Forests and passion: a hero鈥檚 guide to resisting climate change

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Forests and passion: a hero鈥檚 guide to resisting climate change

Climate Change

Forests and passion: a hero鈥檚 guide to resisting climate change

10 September 2019

By:

UNEP

UN Environment Programme / Aidan Dockery

Victorin Laboudallon provides a tour of his tree nursery on Praslin Island in the Seychelles. Photo by UN Environment Programme / Aidan Dockery

With the launch of a major report by the Global Commission on Adaptation on 10 September 2019, we follow the story of an environmental hero from the Seychelles and their quest to adapt by harnessing the power of trees. #AdaptOurWorld

For many people, retirement is a chance to take a break. Not so for Victorin Laboudallon, a grandfather from the Seychelles who spends his days planting forests to fight climate change.

Wherever there鈥檚 a forest fire in the Seychelles, you can be sure you鈥檒l find Laboudallon ready to fight back, armed with seeds and shovels.

鈥淧rotecting nature makes me very happy in life,鈥� says Laboudallon. 鈥淲e need to protect it as much as we can, so other generations can enjoy it like I did when I was a kid.鈥�

Laboudallon, 65, has built a network of volunteers, from children to retirees, whom he calls upon to help him with replanting.

鈥淚f tomorrow we have another fire, we are ready to go back and plant.鈥�

Laboudallon is widely known across the Seychelles for his decades of environmental action and his big personality. While planting trees in the wet dirt, barefoot and laughing, he says his surname means 鈥渇riend of the mud鈥� in his local Creole language.

鈥淚鈥檓 not somebody who lives under the big concrete. I live under the beautiful trees,鈥� he says, pointing above at the iconic听coco-de-mer听palm.

The Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands鈥攌nown for glistening beaches and stunning biodiversity鈥攐ff the east coast of Africa. Here climate change is not a distant prospect, but a daily reality.

Sea levels are rising and many of the islands are low-lying. As the waters creep higher, the shoreline crumbles away and floods devastate people鈥檚 land.听

鈥淲e鈥檝e got the sea rising,鈥� says Laboudallon. 鈥淵ou can see places where there used to be houses. Now there are none. There is something on this planet going wrong.鈥�

It鈥檚 unknown how the Seychelles will adapt. More than 16 per cent of the nation鈥檚 land is听, yet a study in the journal听Nature听suggests Antarctic ice alone could increase sea levels听. The waters of this tourist paradise are crystal-clear, but the future is anything but.

Nature enthusiasts like Laboudallon have taken matters into their own hands. While giving a tour of his tree nursery, he explains how different types of trees offer different services when adapting to climate change. For the Seychellois, mangroves are fundamental.

鈥淚f the mangroves are gone, the nation of Seychelles will be gone,鈥� says Laboudallon. 鈥淥ur protection for human life is the mangroves.鈥�

Mangroves defend against the impacts of rising seas and coastal erosion by drastically reducing the height and force of the waves before they hit the shoreline. In fact, if all of today鈥檚 mangroves were lost, the global damage from flooding would be an听

Seychellois farmer, Pierre Philoe, explains how mangroves protect his farm from intruding seawater that kills his crops. 鈥淭he mangroves are important for all Seychellois people. If there鈥檚 no mangrove, there鈥檚 no life.鈥� Photo by UN Environment Programme /

Seychellois farmer, Pierre Philoe, explains how mangroves protect his farm from intruding seawater that kills his crops. Photo by UN Environment Programme / Aidan Dockery

This strategy of using nature鈥攁nd the services it provides鈥攖o adapt to climate change is known as听. It鈥檚 often cheaper than concrete infrastructure. Not to mention that it simultaneously creates a space for nature.

For conservationists like Laboudallon, this is a win-win. Communities can adapt to climate change while protecting biodiversity. It is no longer a choice between people or nature. Considering the Seychelles鈥� economy is inextricably dependent on ecotourism, ecosystem-based adaptation is seen as a promising approach.

鈥淵ear after year, we are seeing more evidence of how nature can protect us from climate disasters,鈥� says Jessica Troni, Head of the Climate Change Adaptation Unit at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). 鈥淚n a major report, the Global Commission on Adaptation states that restoring mangroves for flood defences is 2鈥�5 times cheaper than engineered structures.鈥�

Back at a mangrove reforestation site, Laboudallon enthusiastically explains there鈥檚 even more to these trees than meets the eye. Mangroves not only protect the land from the sea, but also protect the sea from the land.

After the fire season comes the monsoon, which washes all the ash and debris from the forests into the ocean. The layers of dirt fall on the reef like a deadly blanket.

Beyond adaptation, planting mangroves also tackles the causes of climate change, as these forests absorb 10 times more carbon dioxide per acre per year than rainforests. Photo by UN Environment Programme / Aidan Dockery

鈥淚t sits on the surface of the coral and kills it. Then the fish are gone,鈥� says Laboudallon. 鈥淢angroves are used like a strainer. They stop all the debris coming from the hill, making sure only clean water goes out to sea.鈥�

鈥淢angroves also provide a breeding ground for fish,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f the population of mangroves is still in good health, then fishermen are in good health.鈥�

This power of mangroves to protect both the land and coral, whilst generating income for local fishermen, is precisely why UNEP refers to these trees as a 鈥榮uper solution鈥� to climate change.

Under a global adaptation project called听, or EbA South, the government of Seychelles has been working with leaders like Victorin Laboudallon. Funded by the听, the project is using nature to defend against climate impacts in three ecosystems鈥攃oastal habitats in Seychelles, dry deserts in Mauritania and mountainous forests in Nepal.

Projects like these are vital for the transfer of lessons on ecosystem-based adaptation. For instance, in the Seychelles crabs were eating the mangrove seedlings planted by the project. Using plastic tubing to protect the trees resulted in litter sprawled across the landscape when floods washed them away.

Applying the approach of nature-based solutions, local tree planters began using biodegradable tubing made from sugarcane. Through the project these lessons were transferred to other regions of the world.

Victorin Laboudallon uses compostable tubing made from sugarcane to protect the mangrove seedlings from crabs. Photo by UN Environment Programme / Aidan Dockery

EbA South was executed by the National Development and Reform Commission of China, through the Chinese Academy of Sciences. By increasing collaboration between countries in the global south and sharing solutions for adaptation, the project is seeking to create the next generation of Victorin Laboudallons.

The official International Day for South-South Cooperation听is celebrated on听12 September.

Back on Praslin Island, Laboudallon is getting ready to go home after a long day of tree planting. His efforts have been widely recognized in his home country, having received national awards and honours.

With a smile he tells me there鈥檚 even a local species of fern named after him鈥擯tisana laboudalloniana.听It turns out they鈥檙e both quite rare.

For more information on the EbA South project, or to learn more about UNEP鈥檚 work in Climate Change Adaptation, contact听jessica.troni[at]un.org.

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climate change