Coastal Stewardship Day: How 258 Volunteers Planted 1,500 Mangroves in Kilifi, Kenya
Healthy coastlines are built through collective action, and at Gastonia Beach in Kilifi, that spirit was on full display. With the generous support of CMA CGM, Ocean Sole brought together 258 participants — women, school children, and community members from across Kilifi, along with roughly five international visitors staying locally — for a Coastal Stewardship Day dedicated to restoring and protecting Kenya's coastline.
The event combined two conservation activities in a single day: mangrove restoration and a community beach cleanup, showing how one well-organised event can protect a coastline from two directions at once.
The day in numbers:
258 participants, including women, school children, and community members
1,500 mangrove saplings planted — 900 more than originally planned
150 kg of ocean waste removed from Gastonia Beach
20 women from Friends of Nature grew every sapling planted
Restoring Our Mangrove Forests
Mangroves are among the most valuable coastal ecosystems on Earth. They protect shorelines from erosion, provide breeding grounds for fish and other marine life, and support the livelihoods of coastal communities across Kenya. According to the Blue Carbon Initiative — a partnership of IUCN, Conservation International, and UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission — mangrove forests sequester carbon at two to four times the rate of mature tropical rainforest per unit area, making them one of the most effective natural climate solutions available to coastal communities.
Every sapling planted at Gastonia Beach was grown by Friends of Nature, a 20-member women's group from the local community, whose months of nursery work made the day's planting possible. The team had originally planned to plant 600 mangroves — but with the beach turning out cleaner than expected (more on that below), volunteers redirected the day's extra time and energy into restoration, ultimately planting 1,500 saplings.
For many of the school children present, this was their first hands-on experience of ecosystem restoration — a detail that matters for a coastline whose long-term future depends on the next generation understanding why it's worth protecting. Ocean Sole and Friends of Nature will monitor the site every three months for the next two years to track survival and make sure these saplings take root.
Tackling Marine Plastic Pollution
Alongside the mangrove planting, volunteers took on a beach cleanup aimed at removing litter before it could wash back into the ocean. Working together, the team collected 150 kilograms of waste — mostly plastic wrappers — preventing it from threatening marine life and degrading the coastal environment.
Gastonia Beach turned out to be cleaner than the team expected, which meant less waste to clear than planned. Rather than treat that as a shortfall, Ocean Sole and CMA CGM's volunteers put the spare time into mangrove restoration instead — which is how 600 planned saplings became 1,500 planted ones. Every piece of waste removed still contributes to cleaner beaches, healthier oceans, and safer habitats for turtles, seabirds, fish, and the countless other species that depend on a pollution-free coastline.
Community at the Heart of Conservation
One of the highlights of the day was the sheer range of people who turned up for it: 258 participants in total, spanning women, school children, and community members from across Kilifi, plus a handful of international visitors staying locally who joined in. That mix mattered — bringing young people alongside adults, and local residents alongside visitors, turned the day into more than a cleanup or a planting session. It became a shared statement of ownership over Kilifi's coastline.
By engaging young people directly, the event helped inspire the next generation of environmental stewards, while demonstrating — in the most literal, hands-in-the-sand way — that everyone has a role to play in protecting our shared natural heritage.
A Partnership Built for Lasting Impact
Ocean Sole extends its sincere gratitude to CMA CGM for supporting this Coastal Stewardship Day, and to Friends of Nature for the months of nursery work that made the mangrove planting possible. Partnerships like this one are what make it possible to scale community-led conservation into something that actually lasts.
From planting 1,500 mangrove saplings to removing 150 kilograms of waste from Gastonia Beach, this initiative is a reminder that meaningful environmental change starts with collective action — and it doesn't stop when the volunteers go home. Ocean Sole and Friends of Nature will track the saplings' survival every three months for the next two years, and we look forward to sharing what we learn as the mangroves grow.
Every mangrove planted and every piece of litter collected brings us one step closer to cleaner oceans and thriving coastal ecosystems.
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