Threats to Agiabampo

In 1999 the Agiabampo wetlands system was chosen by Semarnat, Mexico’s environmental protection agency, as the estuary least appropriate for industry and most deserving of conservation.  Agiabampo estuary is an area of unusual natural and cultural diversity, still blessed with abundant natural resources and cultural traditions that have survived for centuries. The sea yields harvests that have sustained local peoples and economies for generations.  The serpentine water paths that wind through the estuary are still rich with shrimp and fish.

Today the shrimp-farming industry has a foothold in Agiabampo. Since 2000, numerous aquaculture projects have been initiated or expanded, resulting in the loss of some 650 hectares of threatened habitat along the eastern shore of the estuary.   In recent years, significant areas of el Pitayal on the shores of Agiabampo estuary have been bulldozed to make way for the expanding shrimp farming industry.  Furthermore, the area is threatened by the rapid expansion of irrigated agriculture and to a lesser extent conversion to pastureland for cattle and other livestock.

Communities near the estuary  have depended for decades on the marine resources, but these resources have been declining in recent years.  Measures need to be taken to to provide alternative sources of income and development to the benefit of  the local residents, mostly of indigenous Mayo descent.