00:01Along the coastline of Freetown in Sierra Leone, the gradual disappearance of mangrove directly threatens the community that depend on
00:09oyster farming to make a living.
00:12The activity, deeply rooted in local culture and which has enabled generations of women to make a living, is now
00:19under threat as mangrove forests deteriorate under pressure from human expansion.
00:24In the past, we didn't even need to go into the water to collect oysters.
00:29When you look at the mangroves, they were full of them, so there was no need to go into the
00:34water to get any.
00:35Since there were so many on the mangroves, we just filled our buckets, detached the oyster from the roots and
00:41went away.
00:42But today, it's no longer the same.
00:44When you look at the river, you can't see them anymore.
00:47You have to go into the water to find oyster to collect and then live again.
00:52Sierra Leone's spectacular one-life is under severe threat from deforestation, unchecked urban growth and other human activity challenges authorities
01:01have struggled to contain.
01:03This has in turn affected oyster population.
01:07All the mangroves were caught because people wanted to migrate in unplaned urbanisation.
01:13There was no land availability and people were now looking for, searching for land, trying to reclaim land around the
01:19coastal area in a particular community and they caught all the mangroves.
01:23So, now that they are living there, we are now faced a challenge with coastal erosion, flooding and a lot
01:35of heat wave threats that we are facing and loss of biodiversity.
01:40In recent years, the government of Sierra Leone and village communities have launched mangrove replanting schemes to better protect the
01:49coastline and combat climate change.
01:53Today, we are here putting up oyster racks and bamboo rafts.
01:58So, we are trying to bring an alternative sustainable livelihood to coastal community people living at Kole Town.
02:04Over the years, we have been doing mangrove restoration and conservation.
02:08And if you can see at my back here, we have a massive mangrove restoration that is going on.
02:12And we want to make sure that the pressure on this mangrove ecosystem reduces, especially for live load sustenance.
02:19So, that's why we are in.
02:21Mangrove around Freetown has been destroyed by urban sprawl, firewood collection and illegal construction.
02:27More than 25% of mangrove cover has vanished since 1990 as a result, according to official estimates.
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