Margaret Finlayson-Sykes

Co-Developing Regenerative Practices for Mangrove Restoration

The aim of my project is to identify key areas of mangrove forest for legal protection and potential re-establishment. To do this, the work currently being carried out by the CoastMan project will be used to gain a better understanding of how people in coastal communities view and depend upon mangrove ecosystems. Using this information, I would like to co-design with local organisations and communities, an ecological data collection program using simple and accessible sampling techniques, such as observation logs, remote camera trapping and eDNA analysis, to create a picture of the biodiversity, structural completeness and quality of mangroves in CoastMan’s areas of focus. Mapping this alongside data showing the level of dependency of local people on certain areas will aid in identifying key areas for protection and potential regeneration that would have minimal impact on local livelihoods, supporting a biophilic human existence.

Supervisor team: Dr Alexandra Morel and Professor Lorraine van Blerk