This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A team of African researchers has published the first comprehensive review of seagrass restoration activities across Africa's coastline. Seagrasses are flowering plants that grow in shallow coastal waters, where their bright green leaves form underwater meadows.
Along the African coastline, seagrass meadows have supported human societies for millennia, offering food, medicine, raw materials, and cultural and spiritual meaning. Yet these ecosystems are among the most poorly understood ocean habitats in terms of their global distribution and status. Professor Sophie von der Heyden of Stellenbosch University's Department of Botany and Zoology recently led a review of seagrass restoration projects in Africa with colleagues from North, West and East African countries.
The review, titled "Identifying and addressing critical gaps to accelerate seagrass restoration in Africa," was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Von der Heyden says that while seagrass research has increased globally in the past 20 years, there is about six times as much research on coral reefs as on seagrasses. "Seagrass restoration is an important part of maintaining seagrass meadows as they decline globally, but seagrass restoration science is fragmented and species-specific, meaning that what works in one region cannot be applied elsewhere," she explains.
The review therefore provides a timely perspective on pathways to strengthen seagrass restoration efforts in Africa. This aligns with the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and the recognition of seagrasses as an "Essential Ocean Variable." Together, the authors evaluated published seagrass restoration studies in coastal countries with known seagrass meadows. They found that one of the biggest challenges in monitoring seagrasses in Africa is uncertainty about the extent and area covered by meadows in most countries.
Only four countries—Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tunisia—could provide data on the loss and gain of seagrass meadows. This means that in many countries, we do not know the status of seagrasses or whether meadows are stable or declining. Seagrass meadows in Africa also occur along coastlines home to more than 250 million people, and the number living within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the coast has risen substantially since 2010.
Coupled with regional climate change and other pressures, this could mean Africa's seagrass meadows are in serious decline. The review highlighted a few seagrass restoration trials in only six countries: Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia and Tunisia. It shows that a diverse set of restoration techniques have been trialed, with some more successful than others.
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