Standing knee-deep in coastal waters, environmentalist Andrea Pimentel guides workers as they drive bamboo poles into the seabed to block sediment from choking the tidal channel sustaining a mangrove forest.
Mangroves are a key natural defense against storm surges and coastal erosion in the Philippines, which is hit by around 20 typhoons each year.
But the country has lost over 60% of its mangrove cover since 1918, government data shows, and increasingly powerful storms are threatening what remains by stirring up sediment that clogs water channels and suffocates mangroves at the roots.
"Our typhoons are becoming frequent and getting stronger," said Andrea Pimentel, project manager for environmental organization WWF-Philippines.
"Even (if) mangroves are resilient, they can also be affected, and eventually they could die," she added, shortly before heading by boat to a mangrove site in Masbate province's Batuan town.
