In the Sundarbans, women are embracing mangrove restoration as an alternative livelihood (2024)

Dwelling near the erosion-prone riverbank of the mighty Pasur River, 43-year-old Shumi Mondol understands the importance of a mangrove barrier.

Next to her cottage in Loudob in Khulna’s Dacope subdistrict, only 4.75 kilometers (2.9 miles) north of the Sundarban mangroves, there was a mangrove belt along the Pasur. Between 2017 and 2022, the government implemented the renovation project of an embankment stretching 50 km (31 mi) to protect Loudob and Banishanta villages from flooding.

The renovation work, however, razed the mangroves in many places, replacing them with exotic acacia trees. Local people assessed that, even after being renovated, the embankment was breached in several places with no mangrove barriers.

Shumi told Mongabay, “The trees [that existed before 2017] prevented turbulent tides and river erosion. Moreover, they were the raw material sources for our mangrove products.”

To resist riverbank erosion, some NGOs and local communities are implementing mangrove restoration and conservation programs in Khulna and Satkhira districts.

The programs also facilitate alternative livelihoods and entrepreneurship development, particularly for women. The women run profitable mangrove nurseries and cooperatives to promote the production and marketing of some value-added mangrove products such as golpata (nipa palm, Nypa fruticans) molasses, keora (Sonneratia caseolaris, a mangrove tree) pickles, and hargoja (holly-leaved acanthus, Acanthus ilicifolius) tea.

Supported by the local NGO Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS), Shumi and several other women created a 2-hectare (4.95 acres) mangrove restoration site five years ago.

They planted goran (Ceriops tagal), kankara (Bruguiera gymnorhiza), golpata, keora, bina (Avicennia officinalis), sundri (Heritiera fomes), hargoja and other mangrove trees.

Fortunately, the planted site was spared from the razing. Shumi currently leads a 20-member all-women team to protect the site from cattle grazing and human intervention. When they spot a dead plant, the gap is filled with a new sapling.

To restore mangroves on the riverbanks impacted by the embankment renovation, BEDS organized a bigger team with more women and planted 20,000 mangrove saplings there in 2022.

BEDS founder Maksudur Rahman shared his thoughts with Mongabay, saying that proper selection of plantation sites and mangrove species, and their conservation with the active involvement of the local community, can minimize the frequency of erosion.

“Women in the Sundarbans-neighboring localities were mostly unemployed. By involving many of them in mangrove restoration as an alternative livelihood, we have ensured community engagement,” Maksudur says.

Bangladesh forest department has implemented a mangrove restoration project on 2.02 hectares (5 acres) of land at Sheikh Russel Aviary & Eco Park in Batiaghata, Khulna. So far, the reforestation has involved planting 4,000 mangrove saplings, setting a precedent for similar efforts in other parts of Khulna and in Bagerhat and Satkhira districts.

Following the project, the department has taken a major initiative to restore mangrove forests along the banks of 52 rivers and canals near the Sundarbans.

Mangrove restoration creates entrepreneurs

In 2008, the Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), a non-profit organization, pioneered community-engaged mangrove restoration in the country.

So far, BARCIK has brought mangrove restoration to parts of coastal villages including Kaikhali, Burigoalini, Munshiganj, Gabura, Padmapukur and Atulia of Satkhira’s Shyamnagar subdistrict.

Under the BARCIK program, women collect mangrove seeds floated upriver and preserve them for germination. In the next stage, they, together with the male members of their families, sow the germinated seeds in the selected and fenced muddy berms of embankments along the Kholpetua, Chuna and Malancha rivers.

“So far, we have planted mangroves on around 1,800 hectares (4,447 acres) of land, involving more than 400 women,” said Ram Krishna Joarder, BARCIK’s Satkhira district coordinator.

Teamed up, the women monitor the growth of the saplings and take care of them until their maturity, when they start flowering. From the mature trees, they harvest keora fruits and golpata sap to produce pickles and molasses, respectively, for sale.

One of the entrepreneurs of this business, 42-year-old Shefali Begum from Burigoalini village says that mangrove restoration helps her ensure financial stability in a challenging time.

“Although the production of pickles and molasses is seasonal, I can earn $52 (6,000 taka) monthly on average, which is a crucial backup when my husband and sons cannot earn from fishing in the Sundarbans [due to seasonal fishing bans],” Shefali says.

Once an unemployed and poor housewife, Shefali now leads a 40-member cooperative society.

Transforming forest resources into value-added products

Like other housewives, Namita Mondol, a resident of Dacope’s Dhangmari village, used to burn mangrove seeds as fuel for cooking. In 2019, while attending a campaign for BEDS’s mangrove restoration and conservation program, Namita got an entrepreneurial idea.

Instead of burning the mangrove seeds, she started to preserve them and raised a small nursery in her courtyard on the banks of the intertidal Pasur River. She said her neighbors laughed at her work, predicting none would buy mangrove saplings.

“To their surprise, I sold saplings worth $426 (50,000 taka) the next year,” Namita recollected.

Her nursery has expanded to 1 bigha (0.33 acre, or 0.13 hectares) of land. Five permanent and 15 part-time women workers work in the nursery.

In 2023, she sold saplings worth approximately $3,407 (4 lakh taka) to some clients, including Bangladesh’s forest department, international NGO BRAC, and BEDS.

Sourcing saplings from entrepreneurs like Namita, BEDS has so far planted around 1 million mangrove trees in 146.55 hectares (362 acres) of riverbanks at Gabura, Kolakati and Chunkuri of Shyamnagar, and Banishanta and Loudob of Dacope.

Women are at the forefront of mangrove restoration. They have developed two cooperative societies for production, processing, packaging and creating supply chains for product marketing.

BEDS’s field coordinator, Sheikh Faisal Ahmed, briefed Mongabay about their work: from November to February, cooperative members prepare molasses by boiling golpata sap they collect from the mangrove restoration sites. Parallelly, some of them weave mats with harvested golpata leaves.

During August-October — the keora fruit harvesting season — the women make keora pickles. As hargoja leaves are available around the year, they process dried leaves, grind them and pack the powder in tea sachets.

“We prepare all the food items at BEDS’s Banishanta campus so that the taste and quality don’t vary,” says Kamala Biswash, a member of one cooperative society.

Under the brand name Banajibi, some 315 members sell the food products at 30 selling points, including the forest department’s three souvenir shops in the Sundarbans.

Kamala adds, “We purchase the raw materials directly from the mangrove restoration site protectors. Meanwhile, women involved in processing and packaging products receive payment as per their work. The rest of our profit is added to the cooperative capital.”

Mangroves for protecting lands and livelihoods

According to the IUCN, more than half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse.

Deforestation, development, pollution and dam construction are the major threats to most mangrove ecosystems. However, the ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable due to sea-level rise, erosion and the increased frequency of severe storms associated with climate change.

A study analyzing land cover changes between 1980 and 2014 found that the size of the Sundarbans is declining at a frightening rate compared to its adjacent east coast.

Mangrove restoration is crucial because mangroves serve as frontiers of defense against flooding and erosion. According to a study, the aerial roots of a mangrove forests retain sediments, stabilizing the soil in intertidal areas and thus reducing erosion.

Besides providing geographical stability, restored mangroves help regain biodiversity as well as support the livelihoods and well-being of coastal inhabitants, as the Mangrove Alliance highlights.

However, sharing the responsibilities of mangrove restoration and conservation with the local communities prompts a sense of ownership and agency among mangrove-dependent people.

A study in Sri Lanka shows community participation has a significant and positive effect on mangrove performance.

Being a woman from a remote village, Shumi Mondol has little idea about global environmental perception. But she believes that the existence of the mangroves, which her team is guarding now, is important.

“Protecting the trees is our responsibility. Our livelihood depends on their survivability,” Shumi concludes.

Banner image: Entrepreneur Namita Mondal is watering mangrove saplings at her nursery. Image courtesy of BEDS.

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Citations:

Pahlowan, E.U, Hossain, AT.M.S. A disparity between erosional hazard and accretion of the Sundarbans with its adjacent east coast, Bangladesh: a remote sensing and GIS approach. Proceedings Volume 9644, Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/GIS Applications VI; 96441G (2015). doi:10.1117/12.2196386

Tampanya, U., Vermaat, J. E., Sinsakul, S., & Panapitukkul, N. Coastal erosion and mangrove progradation of Southern Thailand. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci. 68, 75–85 (2006). doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2006.01.011

Sathiyamoorthy, S., Sakurai, T. Effectiveness of community participation in mangrove restoration: the evidence from northern Sri Lanka. Environ Econ Policy Stud (2024). doi:10.1007/s10018-024-00397-1