Tahiry Honko
Tahiry Honko means ‘preserving mangroves’ in the local Vezo dialect and is the world’s largest community-led mangrove carbon project.
Project overview
The project sits in the Bay of Assassins, in southwest Madagascar, and promotes locally led conservation, reforestation and sustainable management of over 1,300 hectares of mangroves.
Through mangrove conservation, the project supports fisheries management and other initiatives that grow the local economies. These then bring health care, education and wells for the local communities.
Mangroves themselves provide a habitat for sea life and help protect coastal areas from flooding. They sustain local communities with food, fuel for cooking, timber for building and generate local income. The mangroves need managing sustainably, so the project is developing initiatives for alternative livelihoods, including sea cucumber and seaweed farming and mangrove beekeeping.
Land area
1393
Project Status
Active
Participants
895 households
Founding Partner & year
Blue Ventures on behalf of Association Velondriake, 2018
Certified Under
Plan Vivo Climate
Project Type
Afforestation, reforestation and avoided deforestation
Key Species
Ceriops tagal, Rhizophora mucronata, Avicennia marina and Bruguiera gym norrhiza
How it works
The Tahiry Honko mangrove forests contain more than 1,000 trees per hectare meaning the project is protecting over 2.6 million trees in South West Madagascar. Every year, approximately 50,000 propagules (mangrove seedlings), are planted, restoring areas of the habitat where historically trees were cut down
Tahiry Honko, is a Blue Carbon project, and like all mangrove restoration and protection projects, has the potential to sequester many times more carbon than terrestrial ecosystems. To date, this project has only issued a small number of Plan Vivo Certificates.
Of the many people involved in the project, more than 700 from the local communities have trained to farm sea cucumbers and seaweed, and over 50% of the farmers are women. To date, 25,164 sea cucumbers have been harvested as part of the project.
What Makes This Project Special
A first for Madagascar
It is the first carbon sequestration project in Madagascar focused on mangrove ecosystems.
International Award
Tahiry Honko was a finalist in the Bond International Development Awards.
400,000 Propagules
In the Bay of Assasins, over an area of 76 hectares, the community has sown over 400,000 seeds (propagules) from five mangrove species.
New Livelihoods
The mangroves support 33 beekeepers, 41 seaweed harvesters and 78 sea cucumber farmers. Mangroves provide the nectar and habitat for this regenerative local economy.
Women livelihoods
Women have more than 50% of these regenerative livelihoods .
Responding to Challenge
- Deforestation and habitat degradation
Despite their value, mangroves are threatened by deforestation. Many species in the forests are on the IUCN red list of threatened species.
- Local community empowerment
Coastal communities have the most to lose from collapsing forests and fisheries, and the most to gain from conservation success. They’re often best placed to manage and restore nature, but rarely given this kind of opportunity.
- Loss of biodiversity
Loss of mangroves means loss of habitats and biodiversity, loss of fishing livelihoods, and damage to other habitats like coral reefs, sea grass beds and spiny forests.
Project Documentation
For a transparent overview of the project’s progress and impact, the latest annual report
is available for download.
Full technical documentation, including the Verification Statement and Project Design Document (PDD), is available to all partners through the dedicated Client Hub.