From 1982 onwards, the shrimp industry has been settling in the Cispatá bay, an ecosystem harbouring one of the most exuberant mangroves in the Colombian Caribbean. Presently there are four shrimp industries fully established in this site, covering an extension of approximately 700 hectares. The semi-intensive productive system these farms apply has a daily water recharge in its ponds, reaching an average of up to 15% of its volume, leading to a daily dumping into the estuary of large quantities of water saturated by organic waste.
Bulletin articles
Over 30 years ago, the destruction of mangroves was started in order to build ponds in beaches and bays. According to data from the former INEFAN and the National Aquaculture Chamber, in January 2000 there were 207,000 hectares or 170,000 hectares respectively of shrimp ponds, of which 50,454 hectares were operating legally. The rest are illegal. In the province of Esmeraldas, where the best conserved and tallest mangroves in the world are to be found, over 90% of the ponds installed there are illegal.
The waters of the Pacific Ocean penetrate the territory of Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador through a 35 km entry, forming a water mass of 3,200 kms2 known as the Gulf of Fonseca, with a 261 km coastline.
Different types of wetlands are to be found along the coast, such as mangroves, periodically irrigated by the tides. A forest inventory made in 1987, showed that in the Honduran sector of the Gulf, there were 47,000 hectares of mangroves that year.
Shrimp, considered as the country’s pink gold, became the focus of Mexico’s export-oriented fishing activity because of the importance and economic value of the crustacean in the international --particularly US-- market. Five Mexican states along the Pacific coast (Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Oaxaca, and Chiapas) and two along the east coast (Tamaulipas and Campeche) have developed shrimp aquaculture.
The Industrial Shrimp Action Network, ISA Net, was formed in 1997, to conduct campaigns with and assist non-governmental organizations from Asia, Africa, North and South America, Europe, and Australia addressing the impacts on local communities, economies, and ecosystems caused by the explosive growth of large-scale shrimp aquaculture. Representatives of environmental and community organizations from 14 nations organized ISA Net as an umbrella group that would support and encourage sustainable, responsible shrimp farming.
The different cases addressed in this bulletin describe a broad range of situations where forests are either being destroyed or conserved. Contrary to the discourse of many experts, these cases show that deforestation is more linked to policies implemented by governments than to actions carried out by local communities. Additionally, they show that cases where forests are being conserved are more the result of organized community efforts than of government action.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has nearly half of Africa’s, and 6% of the world’s, tropical rainforest and the area has been recently designated one of the most important forests on the planet by the United Nations.
The Western Lowlands of Eritrea are the easternmost extension of the Sahel, lying between Eritrea’s border with the Sudan and the Eritrean/Ethiopian highlands. Their hills and plains are mainly covered with semi-desert scrub and savannah woodland and interrupted by three river valleys clothed with remarkably dense woodland, some of it mixed acacia and dom palm and elsewhere almost pure stands of dom palm (Hyphaene thebaica).
The establishment of large-scale fast growing tree monocrops is always accompanied by a debate on the issue of water. The vast majority of forestry experts will deny that plantations impact on water, usually using the lack of scientific studies as an argument to counter local peoples' allegations that plantations deplete water resources.
Within that context, South Africa is an exception, because no-one denies that plantations affect water resources and what is more interesting is that this unanimity is based on research carried out over many years.
Deforestation is considered one of the priority environmental problems in Zambia and woodland conversion to agriculture and wood harvesting for charcoal production seem to be the main causes of forest loss. The simplistic conclusion is therefore that "poverty" or "the poor" are to be blamed for deforestation.
All participating countries of the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG)
East Asia Ministerial Conference held in Bali agreed to adopt a 13-point Ministerial Declaration, which will commit them to, among other things, taking immediate action against forest crimes. The three-day conference was attended by some 150 participants from at least 15 countries.
In response to the article on Indonesia published in the previous issue of the WRM bulletin, we received the following message from Bartlet W. Edes, External Relations Officer & NGO Liaison of the Asian Development Bank:
"Dear Mr. Carrere,
I am a regular reader of your informative electronic newsletter. I noticed that WRM Bulletin No. 49 contains a story about the Mamberamo Dam in Indonesia. The story reports that the World Bank will not be funding the project, but that "it is still unknown if the ADB shares the same views and if it will or will not fund the project."