Shining a spotlight on Guyana’s pioneering blue carbon strategy – the mangrove story

Governments matter. Guyana moves in a steep upward trajectory under PPP governments. Guyana seems to have reversed course into a steep downward trajectory under PNC-led governments. In Venezuela, unfortunately, another questionable (rigged) election appeared to have taken place on July 28. The exodus from Venezuela which has seen almost eight million people leaving that country in the past decade will now continue unless global efforts end the travesty in Venezuela. A Chavez-led government inspired her people; a Maduro-led government has driven out people.
The story of mangroves in Guyana illustrates vividly that governments matter. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the economic destruction under a PNC government, large swatches of mangroves were destroyed as people were forced to use mangroves for cooking and other purposes. The restoration project was a vision of President Bharat Jagdeo and continued under President Donald Ramotar. Now President Irfaan Ali’s PPP government is investing even more money into this project. It is another of the PPP’s contributions to the fight against climate change. The PNC-led APNU/AFC government between 2015 and 2020 completely missed this policy-direction and made little to no investment for mangrove restoration.
Between 2012 and 2015 several groups, including from Victoria and Golden Grove, were contracted to plant mangrove seedlings along the shores of the East Coast, West Berbice, and Corentyne. Between 2015 and 2020 none of them were contracted. This is just one example of two governments with different visions.
Guyana is a major player on the global stage in the fight against global warming. On the adaptation front, while expanding and strengthening our pump station capacity around the country to deal with floods, Guyana has also been building more drainage infrastructure, such as the plan to build six more Hope-like canals and to rehabilitate or reconstruct existing sluices/kokers. On the mitigation front, Guyana has garnered global recognition for our LCDS and the willingness to safeguard Guyana’s rainforest, an important part of the global “lung” contributing to the sequestration of emitted carbon. Guyana’s carbon sink is not just protecting Guyana, but helping the world reduce carbon in the atmosphere.
While the “greening” revolution is well-recognized, little attention has focused on the ”blue” front in the fight against global warming. In this regard, few have paid attention to the importance of mangrove restoration in Guyana’s fight against climate change. Like the LCDS, the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project 2010-2013 was launched under President Jagdeo and continued under President Donald Ramotar. From a mitigation perspective, mangroves are powerful sequesters of emitted carbon. The expansion of the mangrove cover along Guyana’s shorelines and along river banks helps to expand Guyana’s carbon sink. Outside of this significant climate change mitigation role, the mangrove forests along the shores also protect against rising sea levels, thereby adding to Guyana’s repertoire of climate change adaptation initiatives.
Although the project initially was a stand-alone project with a Project Execution Unit (PEU) within the Ministry of Agriculture, by 2014, we integrated the project within NAREI. The project by then had evolved from a restoration project, seeking to replace mangroves in areas where they were removed in the 1970s and 1980s, to a restoration and expansion project. Between 2015 and 2020, with the new APNU/AFC government, the mangrove restoration project grounded to a halt. Since 2020, under the leadership of President Irfaan Ali and Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, the project has again gained momentum. Governments do matter.
Mangrove forests are critical for carbon sequestering, reducing flood risks, and protecting water quality and the ecosystem of wetlands, including sustaining plants, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and algae), invertebrates, birds, and mammals. These ecosystems with their unique microbiome also support the sustainability of the bee population. In areas such as Victoria on the East Coast, the mangroves contribute to a bustling honey industry.
Mangroves are up to 10 times more powerful in sequestering carbon than mature forest covers. The blue carbon strategy has not yet been fully explored and Guyana under then President Bharat Jagdeo and now under President Ali is leading fighters for recognition of blue carbon in the fight against climate change. Presently in the world, mangrove forests are responsible for the storage of about 21 billion metric tons of carbon, which amounts to about one-third of carbon emitted in 2021. The carbon-plus capacity of blue carbon, therefore, makes restoration and expansion of mangrove forests imperatives for the Paris Agreement and for achieving SDG 14. To understand how important the blue carbon mangrove capacity is, note that mangroves account for only 0.7% of the total global tropical forest area, but mangrove deforestation presently around the world accounts for more than 10% of total emissions linked to deforestation.
The global mangrove deforestation since 1996 is approximately more than 11,000 km2; about 8,000 km2 of which are man-made and recoverable. Just restoring the 8,000 km2 of man-made mangrove destruction will help to sequester about 1.27 gigatons of CO2, equivalent to 520 million barrels of oil or the emissions from 49 million cars.
As we did with our rain forest, pioneering the LCDS, we are also pioneering the “blue” fight against global warming. President Ali is not shy in recognizing the pioneering visionary work that was started under Bharat Jagdeo, and continued by President Donald Ramotar. Instead of abandoning the initiatives, as President Granger did, he built on them. Since 2010, Guyana has invested almost $2B in the restoration and expansion project for mangroves, with about $0.8B coming between 2021 and 2024. President Ali has vowed to increase investment even more rapidly. He is a visionary leader, taking the mantle of leadership for the “blue” fight.
It is why Guyana is seen as a leader in the fight against climate change, and why Guyana has best practices in the global repertoire of climate adaptation and mitigation activities. President Jagdeo was named Champion of the Earth for the LCDS. President Ali can become a Champion of the Earth for his “blue” fight against global warming.