They have put in some 400,000 mangrove
trees since a restoration initiative started two decades ago, in what was
initially a bid to increase the catch of local fishermen. Now their work has taken on extra
significance as alarm grows over global warming and nature loss, with mangroves
regarded as a key weapon in the fight against climate change. But the surge of international concern
has yet to help this community win the global finance required to expand its
project, highlighting the barriers often faced by groups on the ground seeking
to tap into growing funding flows for nature protection. "Mangroves are important to us
fishermen - we need them because this is the breeding ground of fish,"
said Ilias, 70, recalling how dwindling mangrove forests affected his catch and
livelihood, which prompted him to launch the initiative. Mangroves make up less than 1% of
tropical forests worldwide but are crucial in the fight against climate change
because they are more effective than most other forests at absorbing and storing
planet-heating carbon. Mangrove ecosystems also protect coastal
communities from storm surges, reduce flooding and help shore up food security. Despite their benefits, they are in
decline, with the world's mangrove area decreasing by just over 1 million
hectares between 1990 and 2020, although the rate of loss has slowed in recent
years, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. CHALLENGES In Malaysia, mangroves are often cleared
to make way for infrastructure development and farming, while they are also
under threat from industrial pollution and over-harvesting - including in
northern Penang state, where Ilias lives. As fish catches dwindled for him and
other fishermen in the late 1990s, Ilias mobilised his peers to join him in
restoring the fast-vanishing mangrove forests through the Penang Inshore
Fishermen Welfare Association (PIFWA), which he leads. Their small initiative has won
recognition - to date about 30 local companies have sponsored their
tree-planting as part of corporate social responsibility projects. PIFWA charges the companies a small fee
of 8 ringgit ($2) per tree planted, while participating fishermen are
compensated with allowances for their time and labour. Now, Ilias is hoping to access larger
sums of global funding to plant more trees, but he is struggling with
challenges - from ways to access available money and scale up the project to
other issues like language barriers and a lack of technical expertise. He cited an example from an
international donor that wanted the group to innovate with new ideas and expand
the tree-planting project after an initial round of funding. "We did not have the capacity to
deliver other things, like turning this into an eco-tourism site or getting
more youths involved," he said, adding they did not receive further
support as a result. "We are nervous - we are fishermen
and we can't commit to something we're not confident in delivering," he
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on a break from planting mangrove saplings. His frustration shows the practical
difficulties of channelling financing to rehabilitate nature where it is
needed, even as more countries and donors invest in so-called
"nature-based solutions", from reforestation to wetland expansion. NEW PLEDGES Over the last decade, less than 1% of
international climate finance has gone to indigenous and local communities to
manage forests that absorb planet-heating carbon emissions and are rich in
biodiversity, according to a recent report from green groups. Nature protection remains under-funded
worldwide, with the UN urging a four-fold increase in annual investment to $536
billion by 2050, to tackle the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity
and land degradation. Lately there has been a rise in pledges,
including at November's UN COP26 climate summit, where about $19 billion was
promised in public and private funding to protect and restore forests. This month, a new global fund was
launched by the Rights and Resources Initiative and Campaign for Nature to help
indigenous and local groups conserving forests and other ecosystems on the
ground access international finance more easily. Environmentalist Meena Raman said making
more small grants available to communities and partnering with local
non-profits to overcome language and knowledge barriers would channel money to
places that have missed out in the past. "Nature provides them with jobs,
and they protect the ecosystem... It's about sustainable livelihoods and
sustaining nature (at the same time)," said Raman, president of Friends of
the Earth Malaysia, a conservation group. BOOST FOR WOMEN Back in Sungai Acheh, a sleepy village
with wooden fishing boats along the river, women said they had also gained from
the mangrove-planting initiative. A group of them has learned from
mangrove-dwelling communities in Indonesia how to turn some of the tree species
into tea, juice and jam, selling the products for 6-8 ringgit each to boost
their household income. "It has not only helped my husband
to increase his fishing catch, but I have benefited from it too," said
Siti Hajar Abdul Aziz, 36, a mother of five. More coastal communities like hers would
gain from protecting nature and improving their livelihoods, if they get
financial support to champion similar initiatives, she added. Siti Hajar hopes one day to find ways to
expand sales of her mangrove products by selling them in places like
supermarkets. "Before this I was just sitting at
home - I have learned so much since I started doing this," she said.