Through remote sensing, drone imagery, qualitative interviews, desk research, and illustrations, "Money in the Mangroves" demonstrates the complexities and controversies surrounding mangrove reforestation in Senegal and The Gambia.
It traces the genealogy of community-based mangrove reforestation, which sought to revitalize economically important ecosystems in response to the Sahelian droughts of 1968-74 and the 1980s, through more contemporary reforestation campaigns financed by international actors and motivated by biodiversity conservation and carbon offsets. The film brings African voices to contemporary climate-change discourses, and demonstrates that mangrove reforestation initiatives have remade incentive structures, economic benefits, and socio ecologies in ways that are both promising and problematic. Generously funded by UCLA's Lemelson Award for Innovative Digital Projects in Social Research, this project was a collaborative effort by UCLA Geography faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, with assistance from Senegal's Centre de Suivi Écologique, TRY Oyster Women Association in The Gambia, and filmographer Cheikh Sadibou Mané (Chesam Productions).
