On the slopes of Petite Montagne, above the heart of Port Louis, a hillside is learning to breathe again. The Citadelle Native Re-vegetation Project is restoring one of Mauritius' most visible heritage landscapes, a place that was once part of the island's native dry forest ecosystem, home to plants found nowhere else on Earth. During the colonial period, the forest was cleared to open sightlines around the fort, although the fort was never ultimately used as a military base. What was left behind was not simply an empty slope, but a broken ecosystem: exposed soil, invasive grasses, alien plants and a hillside vulnerable to fire, erosion and flash floods.

In Mauritius, fire does not belong to the natural rhythm of native biodiversity. Yet in the dry winter months, invasive grasses can turn Petite Montagne into tinder.

When they burn, young plants are lost, soil is exposed and the landscape is pushed back again. When heavy rains come, the same bare slopes can send water and topsoil rushing down towards the urban communities below. Petite Montagne is not a remote conservation site. It is a living hillside in the middle of a city, and what happens on its slopes is felt by the people around it.

Since 2015, the project has been rewriting that story, plant by plant. As of the latest report in October 2025, 14,025 native saplings have been planted, 38 native and endemic species have been successfully established, and 34,950 m² of degraded land is under active management. More than 4,000 volunteers have joined the effort, from schools and community groups to companies and partner organisations.

Each plant is individually marked with a metal tag, turning the site into a living restoration map where survival, growth and resilience can be tracked over time.

The work is slow, physical and deeply local. Pioneer species such as Dodonaea viscosa have been planted first to hold the soil, tolerate the heat and prepare the way for more sensitive native species. Invasive plants are cut back. Young saplings are replaced where needed. During the dry season, each plant must be helped through its most vulnerable years. Because permanent irrigation is not viable due to theft and vandalism, the team relies on manual watering and a makeshift water-bottle drip system, a simple but ingenious response to a harsh urban hillside.

Behind this transformation is a team of only four people: one Restoration Manager, one Assistant Manager and two field workers maintaining almost four hectares of land. Their job is not just to plant trees. It is to keep them alive. They water, weed, monitor, replant, manage invasive species, reduce fire risk, coordinate volunteers and protect the site against constant pressure. The forest is returning, but it is not returning by accident.

The next step is to turn Petite Montagne into more than a restored slope. It can become a living urban green space where people walk, learn and reconnect with the biodiversity of their own island. Additional funding would help strengthen daily maintenance through an additional worker, improve paths, install plant awareness boards and interpretation signs, and expand beehives to support pollination and ecosystem recovery. The metal tags already help the team monitor each plant; the awareness boards would help the public understand why these plants matter.

Petite Montagne is proof that restoration can begin in the most unlikely places: on a hot, degraded, fire-prone hillside in the middle of a capital city. With the right support, this hillside can become a forest again, not as it once was, but as a resilient new landscape for biodiversity, heritage, education and hope.