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Saving Mangroves at the top of his to-do list
Once an engineer for Boeing before leaving for Japan with Greenpeace, Quarto now lives on an organic farm east of Port Angeles. In 1992 he founded the Mangrove Action Project, a local organization with global goals: To reverse the loss of mangroves and promote the rights of indigenous peoples to manage their coastal ecosystem's sustainably. (8 Apr 2008) Peninsula Daily News
8 April 2008
By Diana Somerville and Patrick Loafman
"If there are no mangrove forests, then the sea will have no meaning. It's like having a tree with no roots, for the mangroves are the roots of the sea," Mad-Hu Ranwasii, a Thai fisherman told Alfredo Quarto. This native's personal grief over loosing mangroves changed Quarto's life.
Once an engineer for Boeing before leaving for Japan with Greenpeace, Quarto now lives on an organic farm east of Port Angeles. In 1992 he founded the Mangrove Action Project, a local organization with global goals: To reverse the loss of mangroves and promote the rights of indigenous peoples to manage their coastal ecosystem's sustainably. (www.mangroveactionproject.org)
Mangroves are dense tangles of tropical forests where sea turtles and manatees swim beneath the stilt-like mangrove roots as tropical birds and crab-eating monkeys clamor above. Belizean mangroves are home to five hundred species of birds.
A variety of trees collectively called mangroves, uniquely adapted to survive daily tidal flooding of salt water, knit together the ocean and land. Mangroves provide natural buffers against the destructive power of typhoons and hurricanes.
Significantly, about 70 percent of all commercial seafood from tropical oceans spend some part of their lives in mangrove estuaries. Half of the world's mangrove forests are gone; those remaining are declining rapidly.
It's difficult to assess the impact of the loss of mangroves on the collapse of global fish stocks.
A major reason for mangroves' disappearance: commercial shrimp farming. Nearly half the mangroves have been clear-cut to excavate ponds for raising shrimp. But these "ponds" last only for about five years before they're too contaminated with waste to support shrimp or other life. So they're abandoned.
Oil drilling and urbanization of coastal areas also threaten mangroves.
Most mangroves are in tropical areas outside of the US --but it is the US, Canada, Japan and Europe, the major consumers of farmed shrimp, that are fueling this destruction.
By choosing wild caught shrimp over farmed shrimp, you and your dollars can say no to this destructive practice.
You'll also vote against the human rights abuses connected with shrimp farming.
"In one of the first villages I visited along the Andaman coast of Thailand in March of 1992, I found that two villagers had been shot and killed because they were protesting shrimp farms expanding illegally into their surrounding mangrove areas," says Quarto.
That's no isolated incident, but a pattern of violence. Just last month in Ecuador, Olger Jaramillo was shot in the back and killed by a security guard of the Posa Linda shrimp farm while collecting clams.
Heavily armed guards at private shrimp ponds deter local fisherman from reaching the remnant mangroves, denying indigenous people their livelihood to provide wealthy nations with cheap shrimp.
Quarto's home in Port Angeles is the roots of an increasingly international organization with regional offices in Thailand, Indonesia and Latin America.
Quarto's an example of how one man's passion prompts global change. Quarto will speak about sustainable seafood noon Saturday, April 12 in Seattle as part of Greenfest.
Greenfest, at the Washington State Convention Center April 12 and 13, includes 125 speakers and 350 exhibits. (See: www.greenfestivals.org).
Source: Peninsula Daily News
