Gambian women restore mangroves that shield Banjul from rising seas

At dawn in the Tanbi Wetland, Fatou Jarjue paddles her canoe through channels lined with mangrove roots, checking on seedlings she has planted over the past year. The 34-year-old from Ndangan, a settlement of about 300 people near Banjul, says she has restored more than 5,000 mangroves since 2025. Like generations of women before her, she harvests oysters, crabs and fish from the wetland, but she now also spends time inspecting young trees, replacing damaged plants and monitoring areas where restoration is needed.

The mangroves serve a dual purpose: they provide the shellfish and fish that sustain local livelihoods, and their dense root systems buffer the coastline against erosion and storm surges. Jarjue grew up learning to harvest oysters from her mother, but she watched rising seas and changing weather degrade the forest and reduce catches. After receiving training through a local conservation initiative, she and other women in Ndangan began treating the wetland as a resource they must actively protect, not only harvest.

Sussan Colley, 48, who has worked the wetland since her teens, says the difference is visible. As restoration expanded, oysters returned in greater numbers and grew larger, reviving a fishery that had declined. Colley now teaches her children both the harvesting skills she inherited and the responsibility to maintain the ecosystem that makes those livelihoods possible.

The annual rainy-season closure of oyster harvesting, part of The Gambia's Oyster and Cockle Co-management Plan, allows stocks to regenerate and reduces contamination risk from increased runoff. Marine scientist Dawda Saine explains that the closure is not because oysters become poisonous, but to protect the resource and consumer safety while the shellfish filter water carrying waste and sediment. Women like Jarjue view respecting the closure as an investment in future harvests.

The work in Ndangan has implications far beyond the settlement. Banjul, a low-lying island capital, faces growing threats from sea-level rise, coastal erosion and flooding. Experts warn that a one-metre rise in global sea levels could inundate parts of the city. In 2022, severe flooding affected thousands across The Gambia, underscoring the vulnerability of coastal communities.

Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe says the survival of Banjul is closely tied to the survival of its mangroves. The Banjul City Council is working to protect the capital from climate threats, but degradation of the wetland through human activities remains a challenge. Supporting women like Jarjue, Lowe says, strengthens both their incomes and the city's resilience.

Challenges persist. Without reliable electricity, preserving catches is difficult when market demand is low, and restoration is a slow process; a seedling does not transform a coastline overnight. Yet each day Jarjue returns to the wetland, sometimes to harvest, sometimes only to check whether the trees she planted are surviving.

As the tide rises, she guides her canoe back toward shore, leaving behind thousands of young mangroves. Months from now she will harvest oysters from the same roots she is protecting today. "Every morning I wake up and see the mangroves growing," she says. "That gives me peace. If the mangroves disappear one day, our lives will disappear with them."