Mangroves are money-makers in coastal Côte d’Ivoire. And the fish you can cook with the smoke from their branches are delicious. But the very practice of cutting down the trees to burn put the fish in danger. So people like Jean-Claude Kaké have had to make a choice: Do you keep cutting the trees to make money in order to feed your family? Or do you forgo the cash for a future that might take years to appear?  

Finding the answer has not been easy for people in Dabéda and Niani, in the Sassandra region in the west of Cote d’Ivoire. And their choices have meant sacrifice.  

So meet the people behind the decisions, from Serge Doutché, who founded an NGO to protect the mangroves, to Ève Inago, who is weighing the education of her children with a future for her children.  

Produced and written by Jack Wilson.  Edited by Tara Sprickerhoff. Hosted by Ivy Prosper

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This is a Farm Radio International podcast produced thanks to funding from the Government of Canada.