Mangrove conservation in Negros Oriental
We have planted more than 31,000 mangrove trees, choosing the right species for the right spot. These incredible forests shelter juvenile fish on their way to the reef, and are crucial for food security.
Why Mangroves Matter
Mangroves are the trees that grow where land meets sea, rooted in mud that floods with every tide. Few habitats do as much for a coastline.
Their tangled roots shelter young fish, including many of the snappers that later move out to the reef. They trap sediment washed down from the hills before it can smother the coral. They break the force of the waves when typhoons come in. And their waterlogged soils lock away carbon for centuries, more per hectare than most tropical forests hold.
The Philippines has lost around half of its mangroves since 1918. Much of that forest was cleared for fish ponds and reclaimed land, because its value is easy to overlook until it's gone: fewer fish, muddier reefs, and coastal villages with nothing between them and the storm.
Our approach
The Right Species in the Right Place
Studies have found that only 10 to 20% of mangroves planted in the Philippines survive in the long run, mostly because the wrong species go into the wrong places, often mudflats and seagrass beds where mangroves never grew. We plant each species where it would grow naturally, from the pioneers that face the open sea to the trees further back in the shelter of the forest.
A mangrove forest has zones. Pioneers like pagatpat (Sonneratia alba) take the full force of the open coast, while other species grow further back, where the ground floods less often. We raise saplings in nurseries and plant them out once they're big enough to hold their ground. Where grazing animals are a risk, we fence the site, as we did at Mayabon, where livestock had destroyed an earlier reforestation.
31,000+mangroves planted
5municipalities
10years of planting
What's Next: Fish Ponds
Along the coasts where we work, almost every stretch of shore that can hold mangroves has now been replanted. For a conservation NGO, working ourselves out of a job is the best result there is. What's left are old fish ponds, many of them abandoned, dug out of land that was mangrove forest to begin with. Finding those ponds and turning them back into forest is the next stage of our work.
Livelihoods That Keep the Forest Standing
A planted mangrove only survives if the people living beside it want it there. So alongside the planting, we've helped coastal communities earn from healthy mangroves.
Since 2017
Mangrove honey
After a pilot funded by the Rufford Foundation, we started a mangrove honey programme with beekeeping groups along the south-east coast.
2019
A boardwalk in Siaton
We advised on and helped fund a 550-metre boardwalk through the mangroves, giving the PAPSIMCO community cooperative an income from visitors.
2025
Ecotourism in Victorias
We funded training, kayaks and equipment for fisherfolk in Victorias, Negros Occidental, to open a mangrove ecotourism spot of their own.
Teaching the Next Generation
Since 2023, a full-time ProOcean teacher has given mangrove lessons in primary schools in Siaton and Zamboanguita. By mid-2024 those lessons had reached 1,866 children in grades 2 and 3.
In recent years we've marked World Mangrove Day with plantings and clean-ups alongside fisherfolk, the Coast Guard and local police. Teachers are welcome to use our free Coasts and typhoons lesson module, which covers how mangroves and reefs protect the shore.
Since 2016
Ten Years of Mangrove Work
- 2016
Took part in our first mangrove reforestation.
- 2017
Built a mangrove nursery and started the mangrove honey programme.
- 2018
Signed mangrove conservation agreements in Siaton and Bais, and began a livelihood partnership with PAPSIMCO.
- 2019
Held four large planting events with PAPSIMCO and helped fund the 550-metre boardwalk.
- 2021
Planted 11,000 mangroves in Tanjay, fenced and replanted Mayabon, and launched plantamangrove.org.
- 2023
Joined the Mangrove Planting Coalition's 30,000-tree planting in Banilad, Dumaguete, and started mangrove lessons in schools.
- 2025
Helped fisherfolk in Victorias open a mangrove ecotourism spot.
- 2026
Assessed the mangroves, seagrass and reefs of an 86-hectare protected area in Bais City.
Get Involved
Volunteer
Mangrove planting is part of volunteer life at certain times of year, alongside our reef surveys.
Volunteer with usPartner with us
Companies fund our mangrove and coastal work through our corporate partnerships.
Corporate partnershipsSponsor mangroves
Through plantamangrove.org, private and corporate sponsors can fund mangrove planting, with each tree GPS-tagged and photographed.
Visit plantamangrove.org