Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

A platform for action for the sustainable management of mangroves in the Gulf of Fonseca

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Introduction

This document presents a platform for action for the sustainable management of the mangroves in the Gulf of Fonseca in Honduras and El Salvador. Pollution, deforestation, and inappropriate land uses put enormous pressures on the coastal ecosystem and have contributed to the loss and degradation of a unique and valuable environmental asset. The mangroves are the spawning grounds for some of the regions most important fisheries and provide habitat to a number of endangered species. The livelihoods of many are intimately connected to the health of the mangrove ecosystem. Concern about the mangroves and for those who depend upon them inspired this document. This platform for action represents more than eight years of collaborative activities with community groups, researchers, non-governmental, private sector, and governmental agencies to explore the causes and consequences of environmental degradation in the mangroves. The recommendations presented here provide guidelines for a process that must be set in motion if these unique resources are to be preserved. It is essential that policies and programs are devised that can meet development goals and guarantee the health and well being of the ecosystem. Without such efforts, the mangroves will disappear and the wealth of resources that they secure will be lost.

Few areas illustrate the interaction between population pressure, resource consumption, and environmental degradation more acutely than coastal ecosystems. Highly fragile and rich in resources, mangrove coastal ecosystems are valuable for the raw materials they provide and the biodiversity they secure (Barbier 1992). The indigenous plant and animal life in the mangroves depend on the delicate balance of fresh and tidal waters. Mangroves provide drainage and filtration, stabilize shorelines that protect the coastline and the surrounding farmland, and offer natural windbreaks as well as fresh water conduits (Martínez 1991; Hamilton and Snedaker 1984). They also serve as a prime source of fish, shrimp and other crustaceans, fuelwood, and timber for surrounding communities and the broader population. The diversity of this ecosystem supports a wide range of individuals and groups with competing interests. This competition can create tension among a variety of stakeholders, including governments, conservationists, aquaculturists, salt producers, and local communities.

The tension between resource consumption and conservation is highlighted in conflicts over access rights to the mangroves. The formal access rights to these resources lie largely in the hands of the state. Throughout the world, coastal land and estuaries, and the rights to their resources, are concentrated in the hands of sovereign governments that provide concessions for economic activities to a variety of groups and individuals for aquaculture and salt production. Despite these formal rights structures, many customary and indigenous access rights systems have evolved around coastal ecosystems. While the land may belong to the state, much of it has been subject to de facto management by coastal populations themselves. Far away from national capitals, local populations exercise ownership rights over the lands their families have inhabited for generations. Similarly, while access rights may be allocated by the state, usufruct rights^[1] are often informal and largely determined by customary or indigenous systems that define entitlement to those resources (Bailey 1988; Madrigal 1999; Wynter 1990).

In the absence of population pressure upon these resources, both the informal and formal systems can operate harmoniously. When in-migration and population growth combine with rising poverty rates to increase the use of and dependency upon the common property, these entitlement systems may come into conflict (Foy and Daly 1988). What is formally state-owned property has effectively degenerated into an open access resource, where violators are seldom prosecuted and those with power and influence may circumvent laws and statutes. This is particularly the case where formal access rights give priority to economic activities that take substantial portions of land and resources out of the control of the state and local communities, concentrating subsistence demands on smaller and smaller tracts of land (Rubio 1997; Stanley 1999, 1996a, 1996b). As the number of concessions for aquaculture have increased in the Gulf of Fonseca, so too has conflict over the mangroves and the resources that they secure (Stanley 1999, 1996a, 1996b).

The conflict between converting mangrove to aquaculture activities and the subsistence demands of coastal populations is a clear example of the collision of customary and formal state access rights systems. Aquaculture is a growth industry in the developing world (Stanley1999; DeWalt et al. 1996; Bailey 1988; FUSADES 1988; Mendola and Guier 1989; Marroquín 1992). The cultivation of fish and shrimp in tanks or excavated ponds yields high returns and commands much-needed foreign exchange (FUSADES 1990, 1988). Consequently, there are state and private enterprise incentives to convert the mangroves to aquaculture. Yet the location of these aquaculture tanks and ponds in the mangrove wetlands has deforested valuable woodland, concentrated environmental dependence on the few remaining stands, and, in some circumstances, has caused irreversible ecosystem damage to both estuarine and offshore fisheries (De Walt et al. 1996; Stanley 1996a, 1996b; Pauly and Ingles 1986; Paredes et al. 1991; Ulloa and Bernal 1980).^[2]

The conflict of access rights and different patterns of extraction and consumption becomes more acute when resources are overused or brought to the point of exhaustion. The pressures of internal migration toward the coast in many developing countries combined with widespread rural poverty can increase dependence upon the resource base in already contested ecosystems.^[3] Poverty often increases the demand for natural resources to supplement household incomes. Poverty also shortens the horizon over which decisions are made, limits choices, reduces investment in technologies that mitigate degradation, and can accelerate unsustainable resource use (Jagannathan 1989; Barbier 1988).

In response to these concerns about coastal resource management, in 1998 the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) undertook a series of research and advocacy activities in collaboration with the Center for Environmental and Social Studies on Sustainable Development (CEASDES) in El Salvador, and the Committee for the Defense of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca (CODDEFFAGOLF) in Honduras. The three organizations explored the interconnection between population, consumption, and environmental degradation in the mangrove ecosystems of the Gulf of Fonseca in Central America.^[4] Particular attention was paid to gender-specific factors that describe how men and women may be differently poor and differently dependent on the resource base (Rodda 1991; Shiva 1988). The three-year project, which began in January 1998, was funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and built on earlier research supported by the British Overseas Development Administration and the United States Agency for International Development.

By comparing the sites in El Salvador and Honduras, researchers hoped to identify interventions to relieve pressure on the resource base and to provide alternative mangrove management options that respond to the interests of all stakeholders. The platform for action presented here is the result of more than eight years of collaborative research and advocacy activities in the region that have brought together a variety of governmental, non-governmental, community, and private sector organizations. The platform for sustainable mangrove management outlined in this document was developed in concert with these organizations and is the outgrowth of a series of regional conferences and colloquia that have taken place over the last three years, culminating in the March 2000 regional conference held in San Salvador.^[5]

Six key findings and their respective recommendations are presented in the platform for action.

•  Of primary importance is the need to harmonize diverse stakeholder concerns and find shared interests that can be built upon to achieve environmentally sustainable mangrove management. One clear directive that emerged from the consultations and research findings is that the governments should form multi-sectoral commissions with representatives of all primary stakeholders. These commissions should work collaboratively to develop an operational definition of sustainable mangrove management that will guide policy.
  
  
•  Attempts to change resource use and promote sustainable mangrove management must also confront the development needs of those communities that depend on these resources for their livelihood and survival needs. Measures must be implemented to alleviate poverty and reduce environmental dependence.
  
  
•  Successful policy initiatives to promote sustainable resource use should also take account of the gender of resource users in the community and the nature of their relationship to the resource base. Men and women have different roles and responsibilities as caregivers and providers. As a result, men and women have a very different relationship to the resource base. Men fish primarily in the open waters offshore, whereas women fish and gather shellfish in the estuaries. Although both women and men gather fuelwood, women do so more frequently and gather smaller amounts than do men. Understanding how men and women use the ecosystem, the particular types of resources that they gather and harvest, and the incentives they face to use, conserve or transform resources is vital if there is to be sustainable resource use in the mangroves.
  
  
•  There is a real need to strengthen those institutions that define the rules and regulations governing the extraction and use of the mangroves at the national and local level. This requires the effective and full participation of communities and local actors as well as public and private sector institutions. The research findings drew attention to significant deficiencies in existing legislation and in the design and operation of policy. The recommendations highlight the need for concrete directives that establish parameters for the management of coastal resources and the use and conservation of the mangroves.
•  The mangroves in the Gulf of Fonseca are a shared resource that cross national boundaries. Efforts must be made to promote national and international collaboration in the pursuit of sustainable resource management for the entire Gulf area. A regional forum should be constituted with the purpose of developing and implementing coordinated regulations to ensure the sustainable use and management of these coastal resources.
  
  
•  Finally, data need to be collected on key biological and human-environment indicators that will guide policy and set parameters for sustainable resource use. There is a dearth of data on the current status of the mangroves: their coverage, density, age structure, and growth patterns. Similarly, almost no data exist on fuelwood and timber requirements, siltation, pollution and chemical runoff into rivers and waterbodies that drain into the mangroves. What data exist are scattered and inconclusive and do not provide sufficient detail for the development of parameters to guide the sustainable extraction of mangrove resources.

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[1] Usufruct rights are those that allow the individual or group the right to enjoy the profits and advantages of use of property belonging to the state or to another individual as long as that property is not damaged or altered.

[2] It is important to note that shrimp aquaculture need not cause irreversible damage to the mangrove ecosystem. The ponds do not need to be located within the confines of the mangroves and larvae do not have to be culled from the estuaries. Effective regulation and enforcement can ensure that the environmental costs of shrimp aquaculture are minimized (Corrales 1998).

[3] The poor are not the only actors responsible for mangrove deforestation. The competition to clear the mangroves is acute reflecting the diverse interests of salt producers, aquaculturists, loggers, and ranch owners to expand their activities and draw more land into production.

[4] El Salvador and Honduras were selected for this study because of the availability of existing data and the interest that national non-governmental and private sector organizations showed in the project. We hope to expand the research to include Nicaragua in the future.

[5] The colloquia were a series of fora convened in the region to present and exchange ideas about sustainable mangrove management. Community groups, researchers, private sector representatives, public servants and activists were brought together to exchange ideas and comment on the research findings. These colloquia took place in El Salvador and Honduras over the last 3 years.

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