A Mangrove’s Swan Song?

An image of the mangrove swamp at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary captured by Stephen Mendes in 2008.

This one has been on my heart for a long time. After all, the mangrove swamp at Graeme Hall was one of the places I visited as a child that started my love and interest in nature. Now, this ecosystem stands on the brink of destruction as its needs rest on the backburner of the government’s stove. I’m not keen to see the last remnant of mangrove forest in Barbados fade away within my lifetime, or future generations to come, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me rewind this story just a bit to describe how we got here.

Some Critical Ecology and the History of Mangroves

               I think I’ll start first with defining critical ecology. Recently I had been listening to an episode of one of my favourite podcasts – Ologies with Alie Ward. This episode hosted Dr. Suzanne Pierre; the founder of the Critical Ecology Lab. Dr. Pierre describes critical ecology as the study of how societal structures such as the social, economic, and political systems influence the natural environment and its functions. It defines how disparities in power between human beings such as racism and capitalism, for example, affect ecology (the study of how living and non-living things interact with each other). Now, I’ve described all of this because I believe the state of our mangrove forests in Barbados today tie in perfectly with the concept of critical ecology, particularly as it relates to settler colonialism and capitalism and how these have influenced ecological change on my island.

               Mangrove forests are transitional ecosystems which merge the land and sea. They are composed of salt-tolerant trees and can be found in the coastal intertidal zone. These trees have a dense network of roots which stand above the water line and look much like stilts, allowing them to handle the change of the tides every day. Mangrove forests are quite rich with biodiversity as they act as a nursery for many juvenile marine species which shelter among the roots from predators, especially those that fisheries depend on. They are also habitats for wetland birds which roost and feed on smaller animals such as crabs and fish, and reptiles such as hawksbill and green turtles which feed on their roots and the sponges growing on them.

The ecosystem services that mangroves provide for us as well are invaluable. They protect our shoreline from wave erosion as their dense network of roots slows the wave energy. Mangroves also sequester carbon and absorb nutrients and pollutants from the water before it flows to other valuable ecosystems such as seagrass beds and coral reefs. To put it simply, they’re important.

These precious ecosystems once lined the western and southern coasts of Barbados before settlement began on the island. Since then, coastal development has made way for ports, roads, and hotels, landscaping the areas until our mangrove forests became remnants of what they once were. We now spend more money than we should have to constructing revetments, groynes, and spurs to protect our shoreline. So, this is where I see how critical ecology comes into play, because settler colonialism brought about significant ecological change, and capitalism continues to perpetuate its effects. If we continue as is, capitalist greed will see to the end of this ecosystem in Barbados.

The Current Situation (yeah, pun intended.)

The last substantial patch of mangrove forest lies on the south coast of the island at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. A major road runs between it and the sea, and a narrow pathway is now what connects the forest to the ocean. A sluice gate, however, controls the flow of water between the ocean and the mangroves, and this is only opened by the government to allow the flow of water out of the mangrove to prevent flooding in the surrounding areas. This is detrimental to the mangrove forest as it is a brackish water environment. The vegetation depends on the correct salinity levels in order to thrive. As Graeme Hall remains closed off from the sea, this disrupts the flow of sea water inwards, and it runs the risk of becoming a freshwater environment. Freshwater vegetation will then easily out compete the mangrove trees as the mangroves suffer. Its connection to the sea also allows for the free movement of wildlife to and from this area. It cannot fulfill its duties as a nursery, for example, if juvenile fish are unable to reach it. If this ecosystem collapses, the life it hosts will be soon to follow.

Conclusion

The good news is island-wide petitions advocating for the protection of this ecosystem have garnered attention and the cogs are in motion for action to take place. With the growing biodiversity crisis and continuing climate crisis, however, time is not on our side, and we must be swift. Our flora and fauna are going extinct at alarming rates. We must not contribute to the loss of valuable species and ecosystems and be wise in our actions to protect what little we have left.