While much of the world slowed down during the pandemic, a group of 15 women in Kenya's coastal village of Munje decided to plant hope — literally.
They formed the Munje Tunusuru Women's Group, uniting around a shared goal: to bring back their vanishing mangrove forest, according to One Earth. Today, the group has grown to 30 members, each dedicated to restoring and protecting their coastline.
For years, the Munje mangroves — part of the 7,600-hectare Vanga-Funzi system — had been shrinking because of illegal wood harvesting and other unsustainable activities. As the forest disappeared, fish stocks declined, and erosion began to threaten the coastline.
Rather than watch their environment and livelihoods disappear, these women took matters into their own hands.
The group worked alongside nearby conservation partners, gathering seedlings and building nurseries along the shoreline. Slowly, the plants began to grow, and stretches of the coastline that had been empty for years started to recover.
The women have planted over one million mangrove seedlings, helping restore large sections of the Munje coastline. Local fishers are already seeing the difference as marine life returns and the community regains its footing.
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Beyond environmental recovery, the project has created something even more powerful — empowerment. By restoring the mangroves, the women have strengthened local fisheries, improved food security, and created new income opportunities for their families. Their numbers — and their impact — continue to grow, inspiring neighboring communities to start their own restoration projects.
"The Munje Tunusuru Women's Group shows how a community working together can become a force of change — and in this case, save an ecosystem," said Cecilia Brenner, managing director of Design for Good.
Their story is proof that rebuilding the planet doesn't require grand budgets or perfect conditions — just a spark of collective action. You can show your support for community-driven projects like this one by donating to grassroots restoration initiatives.
If 15 women can bring back a forest, imagine what the rest of us could do.
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