Just 30 km south of the booming port town of Mombasa, residents of two tranquil Kenyan villages are making history.Here, amongst the mud-walled houses and coconut trees, the people of Gazi and Makongeni villages have become the world’s first communities to harness the carbon market through mangrove conservation.The Mikoko Pamoja (‘mangroves together’) project is restoring Gazi Bay’s coastal ecosystems, with community members planting thousands of mangrove seedlings each year and trading the resulting carbon offset on the global market – protecting the coastline, restoring local fisheries, and bringing in over $25,000 for community initiatives in the project’s first two years alone.
In pictures: Kenya’s coastal conservation heroes
