Tacloban, Philippines – For ten years, pig farmer Alejandro Sumayang has been planting mangrove plants along the coast, just a few meters from his house, twice a month.

He pushes a stick into the muddy ground, drills a hole for the seedling, and ties it to a piece of bamboo so the flood doesn’t wash it away.

“This is what protects me,” he said, crouching down to inspect a recently planted row of plants.

The back of Sumayang’s makeshift house overlooks the Pacific Ocean in the Philippines’ central Leyte province. Ten years ago, on November 8, 2013, tsunami-like waves swept past Super Typhoon Haiyan crashed into his home in Silago, leaving only broken wooden beams amid the rubble.

Haiyan was one of the strongest typhoons to ever make landfall. More than 6,300 people died as the storm swept across the island of Leyte, leveling homes and triggering a storm surge that flooded entire neighborhoods. According to the government, at least 13 million people are affected.

Leyte was slammed again by a typhoon in December 2021. Typhoon Rai rivaled the intensity of Haiyan.

“I would have lost my house again if we hadn’t planted anything. “From a distance we could see the waves losing momentum and breaking apart before reaching the shore,” Sumayang told Al Jazeera.

About 20 typhoons per year hit Philippine territory. For the past 12 years, the Southeast Asian archipelago has maintained the top spot for the world’s most vulnerable and natural disaster-prone country World Risk Index Produced by the Ruhr University Bochum.

In the wake of Haiyan, several coastal communities began mangrove reforestation, arguing that nature was the most effective way to deal with the effects of climate change.

Four villages in Silago were among the first to work with NGOs and village officials to begin planting a year after the disaster. The distinctive tuberous roots and flat leaves of the various mangrove species now line 215 square kilometers (83 square miles) of the city’s coastal area.

The Leyte Center for Development (LCDE), a humanitarian organization that supported the planting in Silago, believes the plants helped save 2,000 coastal residents from Rai’s attack.

“It is a testament to the effectiveness of an ecosystem-based approach and it costs people practically nothing,” said LCDE director Minet Aguisanda-Jerusalem.

“Obsession” with infrastructure

However, there was little support from officials at the local level or above.

The government has instead supported man-made interventions, including a huge concrete dam in Tacloban City, the capital of Leyte.

Construction of the 16.9 billion Philippine pesos (US$304.5 million) Storm Surge Protection Project (SSPP) began in 2016.

The 44.48 km (27.6 mile) concrete dam was scheduled to be completed by 2020, but only 58 percent of the work has been completed.

Delays were caused by “right-of-way acquisitions” and fluctuating material prices [and] “Request for additional features in the tidal embankment,” the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) told Al Jazeera in an email.

Along some sections of the SSPP, the wall has already begun to crack and crumble, leaving the steel reinforcements inside exposed to the elements.

But the DPWH stands by the project. In a report it shared with Al Jazeera, it recommended engineering firms on the island “adopt the SSPP standards to protect their coastlines across the region.”

Professor William Holden, an environmental geographer at the University of Calgary who studies the situation in Tacloban, says that even when the wall is finished, it probably won’t be enough to protect the city.

“Climate change leads to warmer air with more water and therefore heavier rainfall. Therefore, engineers cannot predict how large the seawall to be built will be. Future typhoons will eventually eclipse Haiyan,” said Holden, who suspects maintaining the SSPP will also prove costly.

Jon Bonifacio, national coordinator of the environmental group Kalikasan, fears the wall could actually worsen the effects of climate change by risking holding back water entering the city during a storm and causing prolonged flooding.

He also criticizes the social costs of the project, which resulted in thousands of coastal residents being forced to leave their homes and cut off from their livelihoods. He accuses the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of continuing the state’s “obsession with gray infrastructure” because it “ultimately leads to displacing the effects of climate change rather than eliminating the effects of climate change.”

Natural breakwater system

The Philippines is home to 46 of the world’s 70 species of mangrove trees and shrubs, which thrive in the shallow saltwater tides where the land meets the sea.

While research has shown that the plants help reduce coastal communities’ vulnerability to tsunamis and storm surges, they are also at risk.

It is estimated that the Philippines has lost about 49 percent of its mangrove forests since 1920.

Professor Eduardo Mangaoang, founder of the Regional Climate Change R&D Center at Visayas State University in Leyte, urged authorities to consider the useful science behind mangroves.

“The trunks and bodies are a natural breakwater system against strong waves. It stabilizes and holds the coastal soil together and is a nursery for fish,” Mangaoang told Al Jazeera.

In 2014, Jecel Espina-Pedel, a 14-year-old from Silago and self-described “nature lover,” joined hundreds of others in a coordinated mangrove planting effort.

As she looked out her window, she remembers the first leaves sprouting after just six months. Within a few years the surrounding soil changed completely.

“The ground went from rocky to muddy. We could see small holes that represented new habitats. “We looked under rocks and saw fish we had never seen here before,” she explained, still excited about what had happened.

Pedel comes from a fishing family. Soon they were often eating shellfish for dinner and selling the rest of their catch on the side of the road.

“It has several benefits: food sources, science-based and it creates a carbon sink. It is internationally recognized. But there is no comprehensive plan on the ground for this,” Gerry Arances, director of the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development in Manila, told Al Jazeera.

For mangroves to survive, the right types of seedlings must be selected and placed correctly on the bank.

In 2015, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) drew criticism for using inappropriate methods in a 1 billion Philippine peso ($18 million) mangrove reforestation project. In 2023 there will be supporters again criticized the department for repeating the mistake in Bohol and Negros Occidental.

Mangaoang attributes the success in areas like Silago to the attention of local residents who continue to plant while keeping the mangroves free of barnacles and other parasites.

The scientist travels the entire region and promotes mangroves. In his town of Baybay, Leyte, he finally convinced Mayor Jose Carlos Cari to support a community mangrove plan for next year, a first in the region.

Overall, Mangaoang says, community-coordinated mangrove planting is “still in its early stages.” In coastal communities, there are many local practices that need support. They are scientists themselves, they just don’t know.”

“We are protected”

However, the government continues to expand its technical interventions in Leyte.

Construction of the Tacloban City Causeway began in February this year. According to the DPWH, the 4.5 billion Philippine pesos (US$81.1 million), 2.5 km road will shorten travel time in the city and “protect the lives and property of residents/residents in the area from erosive tidal impacts.” “.

The road embankment will be built on reclaimed land.

This includes the deforestation of mangroves along Cancabato Bay, which the city has classified as a protected area due to its biodiversity. The bay is a popular fishing area and its mangrove density has been increased by the local fishing community to Haiyan.

“These issues need to be adequately planned,” said Ian Fry, the United Nations special rapporteur on the protection of human rights in the context of climate change, after his visit to Tacloban during the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Haiyan. He called the possible loss of mangroves a “serious concern.”

Roque Regis, a Bay Area community leader, estimates that their own efforts have increased the bay’s mangroves by an additional 30 percent since Haiyan. He called the government “deaf” for ignoring its own protections for the bay and residents’ pleas to stop construction.

After the typhoon, “they displaced everyone who lived near the coast,” Regis told Al Jazeera. “Now they will do the same thing in Cancabato Bay. They want to “clean up” the area for tourists. But they are destroying our homes and our fishing grounds.”

As the Philippine government’s response to the climate emergency is ongoing, affected communities remain convinced that the solution to future problems lies in nature.

They plan to continue defending the trees they believe they are both saving and caring for.

“When we started planting, there were doubters who said the mangroves would be a home for snakes or that they wouldn’t work. But look at us here, we are protected. This is a gift to the people,” Sumayang said.