What the law says about mangroves
Mangroves in Guyana are considered a protected species under the amended Forestry Act of 2010 making it illegal to destroy mangroves without prior permission from the Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission.
The Act specifically notes that the forest in the title includes mangrove forests and any wetlands or open lands within a forest which form an integral part of the ecosystem.
Another piece of legislation the Sea Defence Act explains that sea defence includes any natural feature which serves as a protection of the sea coast against the erosive action of the sea or which protects the bank of any river from the erosive action of the river current and all land 50 feet landward of such a natural feature.
Section 12 of the same act specifies that all sea defence is the property of the state while Section 18 adds that without written sanction of the sea defence board no person shall make a drain into the sea or a construction on sea defence. To contravene this section is to be liable for a fine of $30,000 or imprisonment for six months.
Section 20 adds that any person who without consent of the board removes vegetation from any sea defence or from any land along the foreshore within one half of a mile of the mean high water mark is liable to a fine of $12,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months. Additionally according to Section 24 the offender can be asked to pay damages as long as these don’t amount to more than $20,000.
TriStar Incorporated which destroyed a large swathe of mangroves at Versailles-Malgre Tout appears to have violated the Environmental Protection Act which grants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the right to conduct an environmental impact assessment and grant an environmental permit.
Section 15 of this Act states that any person who fails to conduct an environmental impact assessment or who commences a project without an environmental permit is guilty of an offence and liable upon conviction for a fine of not less than $70,000 nor more than $300,000 and imprisonment for three months.
“A developer of any project which may significantly affect the environment shall apply to the [EPA] for an environmental permit,” the Act advises while specifying that the application must include information on site design and size of the project as well as a non-technical explanation of the project.
The EPA is then mandated to publish a public notice of the intent to conduct an EIA granting members of the public 28 days to submit their own queries. Even after the EIA if the agency decides to grant an environmental permit the public is allowed 60 days to object.
There is no evidence that any of these measures were implemented.
Stabroek News reached out to developer Krishna ‘Kris’ Persaud who told this newspaper that the local team working on the project will soon address concerns about the destruction of the mangrove forest even as sources close to him assured that “ample” mitigating measures will be taken.
One source who vouched for the Florida-based developer maintained that “he knows about standards, codes and laws and has always been one to keep his word.”
“He knows if he does something wrong here it can have an effect there [in the US],” the source assured.
Based on this testimony Persaud should be very familiar with the significance of mangroves as well as prohibitions on their removal.
Florida
In Florida, the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act prevents the alteration of any mangrove without permission from a specific local authority.
Among the myriad provisions of the Act is the directive that “a person may not alter or trim, or cause to be altered or trimmed, any mangrove within the landward extent of wetlands and other surface waters…when the trimming does not meet the criteria in [specified sections] except under a permit issued…by the department or a delegated local government.”
Private property owners are allowed to trim within a Riparian Mangrove Fringe (RMF) where mangroves growing along the shoreline of the property do not extend more than 50 feet waterward. In such cases as long as the mangroves do not exceed 10 feet in height and so long as the homeowner does not trim the mangroves below six feet in height and does not defoliate any mangrove they may trim.
Should the size of the individual mangroves or the mangrove forest exceed these provisions then a special permit is required.
According to the Act this permit specifies that the trimming is to be supervised or conducted exclusively by a professional mangrove trimmer. Additionally the mangroves subject to trimming under the permit should not extend more than 500 feet waterward as measured from the trunk of the most landward mangrove tree in a direction perpendicular to the shoreline, no more than 65 percent of the mangroves along the shoreline which exceed 6 feet in pretrimmed height as measured from the substrate are to be trimmed, and no mangrove will be trimmed so that the overall height of any mangrove is reduced to less than six feet as measured from the substrate.
Notably the Mangrove Act does not distinguish between living and dead mangroves, so the same trimming regulations apply to each. That is, in Florida, it is illegal to remove a dead mangrove without special permission.