2023-11-24 12:15:46
Hattes beach flooded by the sea during the high tides of October 2019, near the village of Yalimapo. Bastien Colas/BRGM
FIGARO DEMAIN – Even if the rise of the sea and the disappearance of the sand is not only attributable to the climate, it is a sword of Damocles on the life of the Kali’na Native Americans.
Coconut trees, blue sky, fine sand: Hattes beach, one of the most beautiful in Guyana, is a postcard landscape. Especially in the dry season. Because, during the rainy season, this paradise located in the village of Yalimapo, in the far west of the coast, near the mouth of the Mana and Maroni rivers, on the border with Suriname, can turn into a nightmare. During high tides, the sea regularly floods the banks that border it and the parking lot that adjoins it. In 2019, the phenomenon even took on an unprecedented scale, the road having been submerged.
“In five years, between 1997 and 2022, the sand has retreated by 50 meters”, explains Johan Chevalier, former curator of the 14,800 hectare Mana nature reserve. However, this beach has long been the largest turtle nesting site in the world, attracting tourists from all directions, between April and August. “In 1990, this represented 50,000 clutches per year, sometimes even up to 1000 per night. Today, it is less than 5% of the clutches of…
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