It was a sunny February afternoon in the height of peak season on the Caribbean island of Curacao, but my partner, Aaren, and I were far from lounging on a white sand beach, snorkeling over a coral reef, or strolling through the Easter waves. -Egg-colored buildings of Willemstad, the capital of Curacao and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: typical activities for travelers to this former Dutch colony.
Instead, on a kayak tour with Serlon St Jago, a guide from the Curaçao Rif Mangrove Park, we learned about the country’s mangrove restoration and the vital role mangrove habitats play in coastal resilience, protecting marine and bird species, and the fight against the effects of climate change.
There are no poisonous snakes, alligators or large predators living on Curaçao, said St Jago, reassuring information as we paddled towards a towering wall of mangroves bordering Piscadera Bay. Up close, the trees were magnificent and cheerful. Colorful birds perched on tangled branches and trunks, and small trails under the green and occasionally yellow leaves invited us to explore. With our kayaks beached, Mr St Jago pointed out the fiddler crabs and mussels, and described the differences in the local mangrove species (red, white and black) and how they adapted to live and propagate where the water meets the earth.
“There is so much life here,” he said with infectious enthusiasm.
We were the only tourists on the water, but getting more visitors like us interested in the mangroves, perhaps even persuading them to replant some of the vital trees themselves, has been a priority for scientists, activists, park rangers and tour operators in Curaçao in recent years. years.
The island is not alone in its efforts: Similar work focused on mangroves has begun around the world, in places like Indonesia, Australia, Belize and Florida, as fragile destinations balance tourism growth with conservation (and restoration ) of natural resources that captivate visitors.
“Coral reefs get all the attention. But mangroves are probably much more important,” said Gabby Ahmadia, vice president of the World Wildlife Federation’s oceans program, who oversees the organization’s mangrove science and restoration programs. “My favorite analogy about mangroves is that they are Swiss army knives, because they provide so many different benefits and can do so many different things.”
Although these forests are one degree removed from the views and activities that traditionally draw visitors to the ocean, changing perceptions can be difficult. To protect the environment, mangrove kayak tours may be limited in number (as are most snorkeling, fishing and bird watching tours offered in other destinations) and visitors must be interested first of all. With their summer reading and beach toys, family traditions and limited vacation days, most tourists might simply agree with the old saying “Life is better at the beach.”
A foundation of life
The twisted branches, trunks and distinctive aerial roots of mangroves are a crude and complex repudiation of how a child’s drawing depicts an ordinary tree. Roots may arch, emerge like spikes from the water, or form piles above and below the surface. Adapted to the oxygen-poor, high-salinity, and ebb-and-flow soils of an intertidal zone, coastal mangroves thrive where other trees and shrubs would die. Unless yellow, the leaves are green and some, if you lick them, taste salty.
Mangrove forests can seem impenetrable, muddy, smelly and swampy. For centuries, they have been logged for firewood, farmland, urban development, aquaculture and, yes, tourism. On Curaçao, mangroves are now found on only 0.012 percent of the island. Globally, more than half of mangrove forests have been logged or otherwise destroyed in the last 50 years. Deforestation has slowed, but not stopped, in recent years, and rising sea levels and increased storm activity have caused more damage.
But coastal mangroves (there are about 60 species worldwide) are the basis of life above and below water. With intricate root systems, they act as nurseries for juvenile fish and other marine species. The branches and trunks of the mangroves are safe feeding and nesting sites for yellow warblers, tricolored herons and other species of birds, reptiles such as iguanas and many insects.
Those tightly anchored roots also protect from flooding, erosion and tides by slowing sea water and trapping dirt and debris. More importantly, mangrove forests are extraordinary at slowing the effects of global warming, absorbing and storing carbon annually at a rate ten times greater than tropical forests. Mangroves, along with other coastal wetlands, “sequester enough carbon each year to offset the burning of more than one billion barrels of oil,” according to the Nature Conservancy.
Surreptitious beginnings
Ryan de Jongh, a 53-year-old Curacao-native activist and tour guide, is the living embodiment of regenerative tourism. He is a big reason we find a thriving, lush ecosystem in Piscadera Bay, and demonstrates how one person can make a difference.
Mr de Jongh grew up swimming in the bay and watched as the area’s mangroves were cleared for fuel and construction. In 2006, he surreptitiously planted the first mangrove tree (a single seedling can mature in about 15 years and give rise to an entire thicket) and now, he said, more than 100,000 trees are growing. He made similarly stealthy plantations in other inlets and bays, becoming a local hero in the process.
Mr de Jongh, who also offers kayak tours, now works on widespread government-approved restoration projects.
Their goal is to plant 1.3 million trees on the island. “I have to literally transform a desert into green,” she said.
The interior of Curacao certainly looks like a desert, with a dry, dusty landscape of cacti and other succulents. Along with its closest island neighbors, Aruba and Bonaire, Curacao is outside the Caribbean hurricane belt and receives minimal rainfall. People on the island drink desalinated sea water.
The trade winds bring cooler temperatures. In the 16th century, they also brought Europeans who enslaved and deported the indigenous population and turned Curaçao into a slave port. Settlers also planted oranges, sugar cane, and other non-native species, with varying degrees of success, and developed giant salt flats for export, but it was the construction of an oil refinery in 1918 and growing tourism that ultimately generated widespread jobs. . The refinery closed in 2019, nine years after Curacao voted to become a semi-autonomous nation of the Netherlands, an event that only emphasized the importance of tourism to Curacao’s economy. Last year, the island, just 40 miles long, welcomed 1.3 million visitors.
Aaren and I gladly did our part to support the economy: in Willemstad, that meant eating at Plasa Bieu, the old market, where individual vendors cook and sell local cuisine. We fought over the fried wahoo and an arepa di pampuna (pumpkin pancake), but were warned not to eat the cactus soup. “I live here,” said another diner, “and I don’t even eat that.” We also took photographs, like so many other visitors, as we crossed the Queen Emma Floating Bridge and watched it open and close for shipping traffic.
We wait in an hour-long line full of locals at the restaurant De Visserij Piscadera Seafood (“kill and fillet” since 2017), where diners choose and buy their fish fillets before sitting down; we drank oregano punch for the first time (think mint iced tea, but oregano and it’s so refreshing and delicious); and inhaled grilled shrimp and fresh raw tuna.
Further north, we ate williburgers (goat burgers) at Marfa’s GoodHangout in Sint Willibrordus, overlooking an old salt mine where, unfortunately, the resident flamingos were absent that day, and were delighted to find a coral nursery while snorkeling just next to the beach. Kokomo Beach crowded with people.
Coral reefs are crucial to Curaçao’s tourism and fishing industries and are valued at more than $445 million a year, according to a 2016 economic assessment published by the nonprofit Waitt Institute. And coral reefs, which support about 25 percent of all marine life, are enduring catastrophic bleaching and disease caused or exacerbated by climate change.
Over the past 10 years, scientists have better understood the symbiosis between coral reefs and mangroves: they do not need each other to exist, but proximity brings benefits to both ecosystems.
“Working in this field of conservation, you can come from one entry point and then realize that everything is connected,” said Ms. Ahmadia of the WWF. “We can work on coral reefs, but we should think about seagrass beds and mangroves, because they are all really connected. And then, of course, they are connected to the human environment.”
One morning, Aaren and I walked through the 30-acre Curaçao Rif Mangrove Park, a short walk from downtown Willemstad and a shorter walk from the island’s cruise terminal. Open from 2022, the park offers guided and audio tours, elevated boardwalks, programs for local schoolchildren, and a tiered entry fee system (forints and US dollars accepted) for residents and foreign visitors. Some 17,766 people arrived in 2023, an increase of 14,687 compared to 2022.
Manfred van Veghel is the new director of the Caribbean Biodiversity Research and Management Foundation, which oversees the mangrove park and five other national parks. Working with the Curaçao government, local tour operators and activists like Mr. de Jongh, Dr. van Veghel aims to expand access to the park, build a skybridge and add a visitor center, among other goals. The efforts are part of his desire to transform Curaçao into a more nature-based tourist destination.
“We had a record last year and they are pushing for more,” Dr. van Veghel said of the number of annual visitors to Curaçao. However, he said, the beaches are filling up. “So we need activities other than going to the beach, and the mangrove park is a great activity.”
Mark Spalding is a senior marine scientist at the Nature Conservancy and lead scientist for the Mapping Ocean Wealth initiative, an online tool that applies economic value to coastal ecosystems.
Dr. Spalding said that an advantage of mangrove activities, such as boating and hiking, is that “without having to walk through the Amazon for hours and hours, you can have that feeling of nature and experience, and also peace and peace of mind, very quickly and very easily.”
“It may only be two hours of your entire vacation,” he said, “but it’s what you take home: the story you tell.”
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