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Peace Boat’s visit to Eritrea, in North Africa,
provided an opportunity for a group of participants
to accompany Guest Educator Dr. Gordon Sato to learn
first hand about how mangrove forestation can help the
people of Eritrea fight poverty, hunger, environmental
pollution and global warming. Known as The Manzanar
Project, this success story is contributing towards
food security and sustainability for the people living
on Eritrea’s eastern coastline.
Current political climate
Eritrea is Africa’s newest nation state –
formed in 1993 at the end of a 30-year struggle for
independence from Ethiopia. Unfortunately, tensions
continued to linger and fighting broke out a second
time in 1998 between the two countries in the northern
border region. Today, the situation is still fragile
and the presence of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force
helps keep the conflict at bay.
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Yosief Ghirmatsion on deck en
route to Eritrea |
As Yosief Ghirmatsion, representative
of the Eritrean National Union of Youth and Students
(NUEYS) and Guest Educator onboard Peace Boat, explained,
the country is not at war and not at peace. Decades
of conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia have cost both
countries tens of thousands of lives and countless resources,
including losses in jobs and industry. From 1993 to
1997 Eritrea experienced a yearly seven percent growth
in its economy, but when the 1998 fighting started,
the health of the economy declined significantly.
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The
Manzanar Project
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Homes in the coastal village of
Hergigo |
As a small North African country with
an arid climate, Eritrea faces many economic hardships.
Over 70 percent of the population depends on cultivating
crops and raising live-stock for their livelihood. Yet
due to the arid climate, rain may not fall for months
in some regions of Eritrea. And without rain, the people
are unable to grow enough food or feed their animals.
Living in Eritrea’s dry coastal region, where droughts
occur frequently, Eritrean people may face a food shortage
for up to six months of every year. Without international
food aid these droughts would lead to mass starvation.
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| To help fight the problem of food insecurity,
Dr. Gordon Sato, a prominent scientist started The
Manzanar Project, and created a way for villagers
to plant mangrove trees along Eritrea’s coastline.
Dr. Sato first became interested in Eritrea during the
“Ethiopian famine” of the 1980s and has worked
in the country ever since. When Eritrea was still a part
of Ethiopia, he helped develop fish farming to supply
wounded soldiers with food. Following Eritrea’s
independence, he has continued to focus on creating ways
for the country to fight hunger and poverty. The idea
behind The Manzanar Project remains simple: if
the livestock can survive, the people can also survive. |
Dr. Gordon Sato outside the Manzanar
Research Station |
Young mangrove trees planted at
the coastal village of Hergigo |
The inspiration behind planting mangrove
trees came to Dr. Sato seven years ago, while standing
along a waterway. As he watched a camel eating the tree’s
leaves he came up with an idea to try to use mangroves
to feed livestock. As one of the only plants that will
survive during drought, he found that mangroves in Eritrea
only grow on 15 percent of the coast, but that 85 percent
of the coast has no trees. Deciding to invest US$ 400,000
of his own money, he decided to start a forestation
project along the coast of Eritrea where mangroves do
not normally survive. |
Peace
Boat visits The Manzanar Project
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Peace Boat participants gather
at the Massawa Research Station
Abraham Fessha explains key
concepts of The Manzanar Project
Since the Manzanar is a village-based project, members
from the village are chosen by the Mayor to plant and
care for the trees. A Manzanar employee told Peace Boat
participants that a large percentage of men who lived
in the village were killed during the 30-year war and
that many women who lost their husbands have been chosen
to work at the project site. |
Dr. Sato traveled with Peace Boat from
Sri Lanka to Eritrea to teach Peace Boat participants
about his project. Upon arrival to Massawa, over 60 eager
participants accompanied Dr. Sato to The Manzanar Research
Station to learn more about the project.
Arriving at the Research Station, the group was lead
by Abraham Fessha who explained the various research
projects being conducted. Abraham explained that in
Eritrea the supply of sun and seawater is almost limitless.
“We are trying to convert these two ample resources
into mangroves forests for human use.” Over the
last few years the station has perfected a sustainable
method of fertilization
and planting, and
is now working on developing methods to improve upon
the use of mangrove’s leaves
and seeds as a complete
diet for livestock.
Following the visit to the Massawa Research Station,
the participants set off on a 40 minute drive through
dry coastal land to the village of Hergigo to visit
a mangrove-planting site. Abraham explained that The
Manzanar Project “uses Hergigo as a model so other
parts of the country can adapt it to their areas.”
Along the coast of the village more than 500,000 trees
have been planted over the past one year. “The
resources found in the trees will be used by the villagers
for their own use,” said Abraham. “Within
three years the plants will provide food for animals.”
Hergigo villager stands in front
of one year old mangrove trees
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Back onto the bus |
While walking around the 20-hectare planting
site participants talked with some of the Manzanar employees
about Eritrea and the future of the project. The enthusiastic
employees were eager to share the success of the trees
growing in Hergigo, explaining that as the project continues
to develop the village will be able to increase the number
of livestock in their herd which will increase their standard
of living. After helping to remove dried seaweed from
the young trees, the participants escaped away from the
hot sun and headed back to the ship with a better understanding
of Eritrea and the challenges it faces. |
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