MINISTER within the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Alli Baksh, accompanied by officers of the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP), inspected the cultivations at Anna Regina and Lima foreshores, on Essequibo Coast last Wednesday.

At Lima, monitoring officer of the Mangrove Project, Mr. Rudolph Adams explained, to the minister, that workers were where hundreds of mangrove plants are growing, to carry out a data collection survey and determine the elevation of the mudflat.
The official pointed out that a marker with dye, which is washed out when the tide rises, is used to ascertain the level of the mudflat.
Minister Baksh said the GMRP is very important because it will help to protect the sea coast from erosion.
According to him, there is a cycle in the Atlantic Ocean where mud is brought to the foreshore by the tide. He said the process is taking place from the mouth of the Pomeroon River to the Essequibo Coast shoreline in Region 2 (Pomeroon/Supenaam), West Coast and East Coast Demerara and Corentyne, Berbice areas.
The minister said he is pleased with the cultivation of mangrove plants along the Lima foreshore and he also carried out an inspection at a ‘brush dam’ where construction is underway, with bamboo poles, to trap sediments so as to build up the mud height there.
Community Development Officer, Mr. Ryan Toolsieram informed the minister that the brush dam is an engineering intervention to trap sediment for raising the mudflat.
Toolsieram said two brush dams were created simultaneously, one at Buxton, East Coast of Demerara and the other at Anna Regina, because they are cheaper alternatives to groyne which are very expensive to build.
Baksh remarked that the mangrove project will surely help the coastline, especially at Anna Regina, which is the commercial centre and seat of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region 2.
The GMRP is implementing the National Mangrove Management Action Plan of the National Agriculture Research Institute of the Agriculture Ministry, for which funding is provided by the European Union (EU) under the Global Climate Change Alliance Programme.