THE drive to protect, conserve and manage Guyana’s mangrove forests continued over last weekend when approximately 100 plants were planted at La Belle Alliance and Lima, on Essequibo Coast.
In the area where some red mangroves had sprung up, through natural restoration, the planting was coordinated by members of the Mangrove Action Committee (MAC) and students of the Essequibo Branch of Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) assisted.
For the students, from the GSA Forestry Department, the exercise was exposure to a different cultivation methodology.
Those students helped two undergraduates from the University of Guyana (UG) Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry who were involved in collecting data on the growth of black mangroves planted a few months ago.
The survey found that those plants had tripled in size since being put in the ground and the vegetative growth (increase in leaves) was encouraging.
The approach to restore mangroves is that of the Ecosystem Protection and Rehabilitation (EPR) step one of which entails understanding which species is suitable for a particular site and under what conditions it would grow successfully.
After that, the existing conditions must be ascertained to assess what is preventing the normal growth of the trees. Once those are determined, they can be amended to meet the needs and new mangroves will be planted if re-growth is not occurring.
The MAC said the replanting is a key component of the National Mangrove Management Action Plan (NMMAP) which it developed with technical assistance from other stakeholders.
The plan presents a concise overview of the critical issues related to the sustainable management of the national mangrove forests and the associated guidelines have been identified as imperatives for the protection, as well, with the aim of restoring, rehabilitating and protecting cultivation belts wherever they are situated, as part of overall forest protection.