The shrimp sector has rejected the position of the shrimp and artisanal fishing guilds, which are against the Organic Regulation on the Emergency Economic Law on Risk and Disaster Management, which proposes a mechanism to regulate shrimp land and infrastructure through voluntary ownership, aquaculture concessions and is being considered by the Constitutional Court (CC ).

On September 5, President Guillermo Lasso sent this law regulation to the CC as an economic emergency along with the Balance, Organization and Transparency of Public Finances, which is also under review.

Crab guilds reject the decree that proposes to grant ownership of shrimp lands

The sector of artisanal crab farming and fishing guarantees that the approval of this decree-law will directly affect more than 3,000 crab fishermen and their families, as stated in a statement dated September 13 by the National Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives of Ecuador (Fenacopec), Puerto Envidia de Naranjal Association; Gulf Crabbers Union; El Paraíso del Cangrejo Artisanal Production Cooperative and Puerto Envidia Association of Naranjal and a member of the Churute Mangrove Network.

For its part, the Ecuadorian Federation of Aquaculturists (Fedac), which represents the unions of Esmeraldas, Santa Elena, Manabí, El Oro and Guayas shrimp and larval production laboratories, assured that the voluntary granting of aquaculture concessions does not apply to mangroves and that they do not touch or amend the law relating to mangroves.

“This project refers exclusively to the concession areas, where aquaculture activities are carried out, which will not have variation in expansion, which are perfectly bounded by their walls, which are used by their concessionaires and which allow the circulation of shells. beds and crabs, as prescribed by the Law”, explained Fedac in a press release this Thursday, September 14 in the afternoon.

The clarification comes after crabbing and artisanal fishing leaders said they were concerned about the safety of crabbers. “Currently (those) who have a concession are shooting and killing our fellow passengers, what will happen to them when they already have ownership of the land”, condemned, for example, the president of the Union of Gulf Crab Eaters, Agapito Risco.

In this regard, Fedac rejected those comments and stated: “We lived in harmony and gave support to those who dedicated themselves to the dignified and self-sacrificing work that is done in the mangroves (crab and shellfish farmers) and also artisanal fishing, some of which also they perform the sacrificial work of shrimp farming, which is why the published manifesto is contradictory. We regret that the members of Fenacopec have the same security problems as the members of Fedac,” said the statement of the latter union.

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

Furthermore, in the press release, the shrimp farmers make a number of requests to the government, including: