Starter Kit. Idea 266 of 500. Cluster 13
Mangrove nurseries selling seedlings to the hotels and the state for coastal protection
The mechanism, from the book
An ocean eight times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a tourism industry on water Sri Lanka has more of.
The first step
Grow a first tray of mangrove seedlings from propagules collected with permission, and photograph them at each stage. Then ask the grounds manager of two coastal hotels whether they would pay per seedling planted and alive after 6 months, and ask the district office who buys seedlings for coastal protection and at what price. A price per living plant from either buyer is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A coastal hotel losing sand to the sea, which will pay per living seedling because a planted mangrove edge protects the land it stands on.
- What leaves today
- Coastal protection is bought as concrete and outside expertise, when the living alternative can be grown and planted by local nurseries.
Ask first
- Forest Department. Ask whether collecting mangrove propagules needs a permit, and where it is allowed.
- Central Environmental Authority. Ask whether mangrove planting on the coast needs approval.
Check before you spend
Whether you have permission to collect propagules and run the nursery, and whether planting on the buyer's coast is allowed.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a hotel pay per seedling planted?
- How many seedlings survive their first year?
- How many hotels on the coast want planting done?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.