- Despite growing global interest in mangrove conservation and restoration, many projects fail; experts say one reason is that restoration efforts are often led by small community groups with limited resources and expertise.
- Over the past five years, Seatrees, a California-based NGO, has supported mangrove restoration projects in Kenya, Mexico, the U.S. and Indonesia by providing funding to scale up tree planting, produce storytelling materials and build capacity in science, monitoring and impact measurement.
- In Kenya, where their restoration efforts are most advanced, Seatrees and its local project partner have supported more than 30 community groups to plant more than 1 million mangrove seedlings, maintain nurseries, dig trenches to improve hydrology and patrol forest areas for illegal logging — while paying participants for this important work.
- Seatrees has recently funded the creation and operation of a mangrove seedling nursery in the Florida Keys, run by CoastLove, a local NGO that engages residents and tourists in hands-on activities.
Mangrove forests, located along tropical and subtropical coastlines, are increasingly recognized for their role in buffering climate disasters, storing carbon, supporting wildlife and livelihoods. Yet even as interest in mangrove conservation and restoration has surged in recent years, many projects fail — seedlings die, sites degrade further or communities disengage.
One reason, according to Catherine Lovelock, professor in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland in Australia and expert in mangrove ecology, is that restoration efforts are often led by small community groups with limited resources and expertise. In fact, studies have shown that around 70% of mangrove restoration projects in some regions, particularly Southeast Asia and Latin America, have low rates of success.
To bridge this gap, a growing number of environmental nonprofits are tapping into their experience with fundraising and resource mobilization to help local communities more effectively conduct restoration.
Seatrees, a California-based NGO (formerly known as Sustainable Surf), is one such organization. Rather than running projects itself, the organization partners with local community groups and other NGOs, providing funding, scientific expertise and media support to boost coastal and marine restoration efforts worldwide, including mangroves.
Over the past five years, Seatrees has supported mangrove restoration projects in Kenya, Mexico, the U.S. and Indonesia “by providing much needed funds to scale up tree planting, produce storytelling materials and build capacity in science, monitoring and impact measurement,” Leah Hays, the program director, told Mongabay.
Seatrees is one of nearly 130 organizations worldwide identified by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), as playing a key intermediary role in ecosystem restoration. The NGO scored highly for adherence to best practices and commitment to transparency in UCSC’s research, as documented in the Global Reforestation Organization Directory.
Surfing the restoration wave
Seatrees follows a consistent set of criteria when selecting projects and partners to support.
The organization preferably partners with local small-scale groups “who have verified experience in managing restoration projects, as well as established relationships with authorities and academic institutions,” but with “capacity gaps that Seatrees could help fill,” says Hays. At the same time, they choose projects that have permission to operate on the ground and buy-in from the local community, Indigenous groups and other relevant stakeholders, she added.
In Kenya, for example, Seatrees has partnered with Community Based Environmental Conservation (COBEC), a local NGO that works with coastal communities to restore and protect mangrove ecosystems. The initiative, which began in 2020, spans more than 600 hectares (1,483 acres) in the Marereni mangrove ecosystem and 153 hectares (378 acres) in Mida Creek, part of the Malindi-Watamu Biosphere Reserve.
Together, the partners have supported more than 30 local community groups in Kenya to plant more than 1 million mangrove seedlings, in addition to maintaining nurseries, digging trenches to improve hydrology and patrolling forest areas to detect illegal logging — while getting paid to do this important work, Hays said.
Stipends are distributed to group leaders at a per seedling amount, with many groups choosing to pool their earnings to reinvest into alternative livelihoods, such as beekeeping, ecotourism and livestock rearing, Hays said, noting that these income streams help provide financial stability once restoration work slows or ends.
Seatrees channels funding from multiple sources, including corporate and individual donations and foundation grants, to support restoration projects around the world. Its portfolio includes community-led initiatives in West Papua, Indonesia, focused on restoring fragments of a highly degraded mangrove forest in the Biak Island region, as well as a women-led project in Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico, centered on the El Dátil mangrove ecosystem, which is within a World Heritage site and breeding lagoon for the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus).
More recently, Seatrees has funded the creation and operation of a mangrove seedling nursery in the Florida Keys, an archipelago of about 1,700 islands off the southern coast of Florida, U.S. The nursery is operated by CoastLove, a Florida-based NGO that engages residents and tourists in planting and site maintenance activities, allowing them to learn from hands-on experience.
“Local residents, visitors and partner organizations participate directly in our nursery volunteer days, outplanting events and [coastal] cleanups,” Lanier Whitton, CoastLove’s restoration coordinator, told Mongabay, adding, “We strive to educate and include volunteers in every step of everything that we do.”
Whitton said mangrove restoration in the Keys is “critical,” as their low-lying limestone islands are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise, hurricanes and coastal development.
Finding the ‘sweet spot’ and overcoming challenges
According to Lovelock, who co-authored the “Best Practice Guidelines for Mangrove Restoration” report, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mangrove restoration, but success depends as much on economic and social conditions as on ecological design.
“Mangroves grow best when they are inundated by tides for a few hours at a time,” Lovelock said, noting that both permanent inundation and a lack of tidal flooding can lead to growth failure. She also explained that it’s important to ensure the restoration area falls within a “sweet spot” for mangrove growth, where environmental conditions are suitable and the broader context — including land tenure arrangements, community dependence on mangroves and other local drivers of deforestation or degradation — is taken into account.
Orion McCarthy, Seatrees science lead, said that while they trust project partners to lead initiatives on the ground due to their local knowledge, the organization advises them on best practices related to restoration and monitoring. In addition, they fund “adaptive management” strategies, so that partners can address challenges and opportunities as they arise, he added.
In Kenya, for example, Seatrees began funding trench-digging to improve hydrology alongside tree planting “when it became clear that one portion of their project area was suffering from high salinity and stagnant water,” McCarthy told Mongabay.
Hays said the organization also supports project partners in monitoring mangrove seedling survival at all sites for two years post-planting and in conducting regular site maintenance. This is critical because restoration sites can be affected by weather events and other threats.
“Our mangrove partners typically report seedling survival rates between 50% and 80%,” as worst and best performing sites respectively, McCarthy said.
In the Florida Keys, Coastlove recorded survivorship exceeding 80% at its latest outplanting site in 2025. Whitton explained that the team conducts site visits a month after planting “to make sure everything is looking good,” with follow-up visits 3-6 months later.
Coastlove also conducts hands-on maintenance when seasonal challenges, such as washed-up sargassum and seagrass, require it. “Depending on the density, we do have to remove that [from the shore] sometimes,” Whitton said.
The restoration coordinator said Coastlove monitors other environmental changes at their sites, including vegetation coverage and shoreline stability, while keeping track of volunteer participation and community engagement.
“We have had hundreds of volunteers and have partnered with many local agencies and other organizations,” Whitton said. “This has expanded [our] restoration capacity while increasing public awareness of mangrove ecosystems and their importance.”
Monitoring and reporting for success
Frequent monitoring and transparent reporting of project outcomes are another cornerstone of successful restoration, Lovelock said. The first helps managers see which activities need adjustment, while the latter shows stakeholders that the project is working and keeps them engaged, the mangrove expert explained.
According to McCarthy, Seatrees’ projects focus primarily on monitoring seedling survival, but in Kenya, where their restoration efforts are most advanced, they’ve been monitoring additional socioeconomic and biodiversity metrics, such as livelihood improvements, mangrove density, fish and invertebrate diversity and the presence of baboons.
In December 2024, COBEC conducted a community survey in Marereni to assess the project’s impacts to that point and identify areas for improvement. While many findings were positive — for example, 90% of tree planters said the project improved their quality of life — the survey also revealed persistent challenges, including 88% of residents reporting that illegal logging still remained a problem.
The survey findings, which were made public by Seatrees, demonstrate the organization’s commitment to evidence-based and transparent reporting that acknowledges both successes and limitations, McCarthy said, noting that the findings have informed their future plans for the project.
The organization also invests in visual storytelling, using photography and video to raise awareness and funds for activities often overlooked compared with tree planting, yet crucial for bigger impacts — such as forest patrols, community engagement events and long-term monitoring.
“People intuitively understand the impact and value of planting a tree,” Hays said. “But it can be harder to communicate the need for additional stewardship activities … and how they add up to bigger-picture benefits for the community and local biodiversity.”
With global interest in mangrove restoration on the rise, Seatrees and its partners are showing that success depends not just on how many trees are planted, but on how well science, community engagement and storytelling are woven together.
Banner image: Seatrees and project partner COBEC with local community members in Marereni, Kenya. Image courtesy of Seatrees.
Citations:
Lovelock, C. E., Barbier, E., & Duarte, C. M. (2022). Tackling the mangrove restoration challenge. PLOS Biology, 20(10), e3001836. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001836
Friess, D. A., Gatt, Y. M., Ahmad, R., Brown, B. M., Sidik, F., & Wodehouse, D. (2022). Achieving ambitious mangrove restoration targets will need a transdisciplinary and evidence-informed approach. One Earth, 5(5), 456-460. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2022.04.013
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