Almond Beach community exploring prospect of bottling coconut water

Along the 90-mile-long stretch of beach in the North West District of Region One in Guyana, popularly known as Shell Beach, is the nesting ground for several species of endangered sea turtles, including the Leatherback, Hawksbill, Green and Olive Ridley. These turtles are protected by residents of Almond Beach, who engage in patrols with the aim of monitoring their activities.

Apart from taking part in the turtle conservation efforts, the community’s leaders also strive to drive development, which is progressing alongside turtle conservation efforts, since the staffers are all residents of the community.

Residents of Almond Beach are currently exploring the possibility of venturing into the industry of bottling coconut water, since the community’s coconuts and copra are popular in Trinidad and Tobago. Chairman of the Almond Beach, Romeo De Freitas, noted that over the years, coconuts from Almond Beach have been exported in large quantities. It is hoped that the bottled coconut water initiative will benefit all the farmers in the community. De Freitas expressed hope of having a coconut bottling and edible oil factory on the beach that will make production of coconut based products easy.

He noted that while coconut is the main agricultural product, the community has the potential to pursue large scale production of 16 crops, which include cassava, eddoes, plantains, cherries, peppers, tomatoes and bora. He noted that the community already has a market for these products, which can easily be shipped to Trinidad and Tobago. De Freitas indicated that there is one challenge with the farm land — it needs to be empoldered. As it relates to the turtle conservation efforts, De Freitas indicated that over the years the monitoring activities were funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). This initiative proved an alternative job opportunity for the males, who are predominantly fishermen.

He pointed out that one significant partnership was formed with the Eerepami Rainforest Foundation, a German-based organisation with which a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed to advance conservation efforts. Through this partnership, the community received assistance to upgrade their field station, which has Internet access and is powered by solar energy, the construction of a multi-purpose guest house and information communication (IT) training. Other partners include Co-Patron of GMTCS, Dr. Peter Pritchard, SOL, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Conservation International (CI). De Freitas highlighted that, with the existence of the multi-purpose guesthouse, Shell Beach as a tourist attraction can be promoted. However, very many persons cannot be accommodated at once, since the beach is a nesting ground for turtles.