Today we woke up and we led Puerto Ayora and started our journey to Guayaquil. Our day today was pretty much just traveling since our flight to Guayaquil got delayed many hours. Today we had two main presentations. The first presentation was from a teacher named Natalia. Her presentation was about the mangroves and how shrimp farming influences the ecosystem. I thought that it was very interesting on just how much shrimp farms are harming the mangroves. The figure that Natalia gave us was that shrimp farms occupy 27% of deforested mangroves. She also talked about two different incidences which impacted the shrimp population. After this presentation, we had a presentation from Val and Ryan. They talked about the economic perspective of Ecuador. I thought that it was interesting to hear about the mining industry because I did not realize that it was and still partially is such a popular business.
Expansion of knowledge
Mining Industry
Since Val and Ryan's presentation was about the economic side of Ecuador. A major point that they talked about that was interesting to me is the mining industry there. The online article, "Ecuador Has Big Plans for Its Mining Industry. But at What Environmental Cost?" discusses the mining industry of Ecuador in multiple different ways. The current president of Ecuador wants to expand the current mining operations and put more effort into mining in the Mirador mine in southern Ecuador. This mine is reported to contain "3.2 million tons of copper, 3.4 million ounces of gold and 27.1 million ounces of silver." Although this is a great benefit to the economic perspective of Ecuador, many environmentalists and indigenous communities are pushing against this decision. At the end of discussing each side's opinions, the author suggests that Ecuador's government should do more risk-analysis for the mining operations and determine if these actions are in line with the country's constitution.
Shrimp Farms
The article, "Shrimp Farming in Ecuador," talks about how the citizens of Ecuador decided to implement shrimp farms in mangrove forests. The shrimping industry started in the late 1960s in order for the citizens to generate income. The author of the article had talked about that by 1999, approximately 175,255 hectares of land had been converted to shrimp farms. The article talks about how since the shrimping industry has been increasing, the mangrove sizes has been proportionally decreasing. Another presentation went into detail about why the decrease in mangrove forests are detrimental to the ecosystem. To summarize points from that presentation, the mangroves give homes and protection to a lot of different species.
Works Cited
DuPée, M. C. (2019, August 12). Ecuador Has Big Plans for Its Mining Industry. But at What Environmental Cost? Retrieved from https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28110/ecuador-has-big-plans-for-its-mining-industry-but-at-what-environmental-cost
Shrimp Farming in Ecuador. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/6918/shrimp-farming-in-ecuador
Shrimp Farming in Ecuador. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/6918/shrimp-farming-in-ecuador