Oct 26, 2026 |
Six communities in Memba, Nacala-à-Velha and Mossuril have received more than 953 000 meticais for meeting mangrove restoration and protection targets.
The payments were handed over at ceremonies held in Memba and Mossuril, which brought together more than 150 representatives of local authorities, communities and partners of the Futuro Azul project, among them ADPP, the Oceanographic Institute of Mozambique, the Associação Amigos do Meio Ambiente and Eduardo Mondlane University.
According to Wildlife Conservation Society Mozambique (WCS Mozambique), the six communities met the targets of restoring 117 hectares and protecting 850 hectares of mangroves.
The funds were paid under a Performance-Based Payment mechanism linked to Biodiversity Offsets, a pilot project run by BIOFUND with WCS and the National Directorate for Environment and Climate Change.
Community associations are paid according to results confirmed in the field by an independent verifier, and the verification carried out in July for the January to June 2026 cycle confirmed that the targets had been met.
As Kambaku previously reported, the model is based on two criteria, a planting success rate of more than 60 per cent and no cutting in areas of healthy mangrove, and was designed together with the communities themselves.
Also according to WCS Mozambique, part of the money will be used for basic needs, such as digging wells, building and rehabilitating schools, buying school desks and sports equipment for young people.
In Memba, the ceremony was led by the district permanent secretary, Daniel Gimo, who urged the communities to use the funds wisely and stressed that “BIOFUND and WCS stand out because of the tangible and impactful results”. In Mossuril, the handover was led by the district permanent secretary, Luisa Nahone.
The initiative is part of the Habitat Improvement Pilot Projects under the COMBO+ Programme, under way since 2021, and is funded by the Government of Sweden through the Biodiversity Conservation Programme. Futuro Azul, under which the payments fall, runs from 2022 to 2027 in Memba and Mossuril with support from the Blue Action Fund and other donors, according to BIOFUND, and seeks to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities to climate change.
Photos: WCS Mozambique
