Mangrove deforestation reaches a critical point without the authorities taking action on the matter. Since September 2021, mangroves are subjects of law.
Ecuador has lost almost a third of its total mangrove cover in 50 years, despite being a protected ecosystem. Since 1994 its felling is prohibited.
In Article 406 of the Constitution, the State declares itself responsible for the conservation of the mangrove. But nevertheless, from 2010 to 2018, coastal protected areas have lost 150 hectares. And, outside of these areas, logging is more frequent. The main cause of the destruction of this coastal forest is the construction and expansion of shrimp ponds.
Permits are granted in protected areas
On August 13, 2020 in a report from the Ministry of Environment confirmed the felling of 40.55 hectares of mangroves in the Gulf of Guayaquil, on Los Chalenes Island, by the Negodich company.
The document calculated the cost of environmental damage at around $3.6 million. It was also recommended that the Guayas Zonal Directorate of the Ministry of the Environment request justifications from the Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries for the granting of Ministerial Agreement No. 2019/547, in which se grants Negodich the rights to 85 hectares for shrimp farming in an area where there was a mangrove forest, a protected ecosystem.
On July 30, 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, in a new inspection, confirmed the felling of 1.83 more hectares of mangrove. In turn, the Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries confirms that there was a new Ministerial Agreement of 2020 where Negodich was granted more than 37 hectares.
The lawyer representing Negodich, José Conform, explained, in a telephone interview with LA HORA, that he has the papers in order and all the corresponding permits. The Ministry of the Environment, for its part, reported that in 2021 Negodich was notified of an administrative penalty of 80 thousand dollars.
Logging within an ecological reserve
In the Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve, the community members who live and work as crabbers and artisanal fishermen, denounced -in July 2021, through social networks- the felling of mangroves by the Exportcambrit shrimp farm, in the Estero La Paloma. The Ministry of Environment confirmed the felling of approximately 4 hectares and the sanction of $40 thousand to those responsible.
Gabriel Sánchez, the company’s lawyer, accepted that they committed an infraction, and confirmed that they have already complied with the payment of the fine imposed by the Ministry.
For Cristhian Castro, president of the Puerto Envidia crabbers’ association “this is unfair, because the sanction should be much higher.” According to Ministerial Agreement 056, the cost of repairing damage to the mangrove ecosystem is $89,000 per hectare.; in the case of Exportcambrit, the value of the fine was lower.
Without awareness of the importance of the mangrove
According to the National Action Plan for the Conservation of Mangrovesone of the causes of the deforestation of this ecosystem is the lack of exemplary sanctions.
Natalia Molina, a biologist, professor at the Universidad Espiritu Santo and an expert on mangroves, believes that society is not paying attention to these wetlands, which absorb 10 times more carbon than any forest on the mainland, which is why they are llama blue forest. He assures that there is a problem of dishonesty and lack of commitment to conservation from the State.
Complaints and dismissals
Diego Rosado worked as head of the Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve from 2013 to 2019; and he says that, for not giving in to pressure “from above” and not granting an environmental permit for the construction of some shrimp ponds, he was fired, “I am one of the public officials who have left due to a conflict of interest,” he says. And he believes that “there is a lot, a lot of money involved”
Glenda Ortega, Undersecretary of Natural Heritage, says that they do not have enough human resources to carry out the controls. To which is added the lack of environmental lawyers, so there is a backlog of complaints of environmental damage. Only in Pichincha there are more than 20 thousand.
The association of crabbers and fishermen of Río de Aguas Vivas, say that they have made around one complaint per year about mangrove felling, from 2011 to 2021. None has been answered.
In Ecuador, the hectares allocated to aquaculture went from 2,000 in 1969 to more than 175,000 in 2006, which is the latest official figure. In other words, they have grown by 7 thousand percent.
