Key facts
Only One members are funding the planting of over half a million mangrove trees (reaching a total of 516,197) in Amboanio, Madagascar.
The project is fortifying crucial fisheries for local communities, revitalizing vital wildlife habitat, and restoring resilience against storms and erosion in a landscape devastated by extensive logging.
After close to a century of deforestation, the Betsiboka Estuary is uniquely vulnerable to rainfall-driven erosion. Without the twisted roots of mangrove forests fortifying the earth, storms send the loose, mud-red soil into the bay, which clogs coastal waterways. The effect of this erosional displacement is so great that astronauts have said it looks like Madagascar is bleeding into the ocean. New mangroves stem the flow of sediment and fight this erosion.
Our mangrove planting partner Eden: People+Planet is supporting the economic security the 3,000+ community members of Amboanio, who depend on fishing as the primary source of commercial activity in the area.
How the project works
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Eden: People+Planet connects with a community and creates relationships with local leaders dedicated to helping their environment thrive.
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The local community guides Eden: People+Planet to planting opportunities, builds citizens’ commitment to reforestation, and creatively overcomes restoration obstacles.
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Eden: People+Planet uses its Employ to Plant methodology, providing economic incentives and simple planting techniques to help the community restore its local environment and economy.
Project impact
All projects on Only One help save the ocean and fix the climate, and 100% of our members’ funds go to impact. Keep reading to discover how our “Counteracting erosion with mangroves in Madagascar” project is having a positive effect.
Biodiversity and ecosystems
In the absence of healthy mangrove cover, coastal erosion is the norm, putting vital ecosystem services at severe risk. Damaged breeding and nursery habitats for fish and shellfish have ecological and economic ramifications. This project helps recover those habitats for multiple species endemic to the river basin, including the critically endangered damba mipentina, a cichlid fish identifiable by its characteristic black spot along the side of its body.
The mangroves members help plant also provide shelter and food for two of Madagascar’s rarest and most endangered birds, a small brown duck known as the Bernier’s Teal, and the Malagasy Sacred Ibis, a black-and-white wader that feeds among the tangled roots of the mangroves.
Climate solutions
Mangrove trees are crucial allies in the fight against climate change. Growing in tropical and subtropical areas where land and ocean meet, mangrove forests are powerful greenhouse gas sponges and can store four times more carbon than rainforests on land. Over its 25-year growth lifetime, a mature mangrove tree removes roughly 0.3 tonnes of carbon. The more than half a million mangrove trees planted in Madagascar on behalf of Only One members will remove around 150,000 tonnes of carbon over their growth lifetime!
Community development
At the heart of Eden: People+Planet’s work is building relationships with local communities to inspire commitment to tree planting and a sense of ownership to protect their forests long after the restoration effort concludes. Since July 2020, projects at this site have created a total of 17,745 working days. With a steady income, team members can put savings aside, invest in their households, start micro-enterprises to diversify their income opportunities, and provide healthcare and everyday needs for their families, such as sending their children to school. As fishing is the main source of commercial enterprise for the neighboring community of Amboanio, reducing erosion fortifies essential fisheries in the region.
Sustainable Development Goals
By supporting the “Counteracting erosion with mangroves in Madagascar” project, Only One members’ funds go toward these 10 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Project reporting
Eden: People+Planet has sent Only One an inventory report on how the mangrove planting project is progressing. With planting completed, any new updates shared by Eden: People+Planet will be shared to members' impact profiles.
More about our mangrove planting partner
Eden: People+Planet works with local communities to restore forests on a massive scale, creating jobs, protecting ecosystems, and helping reverse climate change. Today, they operate in 8 countries and work in long-term partnership with communities to address the root causes of deforestation — not just its symptoms. As Eden: People+Planet’s local employees restore the forest canopy, leaf litter, water, and wildlife return, and nature begins to heal. At the same time, communities facing extreme poverty have new opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, improved health, and education. Now, through blended finance and 40-year commitments, Eden: People+Planet transforms degraded landscapes into thriving ecosystems that sequester carbon, strengthen community resilience, and deliver verified environmental benefits to global carbon markets.
