MALINDI, Kenya, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- A lush mangrove canopy stretches along the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River in Malindi, a coastal resort town in Kenya's Kilifi County, attracting local and international tourists thanks partly to a local women's group.
The 21-member Patanani Wito Women Group, all widows living near the estuary, has spearheaded the area's transformation from a site plagued by illegal logging into a thriving mangrove conservation zone.
Today, their conservation efforts are bringing tangible benefits and lasting change to the local community.
Agnes Kache Kahindi, chairperson of the group, said training from Nature Kenya experts helped the women realize that they could protect their local environment while building sustainable livelihoods.
"We teamed up with the sole purpose of earning a living by raising seedlings used in the restoration of the estuary," Kahindi told Xinhua recently.
Kahindi said that all 21 members work on a rotational schedule, allowing them to balance conservation work with parental responsibilities at home.
Alongside raising mangrove seedlings, the group runs an on-site restaurant that serves local meals to visiting tourists.
"We sell mangrove seedlings to buy food and educate our children," Kahindi said, adding that some members had even used their income to invest in livestock.
Beyond financial stability, she said the project had also helped rebuild her social support network, transforming her from a lonely widow into part of a sisterhood of women who have overcome shared struggles.
For 57-year-old Elina Damacharo, who joined the group in 2011, the initiative was a lifeline.
Widowed with seven children, all either in school or of school age, Damacharo initially had no resources to support them.
Today, she proudly says that most of her children have completed their education, thanks to the income she has earned through the group.
"The group gave me a job. From my earnings, I have educated my children, started keeping goats and replaced the grass-thatched hut my husband left me with a proper iron-sheet-roofed house," Damacharo said.
Damacharo now manages the group's mangrove nursery, which sells seedlings to banks and organizations for reforestation projects.
According to Francis Kagema Wathigu, Nature Kenya's coastal conservation programs coordinator, the women's group is playing a key role in mangrove replanting efforts.
Kagema explained that the decline of traditional Giriama community support systems had left many widows vulnerable to social isolation.
The project provides them with greater economic independence, giving members the means to build homes and support their children's higher education.
Kagema added that the widows' conservation work complements a 500-meter boardwalk, complete with a bird-photography hide and a shaded picnic area designed for ecotourists.
"The resulting green ecosystem serves as a crucial nursery ground for commercially important fish, prawns and crustaceans," Kagema noted, adding that it delivers "lasting benefits for the local community, the environment and native wildlife alike."
Joseph Mangi, chairman of the Sabaki River Conservation and Development Organization, said the restoration work is helping attract tourists to the area, where visitors now walk along the 500-meter wooden boardwalk to enjoy views of the estuary and watch hippos in the river.
He said the estuary was once heavily degraded as residents cut down mangroves for quick income, with little regard for the fragile ecosystem.
Mangi noted that the site now attracts hundreds of tourists and thousands of students annually, while local widows earn income by offering guided tours and receiving a share of visitor revenue.
Recognized by Nature Kenya as one of the country's 68 Key Biodiversity Areas, the Sabaki River Estuary hosts more than 240 bird species, including 91 species of waterbirds.
Shaped over decades by shifting sand, silt and sediment, the dynamic mosaic of microhabitats was once severely threatened by unregulated sand harvesting and overfishing before restoration efforts took root.
According to the Kenya Forest Service, mangrove forests line Kenya's 600-km coastline, thriving across creeks, bays, lagoons and river deltas. ■