroves.
Imported from South Asia and Oceania, the palms are used for baskets and roofing, but do not provide shelter for fish like the mangroves' arched roots.
Colin Love, from Kono village around 70 kilometers (over 40 miles) from Port Harcourt, complained the palms had taken root "everywhere".
The 40-year-old said he was planting mangroves "so that the fish will still come back for us."
On a visit to the Delta earlier this year, Nigeria's environment minister promised to work with local authorities to protect mangroves and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Four years earlier, the government announced its intention to launch a national mangrove restoration plan, but it was never implemented.
Residents said the government has been slow to act, prompting them to take measures into their own hands.
"We are helping each other," said 48-year-old driver and Kono resident Prince Nwilee, saying that communities were ready to share saplings with their neighbors.
"We are not sitting by and doing nothing," he said.

More than a dozen tigers were incinerated after the animals contracted bird flu at a zoo in southern Vietnam, officials said.
State media VNExpress cited a caretaker at Vuon Xoai zoo in Bien Hoa city saying the animals were fed with raw chicken bought from nearby farms, The Associated Press reported. The panther and 20 tigers, including several cubs, weighed between 10 and 120 kilograms when they died. The bodies were incinerated and buried on the premises.
“The tigers died so fast. They looked weak, refused to eat and died after two days of falling sick,” said zoo manager Nguyen Ba Phuc.
Samples taken from the tigers tested positive for H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu.
The virus was first identified in 1959 and grew into a widespread and highly lethal menace to migratory birds and domesticated poultry. It has since evolved, and in recent years H5N1 was detected in a growing number of animals ranging from dogs and cats to sea lions and polar bears.
In cats, scientists have found the virus attacking the brain, damaging and clotting blood vessels and causing seizures and death.
More than 20 other tigers were isolated for monitoring. The zoo houses some 3,000 other animals including lions, bears, rhinos, hippos and giraffes.
The 30 staff members who were taking care of the tigers tested negative for bird flu and were in normal health condition, VNExpress reported. Another outbreak also occurred at a zoo in nearby Long An province, where 27 tigers and 3 lions died within a week in September, the newspaper said.
Unusual flu strains that come from animals are occasionally found in people. Health officials in the United States said Thursday that two dairy workers in California were infected — making 16 total cases detected in the country in 2024.
“The deaths of 47 tigers, three lions, and a panther at My Quynh Safari and Vuon Xoai Zoo amid Vietnam’s bird flu outbreak are tragic and highlight the risks of keeping wild animals in captivity,” PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
“The exploitation of wild animals also puts global human health at risk by increasing the likelihood of another pandemic,” Baker said.
Bird flu has caused hundreds of deaths around the world, the vast majority of them involving direct contact between people and infected birds.

Nigerians Strive to Bring Mangrove Forests Back to Life