WILDCOAST is building a network of women who conserve and restore mangroves all around Mexico and Latin America, from the indigenous communities of Sonora, to the afro-mexican communities of Oaxaca. Through capacity building, knowledge exchange, and the creation of paid blue jobs, they become global and community leaders in the fight against climate change. With them, we are on a mission to plant 1 million mangroves.
We have started with Mexico: we have now engaged hundreds of women from 14 communities from all over the country. But this is a regional model: our next step is to scale it to all of Latin America, and replicate it in every region of the world.
Coastal communities are highly vulnerable to climate change: they are exposed to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise. And within these communities, being a woman worsens that vulnerability.
Mangroves are superheroes in the fight against climate change: they absorb 5x more carbon than tropical forests; are barriers against hurricanes, floods and sea level rise; are key nurseries for fish and shellfish and biodiversity hotspots. They help clean water and prevent the coastal erosion. By empowering women to protect them, we decrease women's vulnerability and address climate change at the global level.
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