Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Love for the Mangrove

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CARACAS, Aug 5 2006 (IPS) - The exposition “For Love of the Mangrove”, organized by the National Center for Improvement of Science Education, will run through August at the Lía Bermúdez Art Center in the western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. Videos and photographs by artists Audio Cepeda and Jean Cearlos Ramos illustrate the contributions made by mangrove trees. There will also be workshops on conservation in which residents of communities near mangrove forests will participate, says spokeswoman Adriana Vera.

The urgency of the effort to protect these trees lies in “the pressures from development along Venezuela's coasts,” which are implementing projects for natural gas, petroleum and coal there, says Jorge Hinestroza, professor of ecology at the University of Zulia in Maracaibo.

“Venezuela has 300,000 hectares of mangrove forests with the potential to generate up to three kilograms of organic material per square meter,” he said.