Although the Constitutional Court did not grant the possibility of starting the registration process of concessioned lands located on beaches and bays where shrimp farms carry out their production activities, this sector does not consider this to be bad news at all, not because of the decisions themselves, but because of the reasons.

The Executive President of the National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA), José Antonio Camposano, indicated that the Court’s decision on the Organic Decree on the Emergency Economic Law on the Management of Risks and Disasters does not establish the unconstitutionality of this proposal that has been raised several times and “this is positive.”

The Constitutional Court gave a positive opinion on the Regulation on risk and disaster management, but with remarks on some articles

The court decided to exclude the reform provisions of the draft law from the first to the fourth. “The President of the Republic, with limited and exceptional authority, is trying to implement a reform with implications for various sectors and actors in these areas,” reads the opinion of the Constitutional Court.

Camposano explained that “the reasons for not allowing the proposal focused on the route that was intended to be used since, they believed, it was a very limited and exceptional means of solving a problem that has several points of view such as the environment, the rights of other actors operating in the surrounding areas and the shrimp farmers themselves who would benefit from ownership.”

“The Court’s arguments are valid, so we will incorporate those remarks if we decide to return the initiative to the National Assembly for analysis and adoption,” said the President of the Chamber.

According to the Ecuadorian Federation of Aquaculturists (Fedac), which represents the unions of Esmeraldas, Santa Elena, Manabí, El Oro and Guayas shrimp and larval production laboratories, 65,000 hectares of shrimp concessions could benefit from the approval of the provision, which the union says would help maintain its production of 1.8 billion dollars per year in the face of the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

These 65,000 hectares are part of the nearly 110,000 hectares that would be at risk due to climate events, as stated in the study “Strategies Against the El Niño Phenomenon”, released on June 5 by the Undersecretariat for Aquaculture.

More than 110,000 hectares of shrimp farms are at risk of flooding if El Niño arrives, more than half are under concessions, and the sector is looking for a ‘savior’ with a decree

At the end of September, while the law on the regulation was still being analyzed by the Constitutional Court, Undersecretary for Aquaculture Axel Vedani presented his arguments in favor of the project: “It is not the same treatment of the agricultural, banana or other type of sector.” (…), which really they have the option because they can mortgage their property. If El Niño comes and the barrage comes tomorrow and takes away their land, the banana farmers will be able to put up a mortgage, but why not the shrimp farmers? What’s the difference, because it’s a public good?

The National Federation of Artisanal Fishing Cooperatives of Ecuador (Fenacopec) celebrates the Court’s decision. The president of the union, Gabriela Cruz, believes that “they won the battle, we mobilized in Quito, we intervened in amicus curiae“This is the third intention of the Government to privatize beaches and bays”, he reminded that the first time was through consultations with the Constitutional Court, the second time was in 2022 in the Parliament, which rejected the Proposal of the Law on Investments, where it was recorded that the third attempt was this one the last also in the Constitutional Court, which in its opinion of October 5 stopped several articles of the decree on disasters, in which the executive power tried again to adopt this option.

This group argued that this would affect more than 13,000 artisanal crab farmers, but this view was rejected by shrimp farmers, who pointed out that the voluntary granting of aquaculture concessions does not apply to mangroves and does not affect or change any law attached to the mangroves.

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

The leader believes that the initiative of shrimp farmers will no longer be found in the next government. “We are sure that they will not open this topic anymore, there are much more important things, such as creating jobs, better maritime safety so that we can work… instead of giving privileges to shrimp farmers in wanting to legalize more and more beaches and bays,” he pointed out.

Mangrove cutting, an impact that, according to fishermen, was already happening before the Court’s ruling

The president of Fenacopec stated that one of the negative effects of the project, if it passed in court, is the cutting of mangroves, although she regrets that even without the approval of the regulations, these irregularities are already happening. “Shrimp farmers have not yet won the battle in the Constitutional Court and have already started cutting, for example, in front of Santo Domingo, in the Bay of Guayaquil, in Jambelí, in El Oro, even the Chamber of Aquaculture. herself condemns the cutting of mangroves (…), there are shrimp farmers, not all of them, irresponsible…”, criticized Cruz.

And on October 11, the Chamber of Aquaculture condemned the incident in a statement and showed photos and videos to the Ministry of the Environment of “obvious cutting down of mangroves in Guayaquil Bay.”

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

According to the Chamber, the perpetrator is a shrimp farm on 26 hectares. CNA also asked the undersecretary for aquaculture to analyze the withdrawal of his ministerial concession agreement due to the illegal expansion of the permitted area.

This complaint is joined by more than 20 filed by the union since 2019. “The sanction for the illegal expansion of the concession area is the termination of the ministerial concession contract. We requested that the Undersecretariat for Aquaculture act in this way. We cannot tolerate acts like this,” Camposano said.