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NETWORKING FOR MANGROVE PROTECTION

Civil society organizations and concerned individuales play a major role in environmental protection in general. In the case of mangroves, their work is essential to both ensure support to local struggles and to influence national and international decision-makers to create conditions leading to mangrove protection. In this respect, networking is an important tool to achieve those aims. Two of those networks - one international and one regional - are described in this section.

Global Group Formed to Counter Destructive Industrial Shrimp Farming

Wetland forests and coastal areas are being recognized as ecosystems of great ecological, economic and social values. Despite the fact that the debate for their protection has been increasing over the last few years, the pressure for the development of unsustainable projects affecting these ecosystems continues to cause severe damages. The conversion of large tracts of mangrove forests, lagoons, marshlands and other coastal and inland ecosystems to intensive shrimp farms has been fuelled by an increasing demand for shrimps in northern countries, especially Japan, USA and Europe. Although local communities and environmental groups in the affected countries have been highlighting the destructive and fast-expanding nature of the shrimp industry, the vast majority of consumers in the North are totally unaware of the impact that their rising demand for shrimps is having on local communities and coastal and inland ecosystems in producing countries.

Representatives of major environmental and community organizations from 14 nations agreed to create an umbrella group to oppose the continued expansion worldwide of destructive industrial shrimp farming. The new group - formed on World Food Day, October 16th 1997 - is called the Industrial Shrimp Action Network (ISA Net). ISA Net is composed of NGOs, community organisations and concerned scientists from Southern and Northern countries. Its main aims are to support local communities and launch a public awareness campaign in consumer countries. As a conclusion of the Forum the following statement was adopted:

"We are a global network of organizations and individuals, representing community, environmental, and scientific concerns. We are opposed to the expansion of destructive industrial shrimp farming with such consequences as impoverishment and displacement of local communities, degradation of mangrove forests and other coastal and inland ecosystems, loss of agricultural land, pollution, and the loss of cultural and biological diversity.

We have joined together:

- to recognize, support, and empower communities threatened by shrimp farming to enable them to control the use and management of coastal resources to meet their food, livelihood, cultural, and other basic needs;

- to educate consumers about the social, economic, and environmental costs of shrimp production so that they can make informed decisions about purchasing and eating shrimp;

- to resist destructive industrial shrimp production practices and policies and encourage the adoption of ecologically responsible and socially equitable alternatives by industry, local communities, national governments, and international institutions;

- and to identify and encourage better coastal resource management and support the restoration of ecosystems degraded by industrial shrimp farming." (WRM Bulletin Nº 6, November 1997).

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The Latin American Mangrove Network is born

Thirty delegates from 10 Latin American countries met at Choluteca, Honduras, from 27 to 30 August to establish the REDMANGLAR (Mangrove Network). Its main objective is to defend mangroves and coastal ecosystems, to guarantee their vitality and that of the populations who relate with them, from hazards and impacts of activities, mainly industrial, likely to degrade the environment.

The REDMANGLAR has the following objectives:

1. To halt the expansion of inappropriate economic industrial activities in coastal ecosystems as they are considered to be destructive.

2. To strengthen the overall development of local communities and their grass-roots organizations and promote exchange, knowledge and experience.

3. To restore remaining mangrove areas and degraded coastal ecosystems, abandoned or illegally occupied by industries, and reincorporate them for community use, management and custody.

4. To denounce and halt attempts to legalise and internationally fund industrial aquaculture, tourist industries and others.

5. To ensure strict compliance by States, governments and companies with the laws and compensation for damage caused to communities and ecosystems.

6. To demand that governments adopt policies and issue laws and other legal instruments, complying with them in conformity with international treaties to enable the conservation of mangroves and coastal ecosystems.

7. To disseminate, promote and link local efforts in defence of natural resources and local communities.

8. To implement awareness and training programmes on the value of mangroves and coastal ecosystems at national and international levels.

9. To promote international solidarity in support of REDMANGLAR objectives as a principle and strategy.

10. To denounce those industrial activities which are presently strongly affecting mangrove and coastal ecosystems, mainly shrimp farming and industrial tourism.

The Executive Secretariat of this network will be located in Honduras (Coddeffagolf) for the next two years. (WRM Bulletin Nº 50, September 2001).

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