I returned home to Kenya’s coast after months of winter in Germany, and the heat felt extreme. Temperatures rose past 35°C by midday under the blazing sun of Kilifi, a tourism destination on Kenya’s shores of the Western Indian Ocean. It is here that international visitors come for pristine beaches, marine excursions, and trips to nearby islands and creeks.
As a tourism researcher, I study how women earn a living through coastal small businesses in times of environmental change. My research work in Kilifi brought me into close contact with the everyday realities of climate change in Kenya’s coastal tourist towns: rising temperatures, rising ocean levels, drought and floods.
In Kilifi, local women’s groups cultivate mangrove seedlings in rows of small plastic bags along the ocean water’s edge. The seedlings are crucial in replanting and regenerating forests in dense mangrove areas.
