The Lamu seascape
Lamu has Kenya's largest continuous mangrove forest and is the best-mapped area in Atlas.
Lamu County, on Kenya's far north coast, includes the Lamu archipelago, the Kiunga marine reserve and a huge area of mangrove creeks and flats.
What Atlas holds for Lamu
- A 2019 map by species formation: 60,004 polygons covering about 34,500 ha in seven classes, with Rhizophora dominant on about 42% of the area.
- 28,000 sand and mudflat polygons and the swamp blocks managed by the Kenya Forest Service.
- 139 field survey plots (about half agree with the map on the dominant genus).
- Villages and towns, and the LAPSSET port and development footprint.
Why it is important. Lamu's mangroves support fisheries and the old town's economy, protect the coast and hold large amounts of carbon, but they sit next to the LAPSSET port and corridor project. About 54% of the mapped mangrove lies within 10 km of the development footprint.
Explore it. Open the map, tick the Lamu layers, then try "What if 10% of mangroves within 5 km of LAPSSET is lost?" in the AI analyst.
Related reading
More in Knowledge Base
- What data is coming next
- Global Mangrove Watch: version 3 and version 4 explained
- Mangrove zonation: why different species grow in bands
- East African and Indian Ocean mangroves
- Who manages mangroves in Kenya?
- What Atlas is, and why it is more than a mangrove map
- Organisations and community involvement in carbon projects
- Seagrass meadows: blue carbon's quiet partner
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