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Friday, March 28, 2014

MAP News Issue 335 - March 29, 2014

VerticalResponse

Partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal resources.

The MAP News
335th Edition                                March 29, 2014

Action Alerts:

2015 Children’s Art Calendar Competition - Mangrove Action Project wants you to join us as we celebrate our upcoming 22nd Anniversary of MAP’s ongoing efforts to conserve and restore the world’s mangrove forest wetlands. Again, this year we commemorate those efforts via our inspiring children’s art in MAP’s 14th annual Children’s Mangrove Art Contest for the 2015 Calendar year. READ MORE
Volunteer Needed for Mangrove Ecosystem Monitoring Program READ MORE
 
Safeway CEO: Label your GMO foods SIGN THE PETITION
 
Your support is needed: Cameroon activists on trial for peaceful
protest against Wall Street land grabber READ MORE
MAP VOLUNTEERS NEEDED IN THAILAND VIEW REQUIREMENTS

Order your 2014 Calendar
2014cld-300x225 
 
Save the Sundarbans from Rampal power plant – View Sample Letter to Minister
Sign the Petition
 
Question Your Shrimp- Don't Buy or Sell Imported Tropical Shrimp! Sign the Petition
Donate to MAP via Paypal
Giving could never be easier
Donate.jpg
It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
 
—Mahatma Gandhi


Green Planet Fundraising Assists MAP – LEARN MORE


 
URGENT - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

MAP’s VOLUNTEER INTERNS HELP MAP MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
READ MORE

 


MANGROVE ISSUES 

View New Videos posted by MAP Asia intern, Delphine. CLICK HERE
 
The importance of restoring mangroves in an effective, long-term manner. Mangrove video - VIEW

Please view our new video for our Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign! It is now on our website under the Question Your Shrimp section heading. WATCH VIDEO

Mangrove Restoration in Asia – Watch Short Video
Mosaic of Life 
READ A MOSAIC OF LIFE” Peek into the underwater world of mangroves, "womb of the sea." By Liz Cunningham Photos By Wes Matweyew and Liz Cunningham

View MAP’s uploaded Videos at MAPmangrover’sChannel

“Education In The Mangroves" can now be seen on the  PhotoPhilanthropy website here!

Marvellous Mangroves – A Curriculum-Based Teachers Guide.
By Martin A. Keeley, Education Director, Mangrove Action Project
Read this 10 page history of the development of MAP’s educational curriculum VIEW DOCUMENT

FOR MORE ON MAPs AWARD WINNING CHINA MANGROVE CURRICULUM VISIT THESE SIGHTS
SLIDE SHOW
    VIMEO SHOW

Education In The Mangroves
Six minute video features discussion of Mangrove Action Project’s Mangrove Curriculum VIEW THE VIDEO
 
Article in Canada's Green Teacher Magazine -
Read More
 


"Question Your Shrimp" Campaign

Learn more about the affects of the shrimp industry on mangroves by visiting our blog

Editor’s Note: Mangrove Action Project’s Executive Director, Alfredo Quarto was interviewed about shrimp by Green Acre Radio’s Martha Baskin

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW


Join MAP on Facebook


Sign the Consumer's Pledge to avoid imported shrimp


Donate.jpg


Not yet a MAP News subscriber?
Click here to subscribe.



Note to Our Readers:
We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control,
occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story.




Help Mangrove Action Project through your recycled E-Waste.  List of Accepted E-waste Items:

Injet Cartidges, Cell Phones, Pagers, GPS, Radar Detectors, Mobile Hot Spots, Calculators, eBook Readers, iPods/MP3 players, Digital/Video Cameras/Camcorders, PDAs, iPads/Tablets/Laptops, Video Game Consoles, Handheld Video Games

Visit the Mangrove Action Project recycle website Click on the recycle button then click on the Download Shipping Label, and follow the instructions.

 

download_shipping_label





 

FEATURED STORY
Facing Rising Seas, Bangladesh Confronts the Consequences of Climate Change
27bangladesh-lede-jumbo 
BANGLADESH - “There are a lot of places in the world at risk from rising sea levels, but Bangladesh is at the top of everybody’s list,” said Rafael Reuveny, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University at Bloomington. “And the world is not ready to cope with the problems.” The effects of climate change have led to a growing sense of outrage in developing nations, many of which have contributed little to the pollution that is linked to rising temperatures and sea levels but will suffer the most from the consequences. In an analysis of decades of tidal records published in October, Dr. Pethick found that high tides in Bangladesh were rising 10 times faster than the global average. He predicted that seas in Bangladesh could rise as much as 13 feet by 2100, four times the global average. In an area where land is often a thin brown line between sky and river — nearly a quarter of Bangladesh is less than seven feet above sea level — such an increase would have dire consequences, Dr. Pethick said. READ MORE
 
AFRICA
 
Campaign Update—Cameroon: Herakles Farms Ordered to Pay $4.8 Million in Racial Discrimination Compensation
herakles_cameroon_may_2011caada.jpg?itok=HiC_pujx 
CAMEROON - A Cameroonian judge in the Fako High Court has awarded former Herakles Farm employee Loxly Massango Epie 2.3 billion CFA (4.8 million USD) in a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination and wrongful termination of his contract of employment against the US-based palm oil company Herakles Farms. Herakles Farms, which is affiliated with the massive Herakles Capital, was granted 20,000 hectares of the 73,000 hectares of forest it requested from the Cameroon government in November 2013 to convert into oil palm plantations. The company has faced strong criticism nationally and internationally for the harmful effect it will have on the forest, wildlife, and nearby population and also for the deceitful ways in which they have obtained the land. READ MORE
 
Forced Relocation of Sengwer People proves urgency of canceling REDD
KENYA - We, the No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) together with the Sengwer Indigenous Peoples Programme and the undersigned 66 organizations and over 300 individuals, strongly condemn the massive evictions and forced relocation of the Sengwer Indigenous People, one of the few remaining hunter-gatherers of the world, from their ancestral home in Kenya’s Cherangany Hills. The Kenyan government calls the Sengwer People ‘squatters and or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),’ despite the fact that they and their ancestors have lived in the Cherangany Hills since time immemorial; and that Article (63d) of the Kenyan constitution (2010) grants them inalienable rights to their ancestral lands. Sengwer spokesman Yator Kiptum denounced the “disaster” carried out by a combined force of the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and Administration Police, a paramilitary unit of the police, now evicting the Sengwer, destroying property and burning homes[i]. “The government of Kenya is forcing us into extinction," he said.[ii] According to international human rights law such as the Convention on Genocide, forced relocation of ethnic or racial minorities is a very grave violation and can constitute genocide. READ MORE
 
ASIA
 
Rehabilitating Mangroves in the Philippines
Mangroves-in-the-Philippines.jpg?itok=j-P4V5JS 
PHILIPPINES - Zoological Society of London (ZSL) started its mangrove rehabilitation work in 2007 through the Community-based Mangrove Rehabilitation Project (CMRP), with the aim of increasing coastal protection, food resources and diversifying livelihood options. This was achieved through empowering local communities to protect remaining mangrove forests and developing science-based methods for communities to rehabilitate lost forest sites. Over a four year period, close to 100,000 mangroves were planted, with the rehabilitation of 107.8 hectares of mangrove forest well underway. This project resulted in manuals that provide detailed biological and socioeconomic guidance on community-based mangrove rehabilitation and on fishpond reversion to mangroves. READ MORE
 
International workshop on Deforestation Drivers and the Rights of Forest Peoples
INDONESIA - An international workshop organised by Forest Peoples Programme and Pusaka brought together forest peoples, governments, NGOs, international agencies and forest scientists from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America on 9 -14 March 2014 in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The aim of the workshop was to share lessons and generate recommendations on effective measures to stem deforestation, promote human rights and secure local livelihoods. Workshop participants reviewed the findings of five country case studies and four thematic papers on deforestation drivers and forest peoples’ rights from Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Guyana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Indonesia and Malaysia. READ MORE
 
Marine Survey on an Island Paradise – a MAP intern’s personal experience
Elena+ 
THAILAND - My name is Elena Horas and I come from Spain.  I have been working as an intern with MAP at their office in Trang, Thailand for about 3 months. It seems like it was yesterday when I first arrived and now my time here is coming to an end. Without a doubt one of the best experiences I have had was travelling to Koh Phra Thong (koh means island in Thai) and assisting Barry, one of MAP advisors, with his two research monitoring projects. Because I spent more than a week on the island, I was able to explore it and take part in different activities. Arriving to the island was a very amazing experience itself. We had to sail through the mangroves to get to it and it was the first time I was on a boat driving so close to such beautiful ecosystem. The stunning scenery really blew my mind. READ MORE
 
Mangrove experts urge restoration, regeneration of organic coasts
When Ulva Takke heard that a foreign-owned firm planned to set up an iron ore mine on the tiny island of Bangka in the province of North Sulawesi, she joined forces with other residents in a protest that went all the way to Indonesia’s supreme court. Takke owns a scuba-diving business on the 4,800-hectare (ha) island, which is populated by fewer than 3,000 people and supports a small tourism industry, as well as fishing, aquaculture and agriculture. Although the community won its appeal against the mining project, news reports indicate that the company is still preparing to begin work, a move that could put pristine habitats at risk, including lowland tropical rainforest, mangroves, freshwater sago swamp and coral reefs. “If so, it’s going to be a big disaster,” Takke said. “Livelihoods of traditional fishermen and coconut harvesters will be destroyed and many people will be displaced.” READ MORE
 
AMERICAS
 
Hydroelectric project a threat to mangroves
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MEXICO - Environmentalists and community groups reported that a hydroelectric project in the state of Nayarit, western Mexico, threatens "the largest mangrove forest in the Mexican Pacific" of the National Wetlands Ecological Reserve, a system of mangroves. The proposed hydroelectric project in Las Cruces envisages construction of a dam on the San Pedro River basin Mezquital, with an investment of 7.995 million pesos (US$602 million) and capacity of 790 gigawatts per year. READ MORE
 
Shrimpers issue death threats against artisanal fishermen
BRAZIL - Shrimpers have tried to destroy the mangrove area of traditional fishing community in Encarnação Salinas , Bahia , Brazil, and have resorted to death threats to local leaders to achieve their goals. These actions have been denounced by Redmanglar , Ecocéanos , Rain Forest and numerous other organizations in Latin America. "This action represents an environmental and social crime to the ancient fishing villages and Salinas Encarnação living within mangrove ecosystem and is an example and a expression of environmental racism that exists in Brazil", reported Carlos Salvatierra , Executive Secretary of International Redmanglar. Salvatierra went on to say that shrimp tractors have been brought in to destroy the mangroves near the place known as Igreja da Praia and Santa Luzia "despite having a warning from Instituto do Meido Environment and Water Resources ( INEMA )" he said. "We make the public aware that now several leaders and local leaders have been threatened with death for defending their traditional fishing territory" says the complaint. READ MORE en Espanol
 
Editor’s Note : Click the READ MORE link to see the full text of presentation by Gail Woon, Founder of EARTHCARE to Information Session at Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina, Alicetown, Bimini on March 15th, 2014.
EARTHCARE speaks on impacts of the Resorts World Bimini cruise ship terminal
cruiset3-a 
BAHAMAS – The cruise ship terminal for Resorts World Bimini has been described as “necessary” to the business plan. I will outline here several reasons why that is a ludicrous statement. The MAIN reason this delicate site was chosen, and the only reason that this incredibly valuable biologically diverse site was chosen for destruction is simply because it is closest to the casino and to the main road of Resorts World Bimini. Since the start of the Bimini Bay Resort in the 90s, it has gone through much scrutiny and controversy. However, in spite of the controversy, Mr. Capo has been allowed to destroy over 160+ acres of healthy mangrove wetlands area. In addition to the mangrove annihilation, Mr. Capo was allowed to and is still dredging cheap (free) fill from the ocean bottom in the North Sound. The 220,000 cubic yards of ocean bottom that will be removed from the endangered reef habitat is simply, so that they do not have to truck fill. READ MORE
 
Research shows significant effects of Bimini development
BAHAMAS - Research from a long-term study reveals that the year mega-resort construction in Bimini deforested almost half of a lagoon’s mangrove shorelines, the survival rate of newborn lemon sharks plummeted to only 26%. The startling statistic was revealed during a presentation on the closing day of last week’s Bahamas Natural History Conference in Nassau. READ MORE
 
Editor’s Note: There is no evidence that these WWF/ASC newly crafted shrimp standards will work to reduce the pressing issues of mangrove loss and human rights abuses associated with the ongoing expansion of the shrimp aquaculture industry, As long as these standards promote open, throughput systems of production, they will fail to meet the stated objectives of sustainable shrimp production. And, these standards will not meet the needs of the majority of local stakeholders who will suffer from further environmental degradation causing worsening food insecurity for the sake of ensuring that this luxury shrimp product can be sold in the wealthier nations.
ACS shrimp standards finalized
USA - The Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue has handed over the shrimp standard to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), following seven years of development. Now the standard is finalized, this marks a major milestone for the ASC and a step towards promoting more responsible shrimp aquaculture. “I have to applaud the individuals on the dialogue — around 400 people worked tirelessly, including NGOs, industry, scientists and others,” said Chris Ninnes, ASC CEO. READ MORE
 
EUROPE
 
Editor’s Note: The following article reinforces what our Conscientious Objectors alliance has been promoting for years: Get the Shrimp Ponds out of the Intertidal zone, and conserve this vital zone free from such wasteful and short-sighted human incursions.
Wetlands International works with businesses and the Government to introduce certification of sustainable shrimp farms.
NETHERLANDS - The main driver of the loss of mangrove forests in the world is their conversion for aquaculture projects, particularly shrimp farms. It was estimated that by the year 2000, over 1.2 million ha of mangroves had been converted into aquaculture ponds in Southeast Asia alone (Kairo et al. 2001). To worsen the situation, farm owners, as a general practice, abandon their shrimp ponds when they are too polluted (as the result of unsustainable use of fungicides, pesticides or antibiotics) for further production. These abandoned shrimp ponds unquestionably possess a threat to local populations’ health and make the coastal areas vulnerable to strong winds, tidal floods, salt water intrusion and abrasion. To reverse and prevent the recurring of abandoned shrimp aquacultures, we advocate for the promotion of sustainable aquaculture production in key mangrove countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. Specifically, we promote the silvofishery and poly-aquaculture approaches which combine the replanting of mangroves near and inside shrimp and fishponds. These approaches not only reduce the vulnerability of coastal areas to strong winds, tidal floods, abrasion and salt water intrusion, but also enhance the biodiversity of the region. READ MORE

LAST WORD
 

Dear friends and colleagues,
 
Together with La Via Campesina, Focus on the Global South and Friends of the Earth International we are launching the below initiative and would like to invite those interested to endorse the letter. Please feel free to distribute the letter as you wish. We will be posting shortly on our website (www.wrm.org.uy) the Spanish, French and Portuguese versions. READ LETTER
 
 
Best wishes,
Teresa Perez
 
~ WE WELCOME YOUR LETTERS - If you’d like to have the last word on this or any other mangrove related topic, please send us your submission for upcoming newsletters. We’ll choose one per issue to have “the last word”. While we can’t promise to publish everyone’s letter, we do encourage anyone to post comments on our Blog at www. mangroveactionproject.blogspot.com

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Mangrove Action Project

Mangrove Action Project-2015 Children’s Art Calendar Competition



 Mangrove Action Project wants you to join us as we celebrate our upcoming 22nd Anniversary of MAP’s ongoing efforts to conserve and restore the world’s mangrove forest wetlands.

 Again, this year we commemorate those efforts via our inspiring children’s art in MAP’s 14th annual Children’s Mangrove Art Contest for the 2015 Calendar year. Let us all use this next calendar competition as an inspiration for both students and teachers to “set the date” to conserve and restore our planet’s mangroves, and thus combat declining wild fisheries, coastal erosion and climate change. Mangroves are one of our planet’s best defenses against global warming and rising sea levels! 

 Annually, MAP invites teachers and their students from around the globe to participate in an international art contest. They learn through their participation about the incredible beauty and biodiversity of the mangroves and the students’ attempts to depict through their art what they have experienced on field trips to mangroves and in classroom studies. 

 Children from 13 nations entered our contest last year by answering a simple, but intriguing question: “What do the mangroves mean to my community and myself?” As usual, it was difficult to choose from among the beautifully crafted works of children’s art. Around 2500 children participated from a multitude of schools located in 13 mangrove nations. 

 Through the publication and distribution of these beautiful calendars, MAP recognizes the great accomplishments of these young artists. We wish to thank each child, their teachers and the associate non-governmental organizations that participated and promoted the project in schools during 2014. Their good work and dedicated efforts have helped produce yet another attractive calendar for yet another Mangrove Year! 

Thank You For Your Past Support!  Please Join Us Again For Our 2015 Calendar Competition! 

For the Mangroves And the Mangrove Communities!



Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director 
Mangrove Action Project 
mangroveap@olympus.net

Marine Survey on an Island Paradise – a MAP intern’s personal experience




My name is Elena Horas and I come from Spain.  I have been working as an intern with MAP at their office in Trang, Thailand for about 3 months. It seems like it was yesterday when I first arrived and now my time here is coming to an end. Without a doubt one of the best experiences I have had was travelling to Koh Phra Thong (koh means island in Thai) and assisting Barry, one of MAP advisors, with his two research monitoring projects. Because I spent more than a week on the island, I was able to explore it and take part in different activities. 

Arriving to the island was a very amazing experience itself. We had to sail through the mangroves to get to it and it was the first time I was on a boat driving so close to such beautiful ecosystem. The stunning scenery really blew my mind. Once the boat arrived in Tha Paeyoi village, we came across the first adventurous situation, as Barry and I were unlucky enough to have a flat tire while driving to the village we were staying in, Ban Lions. Although it was very hot and I was quite hungry, the experience of having to carefully drive back to Tha Paeyoi where we spent around one hour waiting for someone to pick us up was nevertheless entertaining. When we finally arrived in Ban Lions we quickly made our way to the homestay place where food was going to be served every day and enjoyed an amazing lunch. I have to say that food is one of my best memories of the island, it was absolutely delicious. PaNee, the Thai lady who cooked for us, had always something new on the table and something surprisingly tastier every day. Thus, the rest of the day went by fairly quick as we didn’t have any work planned. It was only the next day when I would start helping Barry with his two monitoring projects. 


When my second day on the island approached I was quite excited about seeing and learning what Barry’s research work involved. That same night was also the celebration of the Chinese New Year and we had plans to go down to one of the resorts for dinner and celebrate with a few people which I was as well looking forward to. Because we had to wait until the afternoon for the tide to go down and be able to start the monitoring, I spent the morning walking around the village and exploring it a little. Ban Lions was a very small village full of newly built houses. However, it was almost completely uninhabited which really surprised me. By reading street signs and talking to Barry I learnt that these beautiful new houses were only built two years after the 2004 tsunami devastated the old village. In the meantime, most families that survived had to leave the village and look for livelihoods elsewhere. By the time the whole village was reconstructed, only about three families actually returned to their new homes, leaving the village as a current ghost town. 
In the afternoon we made our way to the site where the monitoring was taking place and started the work. We carried out the field work for a study involving the effects of Marine protected Areas (MPA) on ecologically and economically important invertebrates. As a Marine Biologist, I really loved this practical work as I discovered a lot of interesting marine species that I didn’t know about before. Conchs, sea stars, crabs, shrimps, snails, sea slugs and sea cucumbers were some of the creatures that we monitored. 
I spent most of the week helping Barry with the same monitoring project in two different sites and although it involved a lot of hard work (long walks through the mud, barefoot and in the dark) I learnt a lot about tropical marine species and I very much enjoyed it.



Landscape observed from sites where monitoring processes were carried out

The last two days I was on the island were a bit more interesting as some volunteers from Naucrates, the turtle conservation project, arrived and Barry and I finished the invertebrates monitoring and started the seagrass one, which meant a change from the routine we had been doing the whole week. The seagrass monitoring was also very interesting and enjoyable. It was easier to carry out and took less time which was also quite nice. Moreover, I spent the last few days cycling around the island to get to the beach and enjoying a bit of sea and sand. I also joined the volunteers in a kayaking trip around two small and beautiful islands just opposite Koh Phra Thong. The small islands were like small beach paradises where you could also go snorkeling just to find lots of different stunning corals and fish species.
In general, my visit to Koh Phra Thong was an amazing experience and definitely one of the highlights of my time in Thailand.

Elena Horas, MAP Volunteer Intern, E-mail: volunteer.mapasia@gmail.com


Saturday, March 15, 2014

MAP News Issue 334, March 15th, 2014

VerticalResponse

Partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal resources.

The MAP News
334th Edition                                March 15, 2014

Action Alerts:

Volunteer Needed for Mangrove Ecosystem Monitoring Program READ MORE
 
Safeway CEO: Label your GMO foods SIGN THE PETITION
 
Your support is needed: Cameroon activists on trial for peaceful
protest against Wall Street land grabber READ MORE
MAP VOLUNTEERS NEEDED IN THAILAND VIEW REQUIREMENTS

Order your 2014 Calendar
2014cld-300x225 
 
Save the Sundarbans from Rampal power plant – View Sample Letter to Minister
Sign the Petition
 
Question Your Shrimp- Don't Buy or Sell Imported Tropical Shrimp! Sign the Petition
Donate to MAP via Paypal
Giving could never be easier
Donate.jpg
It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
 
—Mahatma Gandhi


Green Planet Fundraising Assists MAP – LEARN MORE


 
URGENT - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

MAP’s VOLUNTEER INTERNS HELP MAP MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
READ MORE

 


MANGROVE ISSUES 

View New Videos posted by MAP Asia intern, Delphine. CLICK HERE
 
The importance of restoring mangroves in an effective, long-term manner. Mangrove video - VIEW

Please view our new video for our Question Your Shrimp Consumer/Markets Campaign! It is now on our website under the Question Your Shrimp section heading. WATCH VIDEO

Mangrove Restoration in Asia – Watch Short Video
Mosaic of Life 
READ A MOSAIC OF LIFE” Peek into the underwater world of mangroves, "womb of the sea." By Liz Cunningham Photos By Wes Matweyew and Liz Cunningham

View MAP’s uploaded Videos at MAPmangrover’sChannel

“Education In The Mangroves" can now be seen on the  PhotoPhilanthropy website here!

Marvellous Mangroves – A Curriculum-Based Teachers Guide.
By Martin A. Keeley, Education Director, Mangrove Action Project
Read this 10 page history of the development of MAP’s educational curriculum VIEW DOCUMENT

FOR MORE ON MAPs AWARD WINNING CHINA MANGROVE CURRICULUM VISIT THESE SIGHTS
SLIDE SHOW
    VIMEO SHOW

Education In The Mangroves
Six minute video features discussion of Mangrove Action Project’s Mangrove Curriculum VIEW THE VIDEO
 
Article in Canada's Green Teacher Magazine -
Read More
 


"Question Your Shrimp" Campaign

Learn more about the affects of the shrimp industry on mangroves by visiting our blog

Editor’s Note: Mangrove Action Project’s Executive Director, Alfredo Quarto was interviewed about shrimp by Green Acre Radio’s Martha Baskin

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW


Join MAP on Facebook


Sign the Consumer's Pledge to avoid imported shrimp


Donate.jpg


Not yet a MAP News subscriber?
Click here to subscribe.



Note to Our Readers:
We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control,
occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story.




Help Mangrove Action Project through your recycled E-Waste.  List of Accepted E-waste Items:

Injet Cartidges, Cell Phones, Pagers, GPS, Radar Detectors, Mobile Hot Spots, Calculators, eBook Readers, iPods/MP3 players, Digital/Video Cameras/Camcorders, PDAs, iPads/Tablets/Laptops, Video Game Consoles, Handheld Video Games

Visit the Mangrove Action Project recycle website Click on the recycle button then click on the Download Shipping Label, and follow the instructions.

 

download_shipping_label





 

FEATURED STORY
Editor’s Note – Chandrika Sharma was known to MAP members for her efforts in support of local fisherfolk – We at MAP are saddened at hearing the loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family.
Fisher’s activist among the passengers lost on Malaysian Flight MH370
Chandrika-Sharma-%20UN-Malaysian-Airlines_0 
MALAYSIA - Chandrika Sharma was on Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from Malaysia to Beijing that reportedly crashed into the sea off the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc last week. Nothing is as yet known about the fate of the 239 persons on board. While her family, husband and daughter, were inconsolable and not available for comment, her colleagues recalled her passion for helping the fishing community and her fantastic work ethic. Ms. Sharma was the executive secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fish Workers, based in Chennai. Ms. Sharma has been part of the ICSF since 1998, and active in the area of women in the fishing industry, her colleagues said. She was an invited delegate at the regional conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Mongolia and was on her way to the event when the accident occurred. READ MORE
 
ASIA

 
Mumbai's mangroves are key to urban resiliency
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INDIA - Mumbai has 149 kilometers of coastline — an enormous asset but also one of the city's greatest vulnerabilities. After the 2004 tsunami that caused widespread devastation across Southeast Asia, coastal cities began to reevaluate their resiliency in the face of another major storm. Areas that weathered the tsunami best were those with thriving mangroves, a natural buffer between the land and sea. Mangroves protect the "assault of the sea on land," according to the Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Marine Ecology Centre, which supported the protection of Mumbai's mangroves. The Centre describes these vibrantly diverse ecosystems as "more dynamic than the sea itself." However, the city's natural coastal protector has been under severe threat in recent decades. "It has been estimated that Mumbai lost about 40 percent of its mangrove between 1995 and 2005," says a recent article on the mangroves. The destruction of the rich forest and estuaries started during the British era when the mangroves were being chopped down and filled in to reclaim land. READ MORE
  
Thai Human Trafficking In Seafood Industry Continues
THAILAND - The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), the nonprofit group that produced a scathing report last year on human trafficking in the Thai fishing industry, has released a new report saying there has been little progress on the issue. The report, "Slavery at Sea: The Continued Plight of Trafficked Migrants in Thailand's Fishing Industry," follows up on the EJF's June 2013 report, "Sold to the Sea," which featured a number of migrant workers from neighboring nations such as Myanmar who told stories of abuse, violence and even murder aboard Thai fishing boats. The new report claims the victims have seen little to no justice in Thai courts, and said the EJF believes Thailand will get a downgrade in trafficking status from the U.S. State Department this summer, which could lead to sanctions and trade bans. READ MORE
 
A Study Case of the Shrimp Industry
INDONESIA – This study is an interactive process between the shrimp industry (as the nucleus) and the shrimp farmer (as plasma). In this framework, there will be two argumentations which will be used. The first argumentation is that responsibility of the industry is not only seen through the ability of producing good shrimp for the consumer. Besides, the company should be able to answer environment issue and social fairness of the shrimp farmer. Second, the contract farming is a formal document which represents an actual condition between people who is related to the contract. Therefore, the document should have ability to analyze rights, responsibility and profit for each party. DOWNLOAD PAPER
 
 
Local group saves dolphin from stranding
dolphinSave 
INDIA - A dolphin weighing some 300 kilos and measuring more than 6 feet in length was recently discovered stranded in the freshwater river at Kollidam, near Nagapattinam, Tamilnadu, India. A group of local fishermen, along with officials from the Department of Forestry reacted quickly to safely capture the struggling dolphin which had been trying to find its way upstream. Locals say that this type of stranding is very rare. The group helped the dolphin by taking it to the nearby Port of Palayar, where it was successfully reintroduced to the open sea. VIEW SOURCE

EDITOR’S NOTE - The rise of consumption demand in China will be a factor to seriously consider in our efforts to reduce expansion of unsustainable and destructive shrimp aquaculture in other nations in the Global South. We must strategize on how best to meet this newest challenge, for even as we develop campaigns to reduce consumer demand in N. America and Europe, the rise in demand there in China could easily surpass the decline of demand elsewhere. This represents a new "shrimp front" in our defense of the mangroves and the mangrove communities. We should dialogue soon together on how best to meet this newest challenge in unified and effective global response. What will this rapid rise in consumer demand in China mean for the mangroves and the mangrove communities of those nations exporting the farmed shrimp? These producer nations will undoubtedly be expanding their shrimp farm areas to meet this rising demand, further affecting the coastal wetlands where these shrimp farms are sited. This is a great concern!
China shrimp supply, consumption to benefit Ecuador, India
CHINA - The growing dynamics of rising domestic consumption across Asia and a shortage of land in China will see a growing role for third parties like Ecuador and India in supplying world shrimp demand. “Growth in Chinese domestic consumption of shrimp is out-pacing all other markets,” according to seafood veteran Didier Boon, head of Beijing-based East China Seas. Likewise, he said, the shift of large Thai shrimp producers away from farming into value-added areas will limit supply growth and any significant slip in prices. Speaking to SeafoodSource in Beijing, Boon downplayed any chance for a significant rebound in Chinese shrimp output for export in 2014, as long as anti-dumping measures remain in place in the key U.S. market. China’s leading exporter of shrimp has reported record 160 percent increase in retained profits for 2013. Zhanjiang-based Guolian officially reported revenues of CNY 22.08 billion (USD 3.6 billion, EUR 2.6 billion), up 52 percent year-on-year, due to what the firm called a “reduction in global shrimp production” which, it noted, meant the firm had an “excellent” order book through last year. READ MORE
 
MAP welcomes newest volunteer
MAP voluntrerr Delphine 
Delphine Gébelin is MAP Asia's newest intern, working out of MAP's office in Trang, Thailand. Presently pursuing a masters degree in "Environmental Politics and Sustainable Development" in France, Delphine wanted to enrich her university education by volunteering in a subject that she is famaliar with : mangrove protection. She served an internship in Madagascar for four months, at the Sahamalaza National Park. "My principal mission is to report on the ecological conditions of the mangrove. I will be working with MAP until the end of July in order to improve my knowledge about mangrove situations and coordination and management of environmental projects. I am delighted to be part of the MAP team and I would be very happy to help you if anything is needed," says Delphine.
 
AMERICAS
 
Port expansion begins with 110,000 seedlings
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FLORIDA - A long-awaited expansion of Broward County's Port Everglades will finally get started, but not in the usual way with hammers, nails and steel. The project instead will start this spring with the planting of 70,000 little mangrove plants. By a unanimous vote Tuesday, commissioners agreed to spend $15.7 million on the plantings and hired southwest Broward developer, road builder and trash hauler Ron Bergeron to do it. Expansion of the seaport, one of Broward's main economic engines, requires destruction of healthy mangroves, and that simple fact has entangled growth plans there in controversy and delay. READ MORE
 
Shellfishing communities blighted by industrial pollution
BRAZIL - Edinilda de Ponto dos Carvalhos, who is in her early fifties, has been a marisqueira, or shellfish fisherwoman, in Suape since she was young. Recently, she says, her work has become much harder. "There's this chemical product in the water. It has no smell, but it kills everything," she says. She believes the pollution comes from the nearby port complex in the Pernambuco state of Brazil, touted as one of the region's main economic engines. Another marisqueira, Valeria Maria de Alcántara, says: "The mud makes you itch, because of the oil and because of the debris that they throw in the sea. It burns the skin." READ MORE
 
Culture, tradition and a vital space for coastal peoples
HONDURAS - Communities, people and civil society organizations have worked for years to raise the visibility of the significant benefits of the mangrove ecosystem and the importance of its existence. They have fought for the recognition of mangroves as highly productive systems that provide livelihoods and a space for the practice of the cultures and traditions of coastal peoples. “The mangrove is our natural enterprise, it is our employment, it does not ask us for our qualifications or a CV or identification. As long as we are in good health we can cast our nets and harvest our food,” declared Enrique Bonilla, president of COGMANGLAR and a fisherman from Champerico, Guatemala. Today, the former perception of mangroves as mosquito-infested swamps has changed, but the struggle to defend them has become increasingly difficult in the face of the new and aggressive actors threatening their existence and the survival of the peoples and communities who inhabit them, from Latin America to Asia to Africa. READ MORE
 
‘Mangrove Zone Ecology’ research opportunity announced
USA – MAP board member Robin Lewis III and Laura Flynn of Lewis Environmental Services, Inc. and Coastal Resources Group, Inc. are pleased to announce that they have completed a contribution to the Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology entitled "Mangrove Zone Ecology." Readers can access all the bibliographies for free for the next three months at www.oxfordbibliographies.com, username Gratisuser303, password Onlineaccess303. Enter the term "mangrove" in the search box reach the paper. The bibliography is intended to serve as an authoritative research guide to the most important literature on mangrove ecology similar to a high-level section of an encyclopedia. Students and new researchers in particular will benefit from exposure to listings and descriptions of the older literature on mangrove ecology. READ MORE
 
Residents Denounce devastation of mangroves in Playa Venao
PANAMA – Denizens of Pedasi, in the province of Los Santos, are concerned about the devastation of more than one hectare of mangrove area in Playa Venao to make way for a residential and tourist project. Local residents reported the existence of a sign in the devastated area indicating that the environmental impact study was approved by the National Environment Authority. According to these people , mangrove species red, black , white and button were cut. Augusto Lopez , a resident of the area, lamented that the Anam approved the environmental impact study despite the fact that the project threatens the ecosystem. READ MORE (en Espanol)
 
OCEANANIA
 
Meet the Island Country That Turned Itself into a Giant Marine Sanctuary
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PALAU - The nation of Palau, made up of 250 tropical islands located in the western Pacific Ocean north of Australia, has decided to ban all commercial fishing, declaring the entire region a “100 percent marine sanctuary.” The country, geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia and with a population of around 21,000, shares maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia. Palau earlier created the world’s first shark sanctuary, but now that same protection will be extended to all species. READ MORE
 

LAST WORD
 

Greetings from New Zealand, Hong Kong & Thailand.
 
As a 'last word' news item, I would like to report that a Major study entitled Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis of Indochina Mangrove Ecosystems was implemented and completed by Sirindhorn International Environment Park Foundation (SIEPF) from 1 July - 31 March, 2013. The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) provided outstanding and welcome support for this courageous project; a project aimed at seeking solutions to mangrove decline, misuse, overuse and destruction in a bold trans boundary strategy embracing 6 countries (Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand & Vietnam). Collectively, these countries border two huge marine ecosystems; the Gulf of Thailand & South China Sea. The theme was to take a macro-level approach to mangrove wise use and restoration. The Consultant Team was led by Dr Don Macintosh and included mangrove experts from countries as diverse as New Zealand and jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. As a scientist from both New Zealand & Hong Kong with long term connections in SE Asia( especially Thailand) I participated at all workshop generated by this TBDA Project, having been invited by the Dep. Gen Manager of SIEPF, Dr Sonjai Havanond.
 
In terms of global trends, I have to say that this excellent project stands in contrast to some trends in New Zealand which I feel run counter to the mangrove rehabilitation objectives manifest by the TBDA. Sadly, there has emerged in New Zealand a growing mentality, pushed by a limited perspective on coastal recreational activity typified by marina’s, that seeks to define the sole New Zealand mangrove species, Avicennia marina as something close to a pest and weed! As a New Zealander, who has long researched the positive roles of A.marina ecosystems in coastal protection and fish nursery ecosystem support, I find this mentality to be a surprising contrast to global moves to halt mangrove ecosystem decline and misuse. In essence, this mentality or attitude runs counter to a national 'clean & green' pro-conservation philosophy.
 
As a 'Kiwi' and loyal New Zealander who has worked on mangrove science for almost 40 years, I feel that this trend to define mangroves in NZ, where these plants reach their southern biogeographic limits, as a sad and unwise trend. A trend which should be brought to the notice of MAP and all those who like the participants at the TBDA project may like to see reversed. In GLOMIS, the electronic Journal by ISME, I have a paper on the nutritional values of mangroves as a dairy cattle sustainable salt and herbage source; one aim of this paper was to underscore the concept that the wise and sustainable use of organic salt sources such as the mangrove foliage, may add weight to the need to apply good ecological science to mangrove management. In the process of all this the eco-economic values of mangroves such as  Avicennia  marina could be re-established in the minds of those tempted to follow short term mangrove destruction.
 
Best wishes,
 
Prof Gordon S. Maxwell
Open University of Hong Kong & Director Ecosystem Res Centre, NZ

~ WE WELCOME YOUR LETTERS - If you’d like to have the last word on this or any other mangrove related topic, please send us your submission for upcoming newsletters. We’ll choose one per issue to have “the last word”. While we can’t promise to publish everyone’s letter, we do encourage anyone to post comments on our Blog at www. mangroveactionproject.blogspot.com

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Mangrove Action Project

MAP News Issue 593, March 9, 2024

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