Protecting Ecuador’s Mangrove Forests: How Local Communities Lead the Fight

Mangrove forests are essential to the survival of life on land and at sea. Suspended between land and sea, these twisted, tropical trees provide safe harbor for 341 threatened species worldwide. They are home to roughly one-third of all marine species, and their root systems provide vital nurseries and feeding grounds for marine wildlife such as sharks, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, rays, reptiles, and birds.

These watery ecosystems are also carbon-storage powerhouses. Mangroves absorb 400% more carbon than forests on land and sequester more carbon per acre than any other habitat on Earth. For coastal communities around the world, mangroves prevent coastal erosion, filter land-based pollution, and provide a buffer shielding us against storm surges. Economically critical, they support the livelihoods of millions of coastal families worldwide.

No matter where we live, we all depend on the ocean and marine habitats like mangrove forests. We need to work together to safeguard their health and survival. More than a third of all mangroves globally have been destroyed in the past 20 years, and scientists predict these vital ecosystems could all but disappear in the next 100 years.

Mangrove Defenders in Coastal Ecuador

In Coastal Ecuador you’ll find the largest mangrove forest in the South Pacific. Hundreds of species of birds, dolphins, crocodiles, and crabs depend on these mangrove channels for their survival. And the mangroves depend on the red crabs that make their homes in the trees’ tangled roots. Crabs shred and bury the mangrove trees’ fallen, decaying leaves in their burrows, aerating and enriching the soil with vital nutrients, and ensuring the mangrove forests thrive.

For generations, local fishermen have been providing for their families by sustainably fishing for crab in the mangrove channels. In 2019, Ecuador’s government gave these fishermen exclusive rights to fish for crabs in defined areas of the mangrove channels. In return, the fishermen committed to protect the mangrove ecosystem, including the red crabs.

During mating season, the red crabs emerge from their burrows in the muddy mangrove roots to reproduce. They are especially vulnerable to capture when they are out searching for a mate. In response, the government of Ecuador established a month-long fishing ban to protect the crabs and allow them to mate and reproduce safely.

But local fishermen want to take this protection even further. Experience has taught them crab mating season happens at different times of the year. To better protect them, the fishermen want to inform authorities when the crabs begin their mating dance and then voluntarily stop fishing during this vulnerable time. This way, they can ensure the crabs have a safe mating season, and their population can remain healthy for the future.

Threats to Mangroves

The mangroves, and the local fishing communities that rely on them, are under threat. Logging, large-scale shrimp farming, and illegal fishing are devastating the mangroves and the species that live there. Drug traffickers increasingly use the mangrove channels to transport their product undetected from Colombia and Peru through to the ports of Ecuador.

Small-scale ancestral fishermen have a legal right to fish crab in the mangroves and a vested interest in protecting them and fishing sustainably. To bring their catch to market, they must navigate through dangerous channels dominated by traffickers who extort a “protection tax,” threaten them at gunpoint, and steal the motors from their boats.

For Roddy Macias, WildAid’s Coastal Ecuador Project Manager, it’s personal:

“Every time we go out to the mangroves, we know it is a risk. But we are more afraid that the mangroves will disappear and with them the incredible biodiversity.

At first it was hard for my family to understand and endure all the time I spent away from home. They worried I was putting my life in danger. They came to see positive impact, and it helped them understand how important our work is to the mangroves and to our community.

It is difficult to feel hope when what you are fighting against is so much bigger than you. But those of us most in need are committed to fight together, and we will not falter.” 

WildAid’s Role

An expanding network of local fishermen and coastal communities have bravely committed to protecting the mangrove forests and all the life that depends on them, often at the risk of their own safety.

WildAid is honored to support and strengthen their efforts. We helped broker a partnership between government agencies and local fishermen so that the National Navy, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Fisheries will respond to crab fishers’ calls to apprehend traffickers, illegal fishers, and loggers in the mangrove channels.

WildAid is honored to support and strengthen their efforts. We helped broker a partnership between government agencies and local fishermen so that the National Navy, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Fisheries will respond to crab fishers’ calls to apprehend traffickers, illegal fishers, and loggers in the mangrove channels.

WildAid bolstered the fishermen’s ability to protect the mangroves by donating 4 additional boats for fishermen and rangers to use in patrolling the channels. Our team trained crab fishers and local law enforcement in marine enforcement operations and surveillance techniques.

Momentum is growing, and our shared efforts are paying off. More and more fishermen are getting involved in mangrove conservation and protection of the red crabs. The fishermen tell us illegal logging, shrimp farming, and fishing in the mangroves have decreased. Learn more about our work in Coastal Ecuador here.