That the Decree of the Organic Law on the Economic Urgency of Risk and Disaster Management will directly affect more than 3,000 crabbers and their families is a complaint that some unions in the crabber sector made this September 13 through a statement in which they also announced a mass mobilization for next week in Quito in order to ask the Constitutional Court (CC) to archive the project that proposes a mechanism for regulating land and infrastructure for shrimp farming.

This, according to the executive branch, would allow the state to raise funds to deal with emergencies and property owners to have the means to support themselves.

However, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives of Ecuador (Fenacopec) is requesting a meeting with government authorities to familiarize themselves with the decree and is urging the CC not to give way to this regulatory body. In a statement, other unions also criticized the decree, among them the Puerto Envidia Association of Naranjal; Gulf Crabbers Union; and the artisanal production cooperative El Paraíso del Cangrejo.

The regulation on risk and disaster management has a greater chance of passing the control of the Constitutional Court than the control of public finances

“Our fear is what will happen when the securitization is implemented. It will be a social, economic and political problem”, explained the president of Fenacopec, Gabriela Cruz.

The leader also requested a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Andrés Arens, to “socialize the said regulation” and present a register of shrimp farms to jointly analyze what is and what is not sustainable.

Other leaders also echoed Cruz’s stance, expressing their concerns about the decree. According to the president of the Puerto Envidia de Naranjal association and member of the Churute Mangrove Network, Christian Castro, the regulatory body will legalize the damage to nature and all mangroves that have been cut down.

Guillermo Lasso will send two decree laws on risk management and public resource management to the Constitutional Court

The president of the Gulf Crab Catchers Union, Agapito Risco, commented that not only the mangroves are threatened, but also the species that reproduce in them and the communities, many of which have been displaced. In addition, he noted that he is concerned about the safety of the crabs. “Currently (those) who have the concession are shooting and killing our companions, what will happen to them when they already have ownership of the land”, he reproached.

For his part, the president of the artisan production cooperative El Paraíso del Cangrejo, Cristhian de la Torre, expressed his regret that in the decree the national government does not give them the necessary guarantees to carry out their activities.

“The president does not guarantee us security at the national level, how will he guarantee that the shrimp farmers, once they acquire ownership, will not kill us as has already happened in Puerto Morro and in the mouth of the Salado River,” he asked.

Krabar’s criticisms are focused on three reform provisions

The disputed project was one of two that President Guillermo Lasso sent on September 5 as an economic emergency. The union’s concern is focused on the content of the first, eighth and ninth reform provisions, which refer to the reforms of the Organic Law for the development of aquaculture and fisheries.

In the eighth, the following general provision is requested to be added: “Holders of concessions for beaches and bays intended exclusively for aquaculture activities, the surfaces of which have lost the marine influence of tides and tides due to the action of man or nature and, therefore, no longer have such a quality or that of a national asset for public use, may request the Aquaculture and Fisheries Administrative Authority to annul the administrative act granting the concession in relation to the area subject to it and, consequently, request the Aquaculture and Fisheries Administrative Authority to grant title to the said land upon payment of the appropriate value in accordance with the parameters that will be established through technical standards and in accordance with the technical requirements established by the administrative body for aquaculture and fisheries, which will have exclusive jurisdiction over lands of this nature.”

While the ninth states: “Owners of concessions for areas of beaches and bays for the performance of aquaculture activities, as well as holders of concessions for the occupation of marine areas, in their natural habitat or in fenced areas specially built for the performance of marine aquaculture activities, may fully or partially mortgage the right contained in the corresponding agreement, only in favor of the institution of the national public financial system. The mortgage contract must be approved by a public document and registered with the administrative body. For the legal effects of what is considered in the previous paragraph, the shrimp infrastructure will be considered real property.”