 In exchange, the beneficiaries of these programs must agree to assist in protecting their local mangrove habitats.The training is designed in part to give low-income women in these communities alternatives to harvesting mangroves, a subsistence activity that has contributed to the forests' degradation.The project also established three large nursery facilities to grow several species of mangroves, to be replanted in areas previously cleared for aquaculture and other unsustainable development, as well as several areas destroyed during the Sri Lankan Civil War.