MUCH work has been done on the Guyana National Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP) and Coordinator, Mr. Bissasar Chintamanie, said it is moving ahead of schedule.
“The targets set for 2010 have already been surpassed…the National Mangrove Action Plan is being implemented in a timely manner,” he said. The start up and first seven months of implementation of the National Mangrove Management Action Plan have been defined by the following activities:
* Completion and handover of the updated National Mangrove Management Action Plan to the Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud
* Formulation of the Mangrove Action Committee (MAC)
* Establishment of a Mangrove Project Office and recruitment of project personnel;
* Commencement of a public awareness campaign on the importance of mangroves
* Procurement of mangrove seedlings
* Community involvement in mangrove management and support to project activities; and
* Restoration of Hope and Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, pilot sites.
Planting at Hope has been completed with 10,350 mangrove seedlings planted along 2.2 kilometers.
Planting is continuing at Mon Repos and to date more than 13,000 seedlings have been put down.
“It is too early to do an assessment of how successful the planting is. We will know that in another few months, around March or April,” Chintamanie said.
According to him, two community rangers have been engaged to monitor the Hope Beach and Mon Repos pilot sites and monitoring of seedling growth and development is being conducted by University of Guyana (UG) and Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) students attached to the project.
He noted that the challenge is enforcing the laws which govern the protection of mangroves against destruction.
However, the GMRP Coordinator said this is being addressed through meetings with the Guyana Police Force and Community Policing Groups in the communities along the coast line.
“We had meetings with the Commander of B Division and ranks of Cove and John police station to encourage their support so that we can enforce the laws”, he said.
Under the Sea Defence Act of 1998, destruction of mangrove forests carries a fine of $12,000 and a sentence of 12 months imprisonment. The amended Forestry Act of 2010 also provides for penalties in the event of mangrove destruction.
The Project Coordinator reported that “key staff” to implement the project activities have been recruited.
He noted that the action plan also provides for the engagement of a Geographic Information System (GIS) expert to implement the mapping and inventory component of the project.
In this context, the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) was engaged through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The GFC has the technical personnel and knowledge base in-house to effectively execute the mapping and inventory of the mangrove forest. The MOU will facilitate capacity building of GFC personnel which will feed into the long term sustainability of mangrove management.
The GFC has commenced preliminary mapping of mangrove forest along the coast line starting with Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice).
Chintamanie said Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is also being partnered with, through an MOU, to facilitate sharing of data, in particular images of Guyana’s coastline, in Regions Five and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne).
Additional technical support, he said, was received from the European Union (EU), through its Technical Assistance for Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening of the Sea Defences project.
Prior to this, Chintamanie said a situational analysis of Guyana’s coastal mangrove sites (Shell Beach to Mahaica) was completed in May 2010 by Mangrove Specialist, Mr. Owen Bovell.
The situational analysis presented the current status of mangroves at the various sites and recommendations for restoration activities, which came out in the National Mangrove Action Plan.
Also, he said the project facilitated University College London MSc. Student, Ms. Katherine Robinson, in conducting research on ‘Community Involvement in Mangrove Management’.
He said the project has commenced partnering with UG through the attachment of three final year students from the Faculty of Forestry and Agriculture.
“These students will be conducting studies on community involvement in mangrove management, with a focus on fishermen and the monitoring restoration sites.”
To bolster this, the GMRP Coordinator said training programmes were conducted for agencies, community workers and students on mangrove ecology, planting and management.
He said the training included interactive classroom session and visits to several mangrove sites along the East Coast Demerara for practical field exercises and involved 19 participants from various stakeholder institutions.
“Training was also provided to communities on how to plant mangrove seedlings,” he said.
Future Moves
Additionally, Chintamanie told the Sunday Chronicle that a contract was signed with Linton Nicholls Enterprise in June 2010 for the construction of a concrete floor, plant shed and trestle to house the mangrove nursery.
Implementation of the contract is about 70 per cent complete and the nursery should be ready by the end of the month.
Chintamanie added that there has been substantial progress in the production of seedlings to be used in restoring pilot sites.
He explained that the project partnered with individuals, and community groups close to the pilot sites to produce seedlings, ensuring community involvement and ownership of the project activities.
The GMRP coordinator pointed out that 13 contracts valued $4.9M were signed with community groups and individuals for the production of 77,000 mangrove seedlings. This includes 65,000 black mangrove seedlings, 8,000 red mangrove seedlings and 4,000 white mangrove seedlings.
Also, he said the project website is under construction and is expected to be completed and available live tomorrow.
The website is expected to be the main instrument of the project’s public awareness campaign. Through this medium information will be released, educational material distributed, newsletters published, and reports of damage to mangroves reported. The website will serve to keep persons informed about the activities of the project and opportunities to volunteer.
Constraints
With all the project has accomplished, since it was launched in February this year, Chintamanie said a major constraint is funding.
The Financing Agreement between the Government of Guyana and the European Union was signed only last month and funds were not, and are still not, available to the project, he said.
He said activities programmed for execution could not be “fully” implemented and these include networking with similar projects in the Caribbean, like sharing expertise and experience on mangrove management and restoration, procuring nursery equipment and implementing educational campaign.
He added too that the project has been unable to commence full implementation of the research component of its 2010 work plan.
Mr. John Townsend, Team Leader from the EU – Technical Assistance, said the funds are expected to be released by the end of the year.
The EU is expected to contrib
ute some 4.165 million euros to the effort to ensure that Guyana’s mangroves are protected, managed and restored.
Townsend told the Sunday Chronicle that once the National Mangrove Action Plan, which is currently before the National Assembly, receives the requisite support at that level, moves will be made to have the funds released.
He added that the EU is awaiting progress in other areas, in particular with the Sea and River Defence Policy, before funds are made available.
The policy calls for alternative solutions to traditional hard structures including the re-establishment of mangroves for effective flood defence and to protect environmental resources.
The Team Leader explained that support to the MAC is being given through the EU’s Sector Policy Support Programme (SPSP).
The essential role that mangroves play is the defence of the coastal zone, by damping wave action and protecting coastal banks. They also have a role in carbon sequestration. In Guyana mangroves also have also been a source of raw materials and this has led to degradation of mangrove fields despite the important ecological services they perform.
In recent decades, the mangrove belt has been severely depleted and the natural cycle of erosion and recovery is apparently at disequilibrium. Although the cycle mechanisms are poorly understood, it is generally assumed that heavy damage by humans, the loss of old groynes (constructed during colonial times but largely left to disintegrate since then), and increases in sea level and wave energy are the principal factors explaining the depletion. Whatever the cause, the protection of mangroves is a major concern.
The Government of Guyana’s recent inclusion of climate change considerations in public policy has been enshrined in the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (2009) wherein there is a central focus on forest conservation, including the protection of the substantial mangrove belts along the coasts and estuaries.
The National Mangrove Management Action Plan presents a concise overview of the key issues related to the sustainable management of the national mangrove forest. The associated guidelines presented have been identified as national imperatives for the protection and sustainable management of mangroves.
It aims to restore, rehabilitate and protect mangrove belts wherever they occur as part of overall forest protection.