CoastMan

Mangrove ecosystems are salt-tolerant coastal habitats in tropical and subtropical regions which protect coastal communities from flooding and harbour a multitude of species.

Coastal Africa hosts 20% of the world's mangroves across 34 countries and communities rely on mangroves for livelihoods. Despite their importance, African mangrove forests are in decline, driven by poverty, high youth unemployment, and a changing climate.

Exploring social dynamics and youth livelihoods in mangrove-dependent communities in Ghana and Tanzania, the University of Dundee team is engaging in co-produced participatory research using mixed methods. Using in-depth interviews, participatory mapping, and co-creating novel project outputs including a story map, we will disseminate project findings to communities, policy makers and other stakeholders locally and globally.

We are also contributing to CoastMan’s key objective of co-production and uptake of a multi-criteria Decision Support System (DSS), providing vulnerable communities and decision-makers a knowledge-based decision-making capacity to promote mitigation strategies and mangrove restoration and conservation.