A company from the United Arab Emirates, Blue Forest, will finance the replanting of 200,000 mangrove trees in the central provinces of Sofala and Zambézia, with a budget of one billion meticais, in order to protect the ecosystem and reduce CO2 emissions.

The project, which is expected to reach more than 100,000 people, according to AIM, will cover 10 municipalities in the provinces in question, creating 5,000 jobs during the replanting of the mangroves.

The executive director of Blue Forest, Vahid Fotuhi, told the press last Thursday that the initiative could be extended to 20 years.

"We are at this seminar to bring together more partners to implement the project. Our vision is to bring sustainable solutions to communities, looking at climate change and the need to protect biodiversity," he said, as quoted by the agency.

The initiative can play a key role in improving agricultural performance and fishing activity, with the adoption of internationally recommended best practices.

For the time being, according to Jambigua Massinga, the national director for Climate Change at the Ministry of Land and Environment, 17 projects are being selected to help communities find alternative means of survival without relying on mangrove exploitation and slash-and-burn agriculture.

"We need to curb the pressure that now exists on forests and mangroves. We also need to find alternatives to reduce the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture. That's why we're looking for projects that can change this scenario," said the director.

The source also said that the national forest inventory indicates that more than 200,000 hectares a year suffer forest degradation in Mozambique and 26,000 hectares of mangroves are also degraded, as a result of the production of firewood and charcoal.