Challenges

Over 4000 square kilometres of mangroves to be restored by 2030 (Global Mangrove Alliance) That's 1.5 square kms per day every day for 7 years!

The most common restoration method is the planting of mangrove saplings which is slow, costly and has limited success. Saplings take around 9-12 months to produce with a commercial cost of around $10 per sapling. The success rate of planted saplings growing to a mature tree is around 10%. 2 mature trees per square metre is at a cost of $200 per square meter.

Solution

2 volunteers can install over 300 square meters of our device per day.

A team of 12 volunteers can install over 1.5 square kilometres in only 1 week.

The cost of our device is currently $9 per device. Our success rate is 2 mature trees per square meter at a cost of $36 per square meter.

Why it works

Each river system has its own unique makeup of mangrove species. It is difficult to commercialise seedling production to match each system, so more times than not, mangrove restoration projects fail due to a mismatch of species for a particular system.

Our device captures the seeds that naturally occur within that river system. They then only germinate in the areas along the bank where they normally would within that system. The prefect situation of the same seeds naturally germinating in the same soil/sand composition at the right time of the year.

Set and forget. During the life of the device, it will capture around 3-4 seasons worth of seeds before it has biodegraded away. It can be rapidly installed at any time of the year and requires no maintenance.