Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA: Wetlands in Danger

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SAN JOSE, Apr 17 2004 (IPS) - The wetlands of the Gulf of Fonseca, shared by Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, are threatened by the shrimp farming operations that use toxic chemicals to get rid of pests. The Gulf of Fonseca Committee for the Defense and Development of Flora and Fauna denounced that neguvon, an insecticide produced by Bayer, is killing of thousands of fish in the region's marshes.

In March, the Central American Water Tribunal, a civil society body that promotes accountability in water resource management, ruled that the shrimp farming industry is inflicting serious harm on the Gulf of Fonseca wetlands through the cutting down of mangroves and the use of agro-chemicals.

The Tribunal blamed the damages on the Honduran companies El Faro and Granjas Marina San Bernardo, and asked the World Bank's International Finance Corporation to suspend financing for those projects.