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WRM ACTION
ALERTS
APRIL 2000
Action to protect mangrove forests and wetlands against shrimp farming |
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| Honduras has the obligation both under international and national law to protect 75,000 hectares of wetlands in the Gulf of Fonseca. On May 1999, The Honduran Government, through the Natural Resources and Environment Secretariat (SERNA), during the RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands, obtained the designation of the Coastal Wetlands of the Gulf of Fonseca as "RAMSAR Site 1000". Despite this, Honduras is not fulfilling its obligation to protect the "RAMSAR 1000 Site". Thus, CODDEFFAGOLF (a grassroots organization in Honduras) and the Industrial Shrimp Action Network (ISA Net) are strongly urging the Honduran government to fulfill its obligations both under international and national laws. Exact hectares of the damage is difficult to calculate because the areas are guarded by goons with AK47. Thus far, shrimp farming projects and the cutting of mangroves have been allowed inside the Ramsar Convention protected areas. This has resulted in the drying up of some of these otherwise protected wetlands of the Gulf of Fonseca. In "La Aguadera", Punta Ratón, where the project "Habitat and Species Management Area in San Lorenzo" is located, a shrimp farming project was completed occupying several hectares of beautiful mangroves. Trees have been felled in "El Gorrión" (The Sparrow), the location for the project "Las Iguanas y Punta de Condega Habitat and Species Management Area". In the "La Berberia Habitat and Species Management Area ", several mangrove areas and swamps like "Los Comejenes" have been destroyed to construct shrimp ponds. The constant use of the highway along the lagoon of La Berberia along the Nicaraguan border has greatly damaged the coastal ecosystem. Late last March, men felling trees using tractors in the zone of "El Carey" threatened a CODDEFFAGOLF member and expelled two government officials from the Environment Attorney's Office who tried to stop them. The government officials returned five days later with a group of policemen, found men operating four tractors, succeeded in stopping them momentarily, but later found them again felling trees and now using six tractors. The loggers boasted that nobody could stop them because they were "well protected". In view of such situation, CODDEFFAGOLF AND ISA Net are urging all those interested in the conservation of these wetlands to participate in a letter-writing (see sample letter) campaign. Please send your letter to: Excellency Mr. President of
Honduras Carlos Roberto Flores Cc: Professor Rafael Pineda Ponce, President
of Sovereign National Congress of Honduras Cc: Dr. Delmar Blasco, Ramsar Convention
Bureau, Gland, Switzerland |
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| The old and the new fifth centenary of the Pataxó | ||||
The indigenous Pataxó people of Brazil is experiencing a dramatic and historic situation since they re-took, last August, the territory which had been usurped from them by the government to be turned into the Monte Pascoal National Park. Apart from the reaction which can be expected from a government such as the Brazilian when faced by this kind of action, one must add the fact that this April is the 500th Anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese on the coast of Brazil -precisely in this very same region in the State of Bahia– where Monte Pascoal constitutes a symbol of this historic event. This is why we believe that the Pataxó need –and certainly deserve– everybody’s support and we felt that our Bulletin might be able to contribute to the further dissemination of news of their struggle. See our special bulletin. We request all who wish to support the
Pataxó's struggle to send emails and faxes containing the attached letter to the
following addresses, with copy to CIMI President of the Federal Republic of Brazil Ministry of Justice President of FUNAI Your Excellency, We are supporting the struggle of the Pataxó people in the southern region of the State of Bahia. We wish to express our concern over the situation in which this people are, particularly regarding the lack of regulation of the territories which traditionally belong to them and which are essential for their physical and cultural survival. During the past weeks, the Pataxó have carried out a total of five land occupations in the region, in order to demand the presence of FUNAI's technical teams with the aim of initiating and completing the task of identifying their lands, an essential issue to proceed to their demarcation. A very tense situation has resulted from such occupations, which took place as a consequence of the lack of solutions on the part of the government. We therefore request the implementation of the regulation and total demarcation of the ancestral territories of the Pataxó in the extreme south of Bahia, including the area of Monte Pascoal, which the Pataxó re-took last year. As an immediate measure, we request the return of FUNAI's technical teams, so that they proceed to finish the task of land identification in the region, in line with the Pataxó's request. Finally, we wish to state that we shall continue supporting the struggle of the Pataxó. We also express our solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples' March and Conference, which is a symbol of their unity and struggle aimed at achieving that in Brazil's next 500 years their rights are fully guaranteed and respected. Yours faithfully, (signature and name of the organization) |
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tel: 598 2 403 2989 / fax: 598 2 408 0762
wrm@wrm.org.uy
