THE Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP) is forging ahead with a programme to plant over 54,000 black mangrove trees on a denuded section of the Wellington Park village foreshore in Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne). Project Chairperson, Mrs. Annette Arjoon-Martins disclosed that the effort to restore mangroves on the village foreshore commenced early last week and planters, drawn from the village are planting an average of 1,400 plants per day.
The GMRP project is funded by a partnership between the Government of Guyana and the European Union to the tune of EUR 4,165,000 (approximately G$1.1 billion) and is currently being implemented through the National Agriculture Research & Extension Institute (NAREI).
The primary objective of the project is to seek the commitment of Guyanese towards the protection and development of sustainable mangrove forests as an inexpensive form of sea defence.
As per the GMRP plan, residents of the Wellington Park village have been receiving tangible economic benefits from the mangrove restoration activity. Several females had been contracted to plant the mangrove seeds, grow them to a height of two feet and then sell them to the GMRP for $100 per plant.
And they had done so successfully, Arjoon-Martins said.
Males from the village are benefiting from a daily wage for the planting of the mangrove trees on mud banks on the foreshore.
Additionally, on a recommendation from the GMRP, Women of Wellington Park have organised themselves into a Mangrove Women Producer’s Cooperatives which will engage in food processing and sale of the products as an alternative to income they may have received from exploiting the mangroves.
Meanwhile, in pursuit of reforestation of another section of the Corentyne Coast, the # 64 Village, Arjoon-Martins also met with a number of women from that village and urged them to follow in the footsteps of the women of Wellington Park.
Like the women of that village, women at # 64 will be awarded contracts to plant mangrove seeds and grow the plants to a height of two feet and then sell them to the GMRP for foreshore restoration.
They have also been urged to form a Mangrove Women Producer’s Cooperative which will get the support of the GMRP in making the project a successful economic venture.