Mangroves have and continue to play an integral part in the culture and heritage of the Swahili people in Lamu.
The salt-tolerant trees have become a part of every single household and business venture for decades now.
The Lamu Conservation Trust says the county has a mangrove cover of 33,500 hectares, which comes to about 60 per cent of Kenya’s total mangrove cover.
All boats operating in the Lamu archipelago and other far-flung islands are made from mangroves.
Likewise, all buildings in the town are built using mangroves.
This threatens the existence of mangrove trees. Lamu town being a traditional heritage site, having been listed By Unesco in 2001, all efforts are being made to maintain it as such.
Enter any house, shop, hotel or school and throw your eyes up the ceiling, and behold, instead of the shiny ceilings in other parts of the country, Lamu only does mangrove ceilings.
Nothing can beat tradition for this coastal community, which is mostly comprised of Bajunis.
Mohamed Bwana, a historian and civil rights activist in Lamu, says for many centuries, mangroves have been an important trade item, and have helped build a prosperous coastal Swahili civilisation.
EXPORT BANNED IN 1982
However, various factors over the ages culminated in a government ban in1982 on the export of mangrove poles, hence setting in motion a gradual decline in the status of the Lamu people.
“Today these coastal communities are among the poorest and most marginalised in the country. It is thus imperative to address the issue of their economic development using the resources available, one of which is the mangroves,” Mbwana says.
He says the National Museums of Kenya, in declaring Lamu town and several other sites at the coast national monuments, encourages the exploitation and utilisation of traditional mangrove products, such as building poles and lime, in the preservation of historical buildings and monuments.
“Mangrove wood is resistant to rot and insects, making it extremely valuable and vital to cultural aspect of the lives of Swahili dwellers here. Lamu is a heritage site and conserving it means we really have to lean so much on mangroves. Everything good comes at a cost,” Mbwana says.
Residents say their culture and heritage would be incomplete without the mangrove.
“It's like a must-have ingredient in our lives,” resident Hashim Soto said. “It didn’t start with us. Our forefathers knew nothing else than the mangrove. It's basically a tradition passed down that we must also harness and ensure to pass down to other generations. We are mangroves and the mangroves are us.”
Residents are now torn between respecting the logging ban and joining the conservation bandwagon, or defying it and carrying on with what they feel is a traditional birthright.