A comprehensive community coastal restoration campaign concluded today, September 30, 2026, with the planting of 10,000 native mangrove saplings along the vulnerable shoreline of Panama Lagoon in southern Ampara.

Led by the Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department alongside university environmental science volunteers and local lagoon fishing societies, the initiative replanted native Rhizophora mucronata and Avicennia marina species across five hectares of degraded mudflats. Marine biologists pointed out that mangrove forests serve as critical breeding grounds for lagoon prawns, mud crabs, and juvenile fish species, while functioning as robust natural shock absorbers against monsoon storm surges and coastal erosion. Community members pledged to maintain continuous protective fencing and monitoring to ensure high sapling survival rates over the coming monsoon season.