Vlinder

Dr. Irina Fedorenko-Aula is Co-Founder and Chief Carbon Officer at Vlinder, a social enterprise that aims to become a mangrove unicorn by planting over a billion mangrove trees and democratising access to carbon markets and investments in high quality blue carbon projects. Mangroves, alongside other coastal wetlands, are reported to sequester carbon 10 times quicker than tropical forests [1]. Vlinder works with local communities, especially women and young people, in Kenya, Senegal, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Myanmar. With Vlinder’s support, community members, most of whom are women, collect seeds, build nurseries, grow seedlings, and plant mangroves while participating in data collection and mapping activities using drones.

Irina attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018. As an Audi Scholar, she was able to interact with corporate Ambassadors working in sustainability, an experience that proved useful for her own work.

Vlinder has so far planted 1,470 hectares of mangroves across several countries, benefitting 22,000 people through the establishment and maintenance of these new and thriving ecosystems. The company’s community focus ensures that locals can receive employment opportunities, carbon measurement training, as well as the socio-economic and environmental benefits accruing from the mangrove ecosystems themselves. Mangrove systems have been shown to improve fish stocks, protect against climate change and tsunamis, and guard against soil erosion. Vlinder aims to plant another 2,150 hectares of mangroves in 2024.

“As part of the Audi delegation at the Summit, I met corporate employees who were also young, really motivated and wanted to make a change. Thanks to this, I understood how corporates and civil society are on the same side and can work together to do a lot more good. I had never been exposed to anything like that before.”