A visitor centre was opened Monday for Guyana’s first mangrove reserve at Cove and John, East Coast Demerara, a first stop for tourists who choose to embark on the Mangrove heritage trail of the Golden Grove-Belfield mangrove reserve. The centre is housed at the bottom of the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute at Cove and John, about a 30 minute ride from Georgetown.
The Golden Grove-Belfield area boasts four specific species of mangrove, and the community, recognising the importance of mangroves to sea defence, has collectively laboured to build up the mangroves in the area.
The community’s labour has led to a two-kilometre stretch of mangrove in the Golden Grove-Belfield community.
Recognising the need to educate persons about the importance of mangrove, and also given the opportunity to promote the community, a mangrove heritage trail tour was designed around the reserve and the community.
The tour gives visitor a chance to learn the fascinating facts about the mangrove and the history and heritage of the East Coast Demerara area.
The tour begins at the visitor centre, where visitors are taken around the community by vehicle or horse cart and treated to such sites as the Cove and John Ashram and Victoria village, the first village purchased by freed slaves.
The main highlight of the trail is the educational tour of the mangrove reserve.
Aside from being the starting point of the Mangrove heritage trail, the centre will also provide homemade products such as honey from the local shop and producers.
Chairman of the Mangrove Action Committee, Annette Arjoon-Martins, said that the centre is designed to educate persons about the importance of the mangrove to sea defence.
Arjoon-Martins said that she is hoping that the mangrove reserve trail turns into a vital excursion in Guyana. She said that she is optimistic that local tour guides will start offering the mangrove trail on their itinerary.
The reserve, she said, has already attracted many school children. During the March-April period, the mangrove reserve saw visitors from 14 schools, including Fifth Form students from Bishops and St. Rose’s High Schools, who have visited to conduct field research.
Arjoon-Martins said the Georgetown students’ visit gave Fifth Form students in the community an opportunity to interact and learn from the visitors.
Ninety percent of Guyana’s agriculture and population are found along the coast, and with the steady increase in the strength of the wave and the shifting of the sea defences, government has initialised the Mangrove Restoration Project.
The aim is to use mangrove to complement the concrete sea defence as mangroves help to break wave energy. (GINA)