Applying Knowledge

2. Strategies for Management 
Designing ecologically and socio-economically sound coastal ecosystem rehabilitation

In most cases coastal ecosystems are naturally resilient and can recover once a stress has been removed, but this process can be slow. When ecosystems are damaged severely or converted radically, natural recovery may not be possible. For these reasons, active interventions to rehabilitate ecosystems are required.

Mangrove restoration programmes have been underway for some time in the Indian Ocean countries and tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes accelerated this work. The post-tsunami reconstruction process stimulated a focus on coastal ecosystem rehabilitation with special emphasis on mangroves, targeting areas which had been damaged by the tsunami itself as well as aiming to reforest or afforest new sites or areas which had lost their vegetative cover in the past. However, mangroves are complex and diverse ecosystems and restoring a mangrove community to its full complement of biodiversity with natural regeneration is challenging. While the post-tsunami experience has generated notable successes some of the efforts at mangrove rehabilitation have failed to reach their intended targets.

The desire for quick effects has meant that, often, little attention was paid to the skills and technical knowledge transfer needed. In a number of cases mangrove replanting did not pay attention to the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional conditions necessary for successful rehabilitation, including the baseline situation and shifting baselines. Mangroves were planted in unsuitable areas without due attention to prior or current existence of mangroves, or appropriate soil and tidal conditions, with unsuitable species i.e exotic species, or as monocultures, in sites where existing stresses and threats remained intense, with no consideration of hydrological aspects, or without or little active participation and support from local communities and government institutions. These well-intentioned efforts have often had little impact on local ecosystems and livelihoods.

There still remains a pressing need for better coastal ecosystem restoration in areas where severe degradation has taken place, and natural processes or regeneration have been undermined. A key challenge is however to ensure that restoration programmes are based on sound science, techniques and approaches. There is a widespread consensus that there is a plethora of replanting initiatives, many of which lack the necessary planning and scientific rigour to succeed. At the same time, despite the existence of multiple guides, toolkits and handbooks on replanting, there have been few attempts to share knowledge, experiences and best practices between sites and countries.

As a priority, MFF addresses the need for sharing of experiences, best practices and training in suitable and sustainable ecosystem rehabilitation techniques under this programme of work. More specifically, MFF seeks to enhance implementing organisations (including local communities) capacity by appropriate skill transfer. MFF advocates ecosystem restoration which considers a range of activities in addition to replanting such as the removal of alien invasive species, mechanisms for community engagement and benefit, and consideration of tenurial, legal and management arrangements once ecosystems have been re-established and carbon ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) capabilities.

This programme of work includes actions to generate the following outputs:

1. Review of restoration work already underway (both before and during the post-tsunami reconstruction process), identification of national, regional and global expertise, and dissemination (with the possible establishment of a global database on rehabilitation projects) of best practices and lessons learned.
   
   
2. Within each country identification of areas that require, and are suitable for, rehabilitation, and those that are suitable for natural regeneration.
   
   
3. Capacity building for rehabilitation through the development and/or dissemination of best practice guidelines and training courses in local languages.
   
   
4. Monitoring to assess the impacts of restoration, using indicators for measuring impacts and performance at the species and ecosystem levels, as well as on the socioeconomic status of surrounding human populations.
   
   
5. Application of management and eradication measures for invasive alien species in coastal ecosystems, and measures to halt their use for shoreline protection.

The actions carried out under this programme of work contribute towards the following MFF results:

• More sustainable, equitable and effective protection, and where necessary rehabilitation, of coastal ecosystems.
• Enhanced action in coastal conservation through partnership with the private sector
• More environmentally sustainable coastal livelihoods.