Planting mangroves, tending them and protecting them is traditionally a male job.
In Mida Creek, women have to do something else: you hardly ever see them on the unstable pirogues made from the trunks of the bambakofi, they are not the ones who untangle the narrow muddy lanes and canals they form, to recover the beneficial honey that the bees produce there and above all to catch the crabs and oysters that feed on the plant world produced by the mangrove ecosystem.
Joyce Mramba, 51, is an exception.
"My husband has been a conservationist for 20 years and together we are among the organisers of the Dabaso Crab Shack, the bar-restaurant built in the middle of the mangroves in Dabaso, born out of crab farming and environmental protection. But even so, I did not expect to receive such a certificate".
Joyce received the award at Ocean Beach Resort from the Kenya Women in Tourism (KAWT) national association in the presence of Kilifi County Tourism Minister Nahida Athman.
Joyce did not have the opportunity to study in life and could not even finish her compulsory schooling, stopping at grade six.
Since then, she has been moving around her territory with the idea of protecting it and making positive use of its qualities.
Mangroves are important not only because they are home to crabs, fish and shellfish, but more importantly because their presence is essential to protect vulnerable coastlines from soil erosion. 
Joyce has joined her husband's work despite not being blessed by fate, mother of seven children, she has had to take special care of one of them with special needs. Despite her busy family schedule, she is not only actively involved in running the Dabaso Crab Shack, but has brought 15 other women with her, who now make up a third of the community. Some of them are young and bode well for the generational change of an environmentally critical business in Watamu.
"I will use this recognition to create even more awareness among the women and youth in the community," Joyce said, "and encourage them to join the conservation work.