From Dynamite to Dynamism A Labour of Love in Eco-Restoration

In the turquoise waters of Shark Fin Bay of the Philippines, a French couple along with a fishing community have rewritten a story of loss into one of renewal.

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Dr Rina Mukherji narrates how Pangatalan Island has emerged from ruin to become a model of marine restoration through mangrove replanting, coral prostheses, and trust painstakingly built over years. The journey also portrays that when people and planet work in sync, even reefs blasted to rubble can pulse with life again.

From Paradise Lost to Purpose Found

When Frederic Tardieu and his wife Christina arrived at Pangatalan Island in the Philippines back in 2011, what they saw was a degraded island, denuded of mangroves, and a coastline destroyed by dynamite and cyanide fishing. The fishing community was eking out a meagre existence, with fishing unable to provide them with a comfortable livelihood.

The Tardieus realized, they needed to do something to lift the fishermen out of poverty, and for that, they needed to restore the entire marine environment, one baby step at a time. Frederic Tardieu had been a realtor back in Marseilles, France, and Christina, an interior designer. They were no environmentalists, but with their limited knowledge of the environment, they knew that the mangroves, which had been cut down for charcoal, needed to be restored.

Winning Hearts before Healing Reefs