Dr. Lena OkonkwoNiger Delta, NigeriaLiveExample project

Mangrove Belt Protection, Niger Delta

Community-led mangrove replanting protecting villages from storm surge while sequestering carbon.

Ecosystem ServicesMangrovesCoastal DefenseBlue Carbon

About this project

A solid community-led mangrove replanting project with strong local ownership and clear coastal-protection co-benefits. Scores are pulled down by limited publicly described methods, dMRV details, and governance/finance transparency — gaps that are addressable with a focused dMRV and transparency plan.

AI summary by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System

Why this integrity score?

The OCIS Integrity Report below explains the reasoning behind the headline score — dimension by dimension — and is readable in full here.

Score Reasoning — Dimensions

The headline score is a weighted sum of six integrity dimensions assessed by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System.

Scientific Rigor20% weight
82
Intervention (mangrove restoration) is well-supported by peer-reviewed evidence for carbon sequestration and coastal protection, but the proposal lacks explicit methodological references, species/site-specific plans, and survival-rate assumptions.
Open Science15% weight
60
Community engagement suggests local knowledge will inform the work, but there is no statement about public data sharing, code, protocols, or pre-registered methods.
Measurability (dMRV)20% weight
78
Mangrove extent and biomass are measurable with a combination of remote sensing and in-situ sampling, but the proposal does not specify baseline, monitoring methods, or verification workflows.
Additionality & Impact15% weight
77
Restoration likely delivers real carbon and resilience benefits beyond business-as-usual, though additionality is not quantified and leakage/long-term permanence are not addressed.
Transparency & Governance15% weight
76
Project is described as community-led, but there is limited information on governance structures, finance flows, land/tenure arrangements, or independent oversight.
Community & Equity15% weight
95
Community leadership is explicit and the activity directly protects local livelihoods, indicating strong social co-benefits and likely equitable local participation.

Strengths

Strong community leadership and local stewardship, increasing social legitimacy and local monitoring capacity.
High co-benefits: coastal protection, fisheries habitat, biodiversity and livelihoods in addition to carbon sequestration.
Intervention type (mangrove restoration) has a robust evidence base for both carbon storage and storm-surge attenuation.
Feasible to measure key biophysical indicators (extent, biomass, survival) with established methods.

Risks & Gaps

No detailed dMRV plan: missing baseline, monitoring protocol, sampling design, and verification pathway.
Unclear long-term governance and finance: who maintains plantings, manages harvested areas, or covers monitoring/maintenance costs?
Permanence and survival risk: without species/site planning, hydrological management, and protection from cutting/pollution, carbon benefits may not persist.

dMRV Recommendation

Tier

Tier 2 Standard (combined remote-sensing + in-situ)

Cadence

Quarterly field and remote-sensing monitoring with annual aggregated reporting and an independent verification at project midpoint and end-of-project (or every 5 years for long-duration projects).

Recommended

Yes

Mangrove restoration benefits are measurable with a mixed-methods dMRV: remote sensing captures extent change and large-scale loss/growth; drone and plot-based sampling provide biomass and survival data needed for carbon accounting; soil sampling captures belowground carbon dynamics. Quarterly monitoring supports adaptive management and early detection of survival or hydrology issues; annual reporting and periodic independent verification ensure credibility for carbon and resilience claims.

High-resolution satellite time-series (Sentinel-2, Planet where available) to track areal extent and NDVI changeDrone photogrammetry (UAV) for sub-meter canopy structure and survival estimates where feasiblePermanent ground plots with DBH/height measurements and species ID using established allometric equations for AGBSoil coring for baseline and periodic soil organic carbon (SOC) sampling

About this project

Generating OCIS summary & integrity report…