With support from the Global Environment Facility and the UN Environment Blue Forests Project, the Tahiry Honko project has launched in the Bay of Assassins. An original story by Blue Venture.The Tahiry Honko project is helping to tackle climate breakdown and build community resilience by restoring and protecting mangrove forests.A celebration at the heart of a protected mangrove forest in Madagascar this week marked the formal inauguration of the world’s largest mangrove carbon conservation project. The forest, situated in the Bay of Assassins in the remote southwest of the country, is protected and managed by communities from surrounding villages within the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA). Mangroves – or blue forests – are among the most productive and valuable habitats on Earth. They underpin coastal fisheries, provide vital sources of fuel wood and timber, protect coastal people from extreme weather, and act as a key natural climate solution by sequestering globally significant amounts of carbon dioxide.Despite their huge value, mangroves are being deforested at an alarming rate. Unabated, mangrove destruction will deprive tens of millions of people of their livelihoods and undermine their wellbeing. It will exacerbate the global climate emergency we now face, while taking away what vital natural protection coastal people have against it. Over the last 15 years, Blue Ventures has worked with coastal communities in Madagascar to explore new ways to derive benefits from protecting mangroves. In particular by capturing the value of mangrove carbon sequestration, as well as fish and timber production.“Coastal communities in Madagascar are some of the most vulnerable on earth to the impacts of global climate breakdown,” said Lalao Aigrette, Blue Ventures’ Blue Forests Programme Lead in Madagascar. “These communities have shown remarkable leadership in pioneering this new approach to mangrove conservation.”