By: Evelio Reyes Tipan
I grew up in the coastal marine environment of my Santa Elena peninsula, which in addition to beautiful beach resorts has wetlands where you learn to appreciate nature.
We have, for example, the areas of the Velasco Ibarra and El Azúcar dams, considered interior wetlands with scenic beauty, and useful to the community that surrounds them for their exotic flora and fauna that invite you to observe them. Unforgettable adventures are experienced when walking the path from Santa Elena to the Velasco Ibarra dam; on the almost arid route you find flowering muyuyo trees, capaes, cacti, guasangos, palo santos, carob trees... In winter the panorama changes, its lands are covered with short-cycle crops, as well as watermelons, melons, squash and corn. At dusk, on the slope of the dam you can hear the song of the silver-feathered owl, the flight of the chicken hawk, the chagui, the cucube, the earth pigeon, the chocotorrín, the maria ducks, and hummingbirds; birds related to legends of the peninsula.
In the Punta Carnero estuary (in the Salinas resort), the Mar Bravo salt pool is part of the coastal marine wetland where migratory aquatic birds (pink flamingos, plovers, cormorants, gossips, herons, pelicans, seagulls) invite you to sight. Following the Spondylus route or the old Ruta del Sol, to the north of Santa Elena there are more wetlands of marked beauty. In the Palmar estuary there are shells, mule legs, crabs and churos. In San José there is a small mangrove refuge for blue crabs; these two mangroves are the last remnants of mangrove in the region, as well as in the estuaries of the Chanduy parish. The small lagoons formed on the banks of the Montañita and Olón rivers are unique natural spaces in their flora and fauna. Did you know that a mangrove tree produces enough oxygen in three days for 74 people to breathe? Let us support their conservation; no more cutting down mangroves to create shrimp ponds. Our country is on the list of wetlands of international importance such as Cayapa Mataje, Cube lagoon, Machalilla Park, Ciénega de Sagua, Churute, Santay Island, Abras de Mantequilla, Santa Clara Islands, Isabela lagoon in the Galapagos.
In the Sierra, the Limoncocha reserve and the El Cajas park. Wetlands are part of the ecosystem, they fulfill important functions in nature: recycling of aquifers; discharge of aquifers; flood control; stabilization of the coastline; erosion control; retention of nutrients; protection against storms; windbreaks; recreation and tourism.
These are fragile sites that deserve attention. On the Peninsula, the main threat is the urbanizations that have buried several important embankments in Santa Elena and Muey. The Palmar and Olón estuaries also suffer the ravages of housing constructions on their borders, the discharge of contaminated water, etc.
We need to train ourselves in the management of wetlands and improve laws to safeguard them.
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