NEPA Spearheads Replanting of Salt Marsh Mangrove

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) will be undertaking a mangrove habitat rehabilitation project in Salt Marsh, Trelawny, on Friday (June 7) in observance of World Ocean Day 2024.

Manager of NEPA’s Ecosystems Management Branch, Monique Curtis, told JIS News that the project will be executed through collaboration with the Discovery Bay Marine Lab of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Sandals Foundation.

She informed that up to 50 volunteers will be engaged to plant some 200 mangrove saplings in the Salt Marsh area.

“We have come up with a list of persons. Our primary focus, because of the constraints in terms of the numbers, is on inviting members of the local community and areas that span or influence the Salt Marsh area. We have also invited persons who are hoping to work in the space, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“We invited local representatives from the Municipal Corporation because we are trying to focus on how we can collaborate and energise the people within that space, so that we are able to conserve what it is there now as well as bring back the degraded ecosystems or habitats,” she said.

Ms. Curtis told JIS News that prior to NEPA’s intervention, the Salt Marsh area was the subject of illegal land clearance activities, improper dumping and unauthorised development.

“This resulted in somewhat of a level of encroachment into the mangrove habitat, and this is what we’re trying to stem, prevent further encroachment and then restore the areas that were previously degraded,” she pointed out.

The lands of the Salt Marsh area are owned by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), after being gifted to the Government of Jamaica by a private landowner to enable the protection of the area.

World Ocean Day will be observed globally on Saturday, June 8, under the theme ‘Catalyzing Action for Our Ocean & Climate’.