Celebration of the Day for the Defense of the Mangrove Ecosystem and IV Congress of the Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem

BY: P. Rasa Bihari D. 

To speak of the mangrove ecosystem is to refer to a complex system made up of mangrove forests, tidal beaches and other integrated habitats, which is located in the coastal zone and which, according to experts in Ecuador, has been lost between the 1960s until today, around 70%. 

According to the information available on the C-CONDEM website, the National Coordinator for the Defense of the Mangrove Ecosystem (http://www.ccondem.org.ec):

“The mangrove ecosystem, one of the 5 most productive ecological units in the world, fulfills multiple economic, ecological and sociocultural functions that favor life on the coasts. 

In Ecuador, this ecosystem constitutes the source of life and food sovereignty for more than a million people who have ancestrally been harmoniously linked to the mangrove ecosystem and are part of the Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem of Ecuador. 

The bioaquatic species that inhabit the mangroves are essential to guarantee the food sovereignty of coastal populations as well as to sustain and stimulate local economies.” 

The greatest threat facing the mangrove ecosystem is the shrimp industry, which replaces mangrove forest areas with shrimp farms and ponds.

For this reason, in Muisne, a canton in the province of Esmeraldas, the IV Congress of the Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem was held on July 25 and 26, 2012. Below is the interview that María Dolores Vera gave to Ballenita Sí Online:

BS- What is your role in the organization? 

MDV- I am the President of the National Coordinator for the Defense of the Mangrove Ecosystem 

BS- Tell us about the background of the celebration of this July 26 and about the IV Congress. 

MDV - Since the late 1960s, the destruction of the mangrove ecosystem by the shrimp industry began. By 1998, organizations from several coastal provinces were engaged in local struggles to defend their territories. At that time, the destruction was around 70% of the mangrove ecosystem. This situation was more critical in several estuaries such as the Chone River Estuary and Cojimíes in the province of Manabí, where destruction exceeded 80%. These are estuaries where hundreds of families are dedicated to artisanal fishing and collecting of crabs and shells mainly, and because of the installation of the shrimp industry, these activities were affected. 

July 26th is a very important date for all the mangrove communities, since the strong resistance to this predatory industry was maintained with greater force in Muisne, led by FUNDECOL, who in 1998 called together many organizations to come together in a larger organization, C-CONDEM, an organized people who that day knocked down the wall of a shrimp farm, an event that is felt to this day and that became a symbol of the recovery of the communities' territory. This day is not only a reference day for local struggles, but it also transcended internationally and is celebrated in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

Regarding the IV Congress, it is worth remembering as background that the last congress was held in Guayaquil in 2009 with the presence of a great diversity of delegates from the diverse people of the mangroves, whose main objective was to ratify our self-determination as ancestral peoples of the mangroves and to analyze Decree 1391 that regulated the shrimp industry, a decree that for the peoples of the mangroves is illegal, since it is a reward for impunity to grant concessions on areas that were illegally cut down, as mentioned in the same decree. It was resolved to challenge the unconstitutionality of Decree 1391, which was later incorporated into Article 16 of the Food Sovereignty Law, an article about which we also challenge its unconstitutionality. 

In 2011 and 2012, preparatory events (Assemblies, Extended Management Councils) were held to analyze the problems of the mangrove peoples, and whose resolutions are the basis for this IV National Congress of the Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem. 

In recent years, the impact on the mangrove communities caused by the shrimp industry has worsened, especially the displacement of communities, the impediment to free movement through the mangrove ecosystem, which is a public good, those of us who suffer danger from electrified fences inside the mangrove, threats with dogs and firearms, and the use of weapons by private guards in shrimp farms has been legalized. In the provinces of Manabí and El Oro mainly, there are cases of deaths of fellow artisanal harvesters from weapons, dogs, and electrocution on the walls of shrimp farms. 

Industrial shrimp farming remains our main problem; however, at this IV Congress, we want to highlight new threats from mining and hydroelectric plants, as well as ratify the integration of C-CONDEM into the process of the Assembly of Coastal Organizations and other national and international spaces for the defense of the environment and the rights of ancestral peoples. 

Although a large number of delegates from the mangrove communities have arrived, we estimate that there are more than three hundred, economic limitations also limit greater participation. 

We, as peoples of the mangroves, also want to join in the joy of our brother people of Sarayaku who have managed to set a precedent for Prior Consultation, while we send our fraternal greetings.