Deforestation and pollution in one of the last mangrove areas in Guatemala is causing serious clashes between local settlers and a shrimp company in the locality of Champerico on Guatemala\’s Pacific coast. This mangrove ecosystem is protected by Guatemalan laws dating from 1990, which state that it is illegal to log or to contaminate the waters of the estuary.
The conflict started in 1995, when the shrimp company, Camarones del Sur, S.A. (Camarsa), surrounded a section of the area where the fishermen work, preventing them from reaching the fishing zone. What triggered the recent clashes, however, is the illegal logging and pollution of the tidelands that has been caused by Camarsa during the last months.
During the week of May 7th, the fishermen experienced a pitched battle against police. Immediately after the disturbances (which resulted in the death of a young 14-year-old fisherman, Moytin Castellanos) representatives of the Government and the Attorney\’s office of Human Rights formed a commission to investigate the facts. Local fishermen invited ParksWatch to be part of this commission, in order to carry out research that will help to clarify the illegal actions committed by Camarsa.
A fisherman of Champerico fishing in the contaminated tideland.
ParksWatch conducted a recent field visit to the mangrove area. Strong evidence was gathered that Camarsa is logging mangroves and there are hydrocarbons, from the engines that pump water, and organic matter in the shrimp pools. Water samples were taken to analyze chemical pollution.
One of the drains of the shrimp pools spills to an
Mangrove deforested and burned recently by Camarsa.
artificial channel that ends in the tidelands.
Since the beginning of the clashes there have been several meetings with local and national authorities where ParksWatch has denounced the destruction of the protected ecosystem and has presented the evidence gathered in the area. As a result, the Department of the Environment, the National Institute of Forests, the Executive Secretariat of the Presidency and the Department of Agriculture have formed different commissions to investigate the illegal actions committed by the company, and to take the correct actions to stop the destruction.
(Top photo: Partial view of the estuary of Champerico.)
ParksWatch: May 2001.