Ecuador’s Guayas River delta, home to the country’s largest mangrove expanse and 3 million people, faces severe deforestation from urban sprawl and shrimp farming, threatening a crucial ecosystem that supports wildlife, absorbs floodwaters, and sequesters carbon. To counter this, a UNEP-backed project in Samborondón is demonstrating that urban development and mangrove restoration can coexist, with community-led planting initiatives successfully reviving coastal forests. This local effort, which highlights mangroves’ cost-effective role as natural coastal defenses and their ecological benefits, serves as a model for global urban areas participating in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to build climate resilience and protect vital wetlands against mounting climate change threats.
