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By DIANA WANYONYI
Mombasa, Kenya: Seated under the native big tree among thirty five women is Mwakajefa Mwavune is one of the women here who is passionate of reclaiming the degraded land along the Majoreni swamp along the Indian Ocean in Shimoni, Kwale county on the Kenyan coast.
Mwavune who used to farm maize, millet and indigenous vegetables on her small farm in Pongwe Kidimu village, says her passion changed few years ago.
This was after the community came together and formed Pongwe Kidimu community forest Association that started planting mangroves on the mashes and also they started mangrove nursery near the degraded land.
“I am passionate about planting mangroves seedlings in the nursery, unusually my day starts at 4am every morning. This is because I prepare breakfast for my school going children, after that I join other women to go canoeing to the ocean in search of water bottles that have been thrown in the waters” said Mwavune.
Adding “After collecting them we come back to the place where there is a nursery and we start cutting the bottles in half then we plant mangrove seedlings.”
The income that is generated from selling mangrove seedlings is a win on her and her family. This is revealed well after the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in 2023 bought 10,000 mangrove seedlings from the community and together with the community planted the seedlings on the bare swamp of the ocean.
“We are happy that these mangroves are uplifting us and our family, because when rich people come to buy the seedlings, the money that I get here helps in settling school fees, buying food and clothing. We plead for many people to come and buy seedlings from us.”
The initiative of KPA of planting the seedlings with the community led to the recent victory celebration of a global win after its Mangrove Restoration for Ocean Protection and Increased Forest Cover Project at the 2025 International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Sustainability Awards Conference in Kobe, Japan.
The announcement was made during the Gala dinner awards ceremony at the ongoing IAPH World Ports Conference in Kobe, Japan.
This comes after a meticulous judging process by IAPH’s independent jury of industry experts and KPA’s well calculated public vote campaign to galvanize support for the project.
The KPA project topped in the Environmental Care category after beating two other finalists from a record-breaking pool of 500 global submissions.
The award recognizes KPA’s innovative collaboration with coastal communities to restore degraded forest ecosystems. Mangrove Restoration for Ocean Protection impressed the judges after demonstrating how ports’ collaboration with local communities and other government agencies can help empower communities and support the conservation of the environment and marine biodiversity for sustainable port operations.
KPA emerged the winner in the Environmental Care category of the prestigious IAPH Sustainability Awards, beating two other finalists from a record-breaking pool of 500 submissions.
Speaking during the Mazingira day celebration in Majoreni swamp at Shimoni, Jones Buchere, Corporate Communications Manager at KPA applauded the win saying that the collaboration between KPA and other organizations on the planting of mangroves is in alignment to the green port policy of KPA.
“KPA in collaboration with Kenya Forest Service and Community Forest Association, as KPA as we are doing this we are aligned to the green port policy and directive of the president where the county needs to plant 15 billion trees. Am happy to announce that at KPA we are doing a lot, between the period of 2019 to date we have managed to plant 521,000 trees and this year, our target is to plant another 500,000 trees.” Said, Buchere.
KPA is undertaking the initiatives of planting trees in different parts of the country. “Colleagues from the environment division this month of October are planning to plant another 300,000 trees. This initiative is not only taking place in Mombasa County but we are doing the same in Kwale and Kilifi counties.
Mshemanga Hamisi Riziki, chair of the Pongwe Kidimu Community Forest Association said that the communities are ensuring that the bare swampy areas are reclaimed by planting indigenous.
“This mangroves forest that you see here was sponsored by KPA”, he said pointing fingers to the massive thicket of mangrove forests swaying slowly by the soothing winds from the Indian Ocean.
He said that despite the fact that their increase of fish catch from the ocean due to the presence of mangroves, the trees also help them with barring the strong winds from the ocean that blow away rooftops of their houses.
KPA has planted mangrove trees along the Tudor Creek in Mombasa, Mida Creek in Kilifi county and at Dongo Kundu in Kwale county.
