Eritrean Desert Blooms Under New Scheme

April 14, 2008 -- 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-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 numbers, provide feed to raise livestock -- and combat desertification.

Like many of the small villages scattered along Eritrea's Red Sea coast, Hirgigo is a harsh place to live.

The region is reputedly one of the hottest inhabited places on earth, with temperatures soaring well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit for much of the year, combined with an average annual rainfall of less than an inch.

"It's a tough land," said Simon Tecleab, a marine scientist who has been working on the project for the past ten years.

"Before, after the rains stopped, the villagers would have to go far to find food for their animals or they would just starve," he added.

Much of the original mangrove forest was destroyed by overgrazing by camels or cutting for firewood or the building of homes and boats.

But today, along the shore, mangrove trees stretch in a tall green band along some four miles of coast and over 330 feet thick, a budding ecosystem acting as nursery grounds for fish, crabs and oysters.

The mangroves -- now protected by fences from hungry livestock -- have therefore become crucial to the villagers.

"Mangrove leaves and excess seeds are carefully gathered so as not to damage the plants, then used as fodder for sheep and goats," Simon added, who teaches at Eritrea's College of Marine Sciences and Technologies in the port of Massawa, six miles to the north.

Somalia, Djibouti, Mexico and Peru could be next.