Community-led restoration brings people, science, and policy together to achieve sustainable and just outcomes. Governments must now strengthen protections and enforce laws that stop deforestation before it starts.

Watch the full film 🔗 youtu.be/VwJMvRH95lM

Alongside Hen Mpoano, as a part of our Sustainable Oceans Project, our new short documentary, “Forests of Life: Ghana’s Sankofa Journey of Mangrove Restoration”, reveals how local action and stronger policy can revive these vital ecosystems.

However, they are under serious threat. Between 2000 and 2022, mangrove coverage in the country fell by almost 20%, with the Central Region suffering a devastating 66% decline.

This has weakened local fisheries, increased coastal vulnerability, and released stored carbon back into the atmosphere.

🌱 Across Ghana’s coast, mangroves nurture fisheries, guard shorelines from erosion and storms, and sequester vast amounts of carbon.

Mangroves are among the most powerful natural climate solutions on Earth. In Ghana, they are also the lifeblood of coastal communities.

🇪🇺 As part of the evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy, the EU must take lessons from countries who have implemented their own discard ban, to reduce the illegal discarding of seafood in the most sustainable way possible.

🚢 🎥 Transparency is the key to protecting these ecosystems and ending this widespread illegal practice.

By installing on-board cameras, they show exactly what is caught and what is thrown back, which encourages fishers to more carefully consider how they are fishing.

🐟 In European waters, fish are being wasted: caught and dumped to make room for more valuable catch.

This practice, known as highgrading, is illegal, but most cases go unreported.

This extremely wasteful and unsustainable practice puts pressure on struggling ecosystems and fishers' livelihoods.

“There should not be fish coming into this country which has been illegally sourced, undercutting our own fishing communities and our own fish processors.”

Barry Gardiner MP calls on the government to implement more robust import control measures to protect UK consumers and fishing communities:

🚨 In isolated conditions, exploitation thrives.

A recent investigation in the Financial Times reveals the human rights abuses taking place on board tuna fishing vessels.

Far from support networks and away from the eyes of authorities for years, patterns of exploitation have become systemic.

The evening was a critical reminder of the importance of protecting the Pantanal and other wetlands, to preserve them for the people and wildlife that rely on it.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion and attended!

🎥 👏 Standing ovation for 'Pantanal'