Remaining mangrove forests should be placed under legal protection – Fair Deal Guyana

World Mangrove Day

Remaining mangrove forests should be placed under legal protection – Fair Deal Guyana

Mangroves are a critical element in Guyana’s sea defence and when those mangroves are cut down, thinned, or damaged by garbage and fire, our coastal communities immediately suffer from rising sea levels resulting in farmers losing vital farmland and crops that are essential to this nation’s food security.
Guyana’s coastal belt, some of which is below sea-level, depends on inadequate sea-defences.

A Fair Deal For Guyana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, calls on the Protected Areas Commission (PAC) to place all of Guyana’s remaining mangroves under legal protection immediately. The body is a group of Guyanese citizens with a mission to protect the environment.
As the earth undergoes catastrophic global warming from greenhouse emissions, mangroves are critical to humanity’s survival. Mangroves serve as carbon sinks, absorbing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and trapping them in flooded soils for millennia.

Mangroves are among the most carbon-rich tropical forests and can store twice as much carbon per area than other forests. Yet these carbon sink benefits are being wiped out by fossil fuel emissions from Guyana’s oil production.
“How much time we have left on the coast depends to some extent on how well we protect and restore Guyana’s vital mangrove forests,” Fair Deal Guyana’s Deopaul Somwaru, a marine biology major, said.
Meanwhile, international lawyer Melinda Janki noted that: “It is madness to contribute to rising sea-levels, to ocean acidification and to the death of mangroves.”

Importance of mangroves
Mangroves form their own unique ecosystems which allow fishes and birds to thrive; this in turn would benefit the fishing communities, because more mangrove forests mean that fishes are able to reproduce and mature at a much faster rate. Mangroves are a vital nursery for fishes and crustaceans that Guyana’s fishing industry depends on.
Mangroves are also very important buffers of waves, since they reduce the energy with which the waves hit the coast, thus reducing coastal erosion. This prevents flooding and overtopping of man-made sea and river defences during high tides. Mangrove roots also help to bind the soil together which prevents the waves from washing it away, preventing erosion. This proves to be very beneficial along The Low Coastal Plain, since this area is home to 90 per cent of our country’s population and produces the majority of our agricultural output.
The term mangrove refers to over 70 different species of trees. Mangrove forests are known to be one of the most diverse ecosystems on the earth, housing and feeding a wide range of plants and animals, and play an important role in the fight against climate change and coastal erosion.
They store more carbon than terrestrial forests, significantly reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mangroves are often considered unique plants because of their ability to withstand and thrive in tough environmental conditions such as in water poor in oxygen, salt water, fresh water and brackish water (a mixture of salt and fresh water).
To survive these harsh conditions, mangroves have a variety of unique adaptations: some species have the ability to release salt crystals through salt glands in their leaves, black mangroves have pencil-like roots called pneumatophores which stick out of the ground to access oxygen even when submerged, and some practice viviparid (their seeds germinate while attached to the plant before falling to the ground).
Unfortunately, mangroves are under pressure throughout the world and in Guyana.

Cycle of mangroves
Owing to the dynamic nature of Guyana’s coasts, there is a continuous cycle of land attrition (breakdown) and accretion (build-up) of the coastline. As a result, mangrove populations experience fluctuation periods of tremendous growth and death. This is one of the biggest natural threats to our mangrove ecoregions.
In addition, however, anthropogenic factors (human activities) and climate change all leave our mangrove ecosystems vulnerable. This has prompted worldwide restoration efforts, with Guyana being no exception.
There are many species of mangroves found in Guyana. However, in restoration efforts, three major species stand out – these are the black, red, and white mangroves. Of these three, the black mangrove is the most commonly used owing to its high salt tolerance and efficiency in holding the soil together. Their large branched roots help to hold soil firmly in place and provide protection against heavy waves.

Threat
Human activities such as the dumping of garbage, cutting down of mangroves for their bark (which is used in the curing of leather or fishing poles) or forest clearing to create land space along with climate change all threaten Guyana’s mangroves. This can sometimes lead to areas such as Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara seeing a complete wipe-out of once-thriving mangrove populations.
Mangroves also provide optimum habitats for apiaries (bee hives), with the insects housed there producing delicious and much-sought-after honey and honey products.
Efforts to protect and extend mangrove coverage in Guyana have so far failed to deliver the expected
results. It is, therefore, urgent to put an immediate halt to activities that damage Guyana’s mangroves and to save what remains.