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Mangrove Restoration project grows into birding expedition
The Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project which has been responsible for the replanting of mangroves along an extensive area of Guyana’s coastline is a well known effort. Significant support from the European Union’s Global
Climate Change Alliance and the Government of Guyana enabled the establishment of a Mangrove Visitors’ Centre that has hosted more than 9,000 primary and secondary school students on field trips.
Alternative livelihood initiatives such as a community-owned and managed horse cart tour through the historic Victoria village, has won both national and regional awards. The tour ends in the mangrove forests which are also home to hives that provide a much demanded golden honey.
In order to complement the earlier initiative, the GIZ through its Caribbean Aqua Terrestrial Solutions (CATS) programme, partnered with Iwokrama to deliver two phases of tour guiding and birding capacity building projects for participants from Victoria, Hope Beach, Greenfield and Mahaica.
The top seven participants were taken on an exchange visit to Iwokrama to gain firsthand experience on this centre of excellence.
The project enabled the birth of the Mahaica River Birding Tour which was developed to complement the Victoria Village horse cart tour rather than compete with it.
In an exemplary demonstration of community collaboration the experienced tour guides from Victoria Village partnered with the younger Mahaica tour guides and accompanied them on the early tours until they became confident to do so independently.
Once established the Mahaica River Birding Tour returned the favour by including a stop at the Victoria Honey Hut so that tourists could purchase the golden mangrove honey and handmade beeswax candles sold there.
Encouraged by the initiative of the Mahaica River Birding Tour to expand their product from birding to sports fishing, the CATS programme with the support of the GIZ, the implementing agency, presented an aluminium boat and 50 horsepower Yamaha Outboard Engine to the community group, on Friday last. The group has already decided to utilise this assest transporting tourists on the Mahaica River from Little Baiboo to St Cuthbert’s Amerindian Community.
The tour provided the visitors with some interesting sights. There were the green iguana, a giant river otter enjoying his breakfast of a fresh fish—this otter hung around the boat for a while— a spectacled caiman basking on the bank of the river, (it disappeared as soon as the otter got too close).
Further on howler monkeys were spotted at two frequent ”baboon landings” and over fifty species of birds, including the Hoatzin or Canje Pheasant (Guyana’s National Bird) were spotted from start to finish.
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