Key facts

• Only One members are funding the restoration of 25,000 mangrove trees on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco, The Bahamas.

• This project restores mangrove trees in areas left barren by the impact of 2019’s Hurricane Dorian. Its goal is to bolster marine ecosystems at a much faster rate than the decades it would take for natural recovery. Dorian, the worst storm in Bahamas history, damaged or destroyed a staggering 70% of Grand Bahama’s and 40% of Abaco’s mangroves.

• The ecosystem regeneration process empowers civic leaders, government agencies, fisherfolk, community residents, and students of all ages to embrace their role as stewards of The Bahamas’ land and sea.

• Our mangrove planting partner, the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance, is a collaborative effort founded by the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, the Perry Institute for Marine Science, and Waterkeepers Bahamas. Their overarching goal is to restore one million mangroves by the end of 2025.

How the project works

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During the summer months, when red mangroves are most productive, volunteers collect propagules — long seed structures that germinate while still attached to their parent plants. These propagules are collected from creeks across the islands, specifically from healthier mangrove forests with an abundant seed source.

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The propagules are transported to nurseries where they are carefully cultivated for six months to a year. During this time, they mature in a controlled environment, growing into stronger seedlings that reach 12 to 18 inches in height.

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With the assistance of post-storm mapping and the expertise of local fishing guides, team members of the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance bring the seedlings to high-impact areas most in need of remediation. This strategic placement ensures they will be best positioned to strengthen the shore.

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Through field trips, public workshops, and community planting days, students and volunteers transfer the nursery-grown seedlings to the designated restoration site by the hundreds. This helps re-establish critical densities of mangrove cover and distribute the seedlings en masse in smaller waterways.

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The Bahamas Mangrove Alliance monitors growth rates, plant health, and other crucial indicators to ensure that over 80% of the budding mangrove trees survive.

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The mangrove planting efforts are paired with community awareness initiatives, and local involvement is the heartbeat of this ambitious endeavor. The Bahamas Mangrove Alliance represents a collective and sustained multi-year movement to bounce back and look forward, restoring ecosystems and livelihoods to pre-Dorian vitality.

Project impact

All projects on Only One help save the ocean and fix the climate, and 100% of our members’ funds go to impact. Keep reading to discover how our “Strengthening storm recovery and resilience in The Bahamas” project is having a positive effect.

Biodiversity and ecosystems

The project area encompasses 38,000 acres of tidal flats habitat, named for its level bottom topography. This is part of a vast shallow-water ecosystem where mangroves are the prevailing form of vegetation. Thirty of The Bahamas’ 700 islands are inhabited, all of which boast the characteristic bright blue waters unique to the region. This distinct hue results from the highly reflective white sand and limestone just beneath the ocean’s surface.

The early restoration efforts led by the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance span key areas across two islands: the northern shore and eastern tip of Grand Bahama, which is part of the coral-lined chain of islands in the country's northernmost region, and sections of the western Marls of Abaco, which feature expansive stretches of the tidal flats mentioned above. 

Why here? These locations are strategic starting points, poised to facilitate effective regrowth because they were once thriving mangrove forests. Despite the loss of these trees, their nutrients persist in the soil, nourishing the development of larger, stronger trees to replace them.

When it comes to supporting biodiversity, the mudflats of the Marls form a mangrove maze where zigzagging streams of nutrient-rich waters and sediment flow around patches of lush tree cover. As a result, the Marls are known for their exceptional ecological productivity, attracting a diverse array of wildlife. This includes species such as the near-threatened reddish egret, the diamond-shaped eagle ray, and the aptly named mangrove cuckoo and mangrove twig anole (a small arboreal lizard that forages among the branches), as well as the occasional manatee.

Coastal resilience

For the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance, storm recovery and resilience are top priorities. Established in response to the urgent need for coastal remediation and habitat rehabilitation after Hurricane Dorian, this project represents the most significant mangrove restoration initiative in the history of The Bahamas.

On September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall in The Bahamas, becoming the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the country, with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour. The catastrophic storm resulted in hundreds of fatalities, displaced thousands more, and caused $3.4 billion in damages. Over 48 hours, 69 square miles of mangroves were stripped bare, scarring the tidal flats, which remain littered with the splintered debris of a once-thriving ecosystem.

Because this storm killed more mature, propagule-producing mangroves than typical weather events, the time it would take for the region to regenerate naturally could exceed decades — far too long to protect against the increasingly common heavy rains linked to climate change. So, the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance is stepping in to lend nature a helping hand and significantly speed up the mangrove restoration process. ⛑️🌱

Fisheries and tourism

Support from Only One members enhances nature-based storm protection and rejuvenates local fisheries. Tidal flats are the backbone of the $169 million Bahamian fishing industry, where the tangles of mangrove roots provide nursery habitat for commercially important species like spiny lobster, lemon shark, bonefish, snapper, conch, and grouper.

Catch and release recreational fishing of the bonefish — a silver-striped speedster reaching velocities upwards of 40 miles per hour! — attracts anglers from across the globe who like the thrill of the chase among the meandering channels of the mudflats. This fishing tourism brings indispensable revenue to The Bahamas, as bonefish are among the most coveted game fish worldwide.

Community development

By supporting the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance, Only One members are aiding a full-time restoration team and part-time staff, including subsistence fishers and fishing guides. The project also champions education and participation by involving hundreds of student volunteers. Rebuilding the tidal flats helps to ensure food security and provide economic stability to communities in Grand Bahama and Abaco, as well as across the greater archipelagic nation of The Bahamas.

The mangrove restoration project wouldn’t be possible without tremendous community engagement at every stage. Rallying around awareness days like Earth Day and World Mangrove Day, the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance organizes large-scale coastal reforestation events to underscore planting as a celebration, often sowing thousands of nursery-grown seedlings in a single day.

Throughout the year, students and teachers tour the nurseries and storm-swept restoration sites, learning about the benefits of mangroves and their impact on The Bahamas and the global ecosystem. Their involvement goes beyond the field trips, too: Students are frequent visitors to the tidelands, actively contributing to ecological assessments, propagule collection, and seedling cultivation.

Mangrove species

The Bahamas Mangrove Alliance prioritizes planting red mangroves, one of three native mangrove species in the archipelago. Red mangroves are remarkable for their distinctive arching roots that reach into the water, offering crucial support to the main trunk, much like scaffolding on a skyscraper. And, like all mangroves, these coastal evergreen trees excel at storing carbon, sequestering ten times more carbon per hectare than typical terrestrial forests. 

Their superpowers extend even further. The complex root systems of red mangroves offer both structural support and coastal defense: Thick branches act as shoreline shields, effectively reinforcing coastal sediment and blocking the rush of high-speed currents whipped up by strong winds, thus mitigating storm surges and reducing the force of incoming floodwaters.

Sustainable Development Goals

By supporting the “Strengthening storm recovery and resilience in The Bahamas” project, funds from Only One members go toward advancing these 11 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project reporting

The Bahamas Mangrove Alliance will provide quarterly progress reports and share field photos and videos whenever possible. Additionally, an overall impact report will be delivered at the end of 2024. Trained scientists and volunteers will monitor various project aspects to optimize planting success, including but not limited to:

• Number of trees planted

• Acreage of plant cover

• Annual survival rates (Target: >80%)

• Ecosystem productivity increase (Target: >100%)

• Living canopy cover increase (Target: >100%)

• Comparison of current and pre-Hurricane Dorian species diversity

• Abundance of fishery species

• Comparison of current and pre-Hurricane Dorian perceptions of mangrove health and human use

Performance evaluation will involve stakeholder surveys complementing technical impact measures. Equally central to the priorities as mangrove restoration itself is increasing public understanding of wetland ecology and the role of mangrove forests in the economy.

You can explore all our project implementation reports on our public Impact Dashboard.

More about our mangrove restoration partner

The Bahamas Mangrove Alliance, established by the international nonprofit Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and the Bahamas-based Perry Institute for Marine Science and Waterkeepers Bahamas, integrates on-the-ground planting, environmental education, and advocacy for national and international policies to protect mangrove health and prevent future loss. Launched on World Mangrove Day in 2023, the alliance has a North Star goal of restoring one million mangroves by the end of 2025 and 2,000 acres by 2028, with a target density of 3,000 mangroves per acre. Starting with Grand Bahama and Abaco, the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance plans to expand its efforts countrywide, seeking to rejuvenate mangrove forests threatened by both the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and coastal development and industrialization.

Follow the founding members of the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance on social media

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust

Perry Institute for Marine Science

Waterkeepers Bahamas