Three weeks after the cyclone, what is the environmental assessment of the damage in Mayotte?

In Mayotte three weeks after the deadly passage of Cyclone Chido, the toll is still at least 39 dead and more than 5,600 injured. The reconstruction project is immense, including in forest areas and natural environments.

Seen from the sky, the dominant color in Mayotte after the passage of Cyclone Chido is brown. There are no more green spots on the island like before. Drone flights do not yet make it possible to establish a precise environmental assessment, explained Benoît Loussier, regional director of the National Forestry Office for Mayotte and Reunion. But almost all of the forest areas which covered 20% of the territory have been devastated.

Many farms were also devastated. At best, the trees have lost their leaves and branches, but are still standing; they will be able to leave quickly. But in many cases, they have been uprooted or completely or crushed by winds blowing at more than 200 km/h: these will not green up again.

Vegetation plays an important role in Mayotte for the water cycle, because the roots capture the rain that falls on the ground. This helps prevent erosion. This also helps maintain precipitation, because trees release moisture into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration.

The forest cover of Mayotte also provided shelter for many animals, including lizards, insects, bats, and also lemurs. These little lemurs have been lacking food since the cyclone and are trying to find food by moving closer to homes.

Finally, with a lot of land being exposed, mud runoff during the rains poses a risk of siltation of the lagoon, which threatens the corals and the survival of several dozen marine species.

Fortunately, due to a favorable climate, the vegetation in Mayotte will be able to grow back quite quickly. It should be possible to find plantations that reach up to 8 meters high in a few years. Ecosystems could therefore be functional again within 10 or 20 years, indicates the National Forestry Office. But this will require sufficient resources to replant at least fifty hectares of forest per year.