On the 31st of March a group of
around 16 volunteers from Projects Abroad went to Vunibau village near Pacific
Harbour with the aim of repairing the existing mangrove nursery, then
collecting and planting as many mangrove propagules as possible.
We arrived at 9:15am and immediately split
into 3 groups. The first group was in charge of fixing the mangrove nursery
which involved constructing a canopy made of bamboo and green nets. The second
group went to collect propagules and soil from the nearby river to prepare for
planting. And the other group went through the large pile of plastic bottles sorting
out the tops from the bottoms so that we could plant them separately.
After the nursery had been constructed and
enough propagules had been collected, we all began to plant the propagules. It
was well organized as some people filling the bottles with soil and planting
the propagules in them, then others were putting the mangroves in 10x10 squares
of 100 and the rest were collecting more soil/propagules when we were running
low.
We continued to work until almost midday
before we had to head back to the apartments. Our initial goal for the day was
to rebuild the nursery and plant 600 propagules. However, we shattered our
target by planting 1500 propagules and collecting over 2000 more to take back
with us and be planted at a later date. We then watered them thoroughly, said
goodbye to the locals and left the village.
A week later, on the 7th of
April, we returned to the same village to continue planting propagules.
Although it had only been a week, a few of the propagules had already started
to sprout leaves and many had grown since we planted them. We picked up where
we left off and proceeded to plant 1044 propagules before we ran out of plastic
bottles to use. Therefore overall, a group of 16 volunteers planted 2544
mangroves in Vunibau village over a 2 week period.
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