By Sara Acosta | Jiquilisco (El Salvador) (EFE)
In El Salvador, mangroves are located along the Pacific coastal zone. Among the most important are those of Bahía de La Unión, Bahía de Jiquilisco (both in the eastern part of the country), Bahía de Jaltepeque (central zone) and Barra de Santiago (western zone).
According to the Ministry of the Environment, from 1950 to 2013, 60% of mangrove forest cover has been lost, going from 100,000 hectares to 40,000. And it is that these ecosystems are affected by pollution, deforestation, agricultural expansion, aquaculture projects, and urban and tourist development.
More than 300 chinampas
Jiquilisco Bay was declared a Ramsar site in October 2005. The reserve has more than 63,000 hectares and contains the largest mangrove estuary in El Salvador and includes numerous bays, canals, beaches, islands, forests, and a complex of water lagoons. sweet.
The chinampas project is carried out in the western area of said bay, in approximately 7 hectares, and is executed by The HALO Trust organization with the support of the Mangle Association and the accompaniment of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. (MARN).
In this area they have already placed more than 300 chinampas or floating islands, made with bamboo stakes and biodegradable plant material.
Sofia Grimaldi, a biologist and expert consultant on mangroves, explained to EFE that the technique known as chinampas is “basically small islands that are made to raise the ground level and plant different species (of mangrove trees) that are found in the zone”.
He pointed out that before the implementation of the project, which began in 2022, a study was carried out to “find out how low the ground level was based on basic floods” and “based on this information to be able to know how much they had to raise the chinampas”.
species diversity
In a triangle formed with the bamboo stakes, mangrove trees of three kinds – black, white and black – are planted in the mangrove waters for reproduction.
José María Argueta, director of the Mangle Association, told EFE that the chinampas were an initiative implemented in some areas of Mexico as an alternative used by farmers to plant their crops.
“Here we, in El Salvador, are using them for the ecological restoration of mangroves (…) we seek to plant various species of mangrove (trees) and find out which species is going to be maintained,” he said.
Alejandra Ríos, a Colombian expert member of The HALO Trust and coordinator of the project, told EFE that in El Salvador some practices had been carried out with small amounts of chinampas, but “I think this is one of the first (projects) that already has a large number of chinampas, with 330”, equivalent to more than 1,100 mangrove trees.
He indicated that chinampas make it easier for plants not to drown during floods. “Not so high that they don’t have enough moisture, and not so low that they can drown during high tides or floods,” he added.
A long restoration job
The director of the Mangrove Association pointed out that it was from 2011 that people began to talk about the ecological restoration of mangroves with a community approach, and it was in 2012 when the first intervention was carried out in affected areas.
This allowed the monitoring of the degraded area and studies on the autoecology of the mangrove species to “know the distribution patterns and what species there were.”
Argueta pointed out that MARN, the Mangle Association, other organizations and now The Halo Trust have been present at the interventions, which “has allowed the mangrove forest to be restored, even in areas where we practically thought it was not going to be restored.” .
“With the fact of opening channels, removing sediment or disturbances that are in them (in the channels) the brackish water has been draining better and therefore the species (of trees) have been regenerating on their own,” he added.
Mangroves, of vital importance
Alejandra Ríos pointed out that the mangrove ecosystem is of vital importance for coastal communities, since it works as a natural barrier against possible events, such as floods and hurricanes.
In addition, they are a source of food and are part of the economy of the locals, he said.
“Because of the environmental issue, it is a nursery for many species, both fish, amphibians and birds,” he added.