Mangrove project creates fish, fire and hope in Eritrean desert

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

HIRGIGO, Eritrea (AFP) — Kneeling by the sparkling waters of the Red Sea, Ahmed Shengabay presses sand carefully over a mangrove seed.

"When this grows, it will provide protection for fish and food for my goats," Ahmed said smiling, waving at a long and thick line of tall trees already reaching high into the sky.

"We've planted all this already," the fisherman cum farmer added proudly, the mangroves lining the shore beside his small desert village of Hirgigo.

"The little fish like the mangroves, the big fish like the little fish -- and we like the big fish."

The seed-planting is part of a remarkable yet low-tech pilot project, designed as a model to improve the lives of desert coastal communities by using the salt-water trees to increase fish...