**2. Study area, methods, and materials**

#### **2.1 Location**

The study area is located on the Low Coastal Plain, which is a narrow strip of land on the north-eastern coast of Guyana, South America, and comprises nine villages in the East Berbice-Corentyne Administrative Region. These villages are Adventure, Limlair, Wellington Park, Kiltearn, Eversham, Java, Joppa, Good Hope, and No. 46 (See **Figure 1** for the location of the villages). They were randomly selected from a group of villages, where it was observed that mangroves have advanced on private land east of the public road.

**35**

These are:

**Figure 1.**

moisture-retention capacity.

as the neighboring communities.

*2.2.1 Selection of study sites*

**2.2 Research design and approach**

*Effects of Rural Land Tenure System on Mangroves Management in Corentyne, Guyana*

The study area is characterized by variable hydrological and meteorological conditions. Two wet (May–August and December–January) and two dry seasons (February–April and September–November) are experienced annually. Humidity is high all year round, and there is a narrow range of temperature (26–28°C). The ground surface to the south and east slopes gradually toward the Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the north. Due to the elaborate drainage network and mechanical drainage facilities, the area seldom floods from heavy and continuous rainfall. Although the area is periodically flooded as a result of saline water intrusion during above-normal spring tides, small-scale agricultural activities are carried out sporadically in the area. The relatively flat topography, fertile soils, and good accessibility facilitate agricultural activities. Soils found there originated from different types of parent materials, but they predominantly clays on the front lands and a type of tropical peat called pegasse—which occurs behind the coastal clays and along the river estuaries—in the backlands. The spongy nature of the peat soil allows for high

The study area consists of economically depressed communities that rely heavily on cash crop cultivation, fishing, and paddy rice farming (this is done on the leeward side of the public road and away from the mangroves). There was no marked change in land use over the past decade, except the expansion of residence in Eversham and surrounding villages, and some instances of the natural proliferation of mangrove on privately owned lands. The residential area is found on both sides east and west—of the public road only, and it takes on the same linear arrangement

Three criteria were used in the selection of the study sites for data collection.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89610*

*Location of the study area. Courtesy: Claudette foo.*

*Effects of Rural Land Tenure System on Mangroves Management in Corentyne, Guyana DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89610*

**Figure 1.** *Location of the study area. Courtesy: Claudette foo.*

*Land Use Change and Sustainability*

Climate Change (UNFCCC).

case-study approach.

**2.1 Location**

**2. Study area, methods, and materials**

advanced on private land east of the public road.

stabilize sediments originating from sea-land interactions; and protect coastal communities from strong winds and waves [4, 5]. Their usefulness also includes the provision of food, medicine, fuels, and construction materials, as well as

However, while available data point to a variety uses of mangrove ecosystems, analysis of remotely sensed images shows that mangroves are recognized as the most important soft-engineering sea defense structure against erosion in lowlying coastal areas in Guyana [6, 7]. By virtue of more than 75% of the country's population residing along the coastal belt and within proximity of mangrove habitats, uncontrolled developments, economic activities [7–9], and erosion episodes [7, 9] have severely impacted the sustainability of mangrove ecosystems in some locations over the years. These trends, along with the prospect of sea-level rise [10–13], necessitate investigation of how changes in land use, land cover, and land tenure arrangements affect mangrove colony and distribution [6, 9, 12]. For close to a decade, there has been renewed interest in the protection and management of mangroves along Guyana's sea coast [12]. The establishment of the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GRMP) in 2010 is one of the main responses initiated by the government to address these issues [14]. Also, at the policy level, mangrove restoration and management have been identified as two of Guyana's primary responses to the prospect of climate change and sea-level rise, and honoring of obligations to the United Nations Framework Convention on

The primary objective—founded on three key principles adumbrated by the project document—of the GMRP is to promote the sustainable management of mangroves. These principles are ecological sustainability, economic sustainability, and social system sustainability. According to the GMRP, ecological sustainability suggests maintaining the ecological balance of mangrove ecosystems at its restoration sites while utilizing some resources. Economic sustainability identifies opportunities for satisfying some basic needs of the local communities by establishing mangrove reserves and producers cooperatives, for example; and sustainability of the social systems is directed to developing infrastructure, such as building common facilities for community activities, ensuring social justice, and sustaining local and national traditions that are enshrined in the national policy documents [6, 8, 15]. The different types of land tenure systems invariably have an influence on land use and mangrove management. The objectives of this study, therefore, were to determine the relationship between the dominant land uses and the extent of mangrove coverage in the study area, and to examine land tenure issues that impacted the conservation and sustainable management of mangroves using a

The study area is located on the Low Coastal Plain, which is a narrow strip of land on the north-eastern coast of Guyana, South America, and comprises nine villages in the East Berbice-Corentyne Administrative Region. These villages are Adventure, Limlair, Wellington Park, Kiltearn, Eversham, Java, Joppa, Good Hope, and No. 46 (See **Figure 1** for the location of the villages). They were randomly selected from a group of villages, where it was observed that mangroves have

increasing biodiversity values for local communities [5].

**34**

The study area is characterized by variable hydrological and meteorological conditions. Two wet (May–August and December–January) and two dry seasons (February–April and September–November) are experienced annually. Humidity is high all year round, and there is a narrow range of temperature (26–28°C). The ground surface to the south and east slopes gradually toward the Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the north. Due to the elaborate drainage network and mechanical drainage facilities, the area seldom floods from heavy and continuous rainfall. Although the area is periodically flooded as a result of saline water intrusion during above-normal spring tides, small-scale agricultural activities are carried out sporadically in the area. The relatively flat topography, fertile soils, and good accessibility facilitate agricultural activities. Soils found there originated from different types of parent materials, but they predominantly clays on the front lands and a type of tropical peat called pegasse—which occurs behind the coastal clays and along the river estuaries—in the backlands. The spongy nature of the peat soil allows for high moisture-retention capacity.

The study area consists of economically depressed communities that rely heavily on cash crop cultivation, fishing, and paddy rice farming (this is done on the leeward side of the public road and away from the mangroves). There was no marked change in land use over the past decade, except the expansion of residence in Eversham and surrounding villages, and some instances of the natural proliferation of mangrove on privately owned lands. The residential area is found on both sides east and west—of the public road only, and it takes on the same linear arrangement as the neighboring communities.

## **2.2 Research design and approach**

## *2.2.1 Selection of study sites*

Three criteria were used in the selection of the study sites for data collection. These are:

