LocationsHow mangrove conservation is advancing peace and security
Roots of resilience
July 23, 2026
Community-led mangrove restoration is an important part of Somalia’s climate adaptation strategy.
Photo: UNDP Somalia
Mangroves are often celebrated for their remarkable ability to store carbon, support biodiversity and protect coastlines from erosion and extreme weather. Across fragile and conflict-affected regions also vulnerable to climate change, they provide something equally vital: a foundation for human security.
As rising temperatures and extreme weather multiply existing threats, the health of a coastline often dictates the stability of a community. When coastal ecosystems collapse, the fallout has cascading impacts. Fish stocks decline and freshwater sources become scarce. People lose their generational farmlands and homes to erosion. The resulting desperation fuels competition and conflicts over shrinking resources, resulting in violence or forcing families to flee.
Protecting mangrove ecosystems offers a powerful pathway to build resilience. When restored and managed sustainably, mangroves sustain local economies, encourage collective environmental stewardship, and reduce the risk of displacement from storms and rising seas, becoming a critical investment in peace and stability.
Restoring livelihoods, rebuilding trust
For coastal communities, healthy mangroves are the bedrock of the local economy. Their dense root systems act as vital nurseries for marine life, supporting both commercial and artisanal fisheries. When these coastal forests are degraded by climate shocks, pollution or overexploitation, marine populations quickly collapse.
In fragile and conflict-affected settings, this sudden loss of income and food security acts as a dangerous threat multiplier. As desperation sets in, competition for shrinking fishing grounds intensifies, often igniting localized disputes and driving displacement.
Nearly 30 percent of Somalia’s land is degraded. In the coastal Jazeera district, mangroves are among the ecosystems under threat, placing fishing livelihoods at increasing risk in a country facing severe climate vulnerability and decades of instability.
To address this, a partnership between the Government of Somalia and the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS), supported by the UN-coordinated NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, is restoring mangroves through community-based management. An important aspect of the initiative is rehabilitating war-damaged natural areas by involving both residents and internally displaced persons. Working side-by-side to protect mangroves promotes a shared sense of environmental stewardship, building social cohesion in communities fractured by instability.
By securing local food supply chains and rebuilding trust, such collaborative recovery lays the groundwork for climate resilience and peace.
Community-driven plantation efforts are reviving degraded mangroves and building social cohesion in Somalia’s Jazeera district.
Photo: UNDP Somalia
Women leading resilience and local governance
In post-conflict zones, environmental degradation often leaves marginalized communities with few legal ways to earn a living. When traditional livelihoods collapse, vulnerable populations face immense pressure to participate in illicit activities, such as illegal logging or cultivation, just to survive. These unregulated economies not only accelerate environmental destruction but also provide the financial fuel that sustains violent extremist groups and perpetuates violence.
In Tumaco municipality on Colombia’s Pacific coast, communities have long faced armed conflict alongside degradation of their natural ecosystems. For Afro-Colombian concheras, women who traditionally harvest shellfish, the loss of mangroves is a direct threat to their physical safety. As nearby estuaries deplete, they are forced to venture deeper into isolated, contested territories to find shellfish, drastically increasing their exposure to armed groups.
For women shellfish farmers on Colombia’s Pacific coast, mangrove degradation threatens their livelihoods and physical safety.
Photo: UNDP Colombia/Fredy Genes
Women leading resilience and local governance
To offer a safe and sustainable alternative, UNDP has supported the Asociación Raíces del Manglar, a grassroots association of Afro-Colombian women restoring local estuaries. By establishing nurseries and planting seedlings, they have successfully restored 15 hectares of degraded mangroves, bringing shellfish harvesting safely back to their doorsteps. Working alongside government institutions like Corponariño and Colombia’s Navy, a people-led Mangrove Guardians Network has been established for long-term protection.
Placing women at the centre of resource governance is reviving local nature-based economies while reducing the risk of gender-based violence.
Members of the Asociación Raíces del Manglar (Mangrove Roots Association), a women-led community organization undertaking mangrove conservation efforts in Tumaco municipality of Colombia.
Photo: UNDP Colombia/Fredy Genes
Investing in the future
In the Pacific Islands, climate change is an everyday existential threat. Rising seas, stronger storms and coastal erosion are reshaping shorelines—threatening homes, livelihoods and cultural heritage. As these pressures intensify, healthy mangrove forests remain one of the most effective natural buffers.
For residents of South Malaita village in the Solomon Islands, mangroves underpin their livelihoods—providing timber, firewood and food in the form of fisheries and the edible mangrove fruits themselves. As these mangroves face threats from pollution, land clearance and disasters, the local Angouru community is taking the lead to protect them.
Supported by UNDP - GEF Small Grants Program, the Angouru Community Development Association (ACDA) has established a community research centre where students and researchers study mangrove ecosystems, document traditional ecological knowledge and develop locally led conservation strategies.
By engaging youth, preserving indigenous knowledge and ensuring communities lead decisions on how their natural resources are managed, ACDA is nurturing a new generation of community leaders well-equipped to address climate risks.
The Angouru Community Development Association (ACDA) is driving community-led mangrove restoration in South Malaita village in the Solomon Islands.
Photo: UNDP Solomon Islands
Nature’s peace dividend
Healthy mangroves are a natural infrastructure that helps societies withstand multiple, interconnected risks. By securing livelihoods, strengthening food systems, empowering local leadership and improving the stewardship of shared natural resources, they address many of the underlying pressures that can fuel instability and conflict. Their restoration demonstrates how investing in nature is also an investment in people—fostering cooperation instead of competition, prevention instead of crisis response and long-term resilience instead of repeated recovery—paving the way for more peaceful, secure and sustainable futures.
Mangroves underpin the lives and livelihoods of communities around the world.
Photo: UNDP Solomon Islands
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