Trees underwater became gold mines for fishing families.
Picture an entire fishing community watching their livelihood disappear into murky, lifeless water. That’s exactly what happened along Mexico’s Pacific coast when decades of shrimp farming and coastal development destroyed thousands of acres of mangrove forests. The twisted, salt-tolerant trees that looked like nature’s afterthought turned out to be the foundation of everything. When the mangroves vanished, so did the shrimp, the fish, and the economic backbone of communities that had thrived on these resources for generations. But then something remarkable happened. Local fishermen, scientists, and government officials figured out how to bring it all back by replanting the very trees they’d once considered worthless obstacles to development.
