Mangroves, though covering only 0.1 percent of Earth’s land, provide exceptional ecosystem services – supporting biodiversity, fisheries, and local livelihoods; carbon sequestration and storage; improving water quality; stabilizing coasts; and reducing wave energy and storm surges. Despite their value, around 50 percent of global mangroves have been lost over the past 50 years due to land conversion, aquaculture and climate impacts. Restoration efforts are increasing worldwide, however, financing remains inadequate. Scaling up would require moving ecological restoration theory into practice through making widely available novel finance approaches – combining public funding, International Financing Institution (IFI) support, blue carbon or biodiversity credits.
Innovative Direction
The Duke RESTORE Mangroves for People Team will unite innovative science, education, outreach, and partnerships to help transform mangrove restoration and finance from their scientifically-proven but implementation wise immature state into a scalable, sustainable model. This work will contribute significantly to the globally agreed goal of securing the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves by 2030, supported by $4 billion in investments.
Our Team
Our Goals
The Mangroves for People Team will build on current work to understand factors affecting restoration success and those affecting return on investment – restoration locations, approaches, and financial instruments and mechanisms can be steered towards the most promising opportunities. Partnering with finance and business, through Fuqua School of Business and global partners, to develop mangrove specific business models to generate revenue streams to ensure highest ROI possible
- Possible locations for field trips and study sites include Florida Everglades (USA), Costa Rica (Nicoya), West Africa (Sierra Leone, Guinea), as well as South America, South and Southeast Asia
- Skills honed at these trips include delivering implementable solutions, project management, entrepreneurship, working across disciplines and areas of expertise in a respectful, intellectually and culturally curious manner
Activities
We hope students will have the opportunity to travel to mangrove restoration sites, conferences, and host speakers and groups across disciplines and sectors. Their activities can contribute significantly towards reducing ecosystem degradation—in a student-driven manner that emphasizes and builds on Duke’s multi-disciplinary and world-renowned approach to solving environmental and sustainability challenges.
