turismo y los hechos

Mangrove forests are often seen as obstructions to one's view from a bay-side hotel, obstacles to easy beach access, mosquito infested muddy swamps holding back progress and hindering tourism development.

Often vilified by developers, lending agencies, and governments alike, they are allowed to be rapidly cleared for the promise of great profits from industrial-scale developments.

National, regional, and local governments have failed to adequately regulate the tourism industry. At the same time, multi-lateral lending agencies have rushed headlong to fund these kinds of developments without meeting their own stated ecological and social criteria.

Mangroves are being felled and filled to construct:

• golf courses
• cruise ship ports and pleasure craft marinas
• hotels, condos, and restaurants

The impact:

• Declines in fisheries due to habitat loss
• Traditional fisherman populations forcibly evicted from coastal areas
• Reduction of mangrove greenbelt buffers

Natural disaster impacts are greater due to mangrove loss. Areas are left more susceptible to tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, rouge waves, etc.

(taken from a colleague)