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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 19, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| June 12, 2004 |
The Mangrove Action Project – Alfredo Quarto |
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| Alfredo Quarto |
Disappearing from world coastlines at a faster rate than inland tropical rainforests, mangroves are one of our most threatened habitats. When Alfredo Quatro, on assignment as a photojournalist in Thailand, was told by a concerned fisherman that "the sea would have no meaning without mangroves," he was inspired to found the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), an NGO seeking to protect the world's tidal forest ecosystems while promoting the rights of local fishers and farmers.
"The roots of the sea," mangrove habitats act as nurseries for fish, anchors for the shore, a buffer zone against winds and storms, protectors of coral reefs and inland communities, as well as safeguarding fresh water supplies by preventing saltwater intrusion into coastal soils. For millennia, coastal communities have thrived in these rich environments, living in sustainable balance with the bounty of resources that mangrove forests provide. They once sheltered three-quarters of the tropical and subtropical shores, yet now only half remain. So why and how is this precious ecosystem suddenly in danger?
Shrimp eating habits of the rich consumer nations are eating up the mangrove coastlines of the planet. Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, intensive shrimp farms are turning wetlands into wastelands. The construction of shrimp ponds - to supply the ever-increasing demand for the voracious appetites of the developed world - pollutes the delicate mangrove ecosystem with chemicals and antibiotics and disrupts the natural hydrology of the tidal environment, contributing to economic and cultural devastation of local communities.
Coastal peoples who have evolved around the shared wealth of mangroves are "robbed of their ability to survive" when investors turn a once multiple resource into a single one. Apart from the essential provision of food, the sustainable array of mangrove forest uses such as medicinal herbs, plants, and teas, wood for boats and houses, are wiped out when the shrimp ponds move in. Alfredo describes shrimp farming as a "true representation of globalisation," in that the management of resources is taken away from local people and controlled by big business. In Honduras, twelve fishermen were killed protesting their lack of access to fishing grounds blocked by shrimp farms - stories of deaths and arrests are mirrored around the world by local fishers fighting to halt the invasion of the booming shrimp industry.
"Putting the power back into the hands of local people," Alfredo works with MAP to support local initiatives to stop mangrove destruction. In partnerships with community grassroots NGOs already established, MAP supports mangrove restoration and conservation projects, as well as founding Community Resource Centres to conduct fishers' workshops and educate future stakeholders in the care and management of these vital coastal habitats. Local people often have no political voice or official land rights, and the efforts of MAP help protect communities from the outside investors looking for quick profits at the cost of culture and environment.
95% of intensive farmed shrimp goes to the restaurants and dinner tables of the rich consumer nations. While coastal communities go hungry because the ponds and pollution of shrimp farms have ruined fishing grounds, "all you can eat" shrimp buffets become a new food craving that we once lived without. Profits from the 60 billion dollar industry only line the pockets of a few. The money is not re-invested into the coastal communities or restoration projects that hope to revive devastated mangrove ecosystems, but simply serves to "lower the cost of shrimp for the wealthy nations while robbing the poor of their resources." Alfredo warns that the current market demand will lead to the extinction of the roots of the sea, and that the human race must "take its head out of the clouds and look at where it is treading."
For more information about the work of MAP visit – www.earthisland.org/map/
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