One Million Mangroves

 

Miami, Florida is ground zero for both flooding and green technology.  In 2017, after our magic city and our neighboring Latin American communities sustained catastrophic flooding from hurricanes, we founded We Are Forces of Nature, a youth organization working to provide coastal protection by planting a million mangroves; distributing weather-related disaster relief to hurricane victims, and educating youth on the solutions we need to build a more sustainable and adaptable world. 

 

When the pandemic hit, we spent the long months of the lockdown in the mangrove forests, cleaning up mangrove roots along the Miami shoreline, which is the fastest way to regenerate growth. In November 2020, Central America suffered massive mudslides after being hit by Hurricane Eta, and I expanded our coastline protection project to provide hurricane relief to the Latin American communities whose receding coastlines left many of them with nothing.

 

Mangroves are now being used in innovative living seawalls. Recently, Forces of Nature began partnering with US State Department vistors from Gabon and Cameroon, in the hopes of expanding research on biotechnology can improve success in growing and replanting mangrove seedlings. 

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At the UN Oceans Conference in Nice,  we had the opportunity to meet with Peruvian farmers and the Ministers of Small Island Nations, including Fiji and the Seychelles, hear their coastal concerns, and discuss mangrove regeneration as a path forward for halting coastal erosion and preserving local economies.  In a meeting with  President Marcon, we shared mangroves' ability to sequester carbon. 

Mangroves protect against sea-level rise, provide a breeding ground for fish, preserve local fishing economies, and serve as nature's best carbon sink. Because mangroves grow to maturity in 10-20 years and have a large root system, they sequester atmospheric carbon at 5 times the rate of tropical forests and 10 times the rate of evergreen forests. Biotechnology and AI are already being used to magnify nature-based solutions.

This project allows everyone to play a role in protecting our coastline communities. Pull a group together to clean up ocean trash that clogs mangrove roots. Clean ups allow what Mother Nature does best - restore itself. If everyone in the world plants just seven mangrove seedlings a year, or cleans out the roots of just one bed of mangroves, we can amass enough forest area to absorb a third of carbon emissions.

Forces of Nature will continue to provide mangrove restoration education, as well as work hands-on, because we want youth to know thier actions can make a difference.