An estimated 258 shrimp farming lots in Puna Island will be brought into line with the law. (Photo: C. Reports/FIS)

Shrimp farming sector to be aligned with the law

ECUADOR
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 01:20 (GMT + 9)

The National Directorate of Aquatic Spaces (DIRNEA) has initiated the process of aligning 258 lots used for shrimp farming in Puna Island, Guayas with current law.

The inspections are being carried out within the framework of Executive Decree 139, signed by the president of the country, Rafael Correa, last year.

DIRNEA director Jaime Ayala recalled that the period for the sector to be brought into line with the law expires on 31 March 2010, and warned that those who have not fulfilled the process by then will be evacuated and prohibited from carrying out the activity.

In addition, he made it clear that the initiative is not tantamount to a persecution of the sector, but a process to verify the current state of legal, irregular, and illegal shrimp farms located in zones affected by the tide and in high lands, El Universo reports.

The operation on the island will take two months and cover 17,400 hectares.

According to the Directorate, the legal shrimp farming lots in Puna are 113 in number (4,819.62 hectares), the irregular lots, 115 (5,296.46 ha), and illegal lots, four (29.48 ha).

Also, 26 lots exist in the high lands, which add up to 7,254.96 ha.

In total, in the coastal sector there are 2,500 shrimp farms, 1,600 of which are pending regularisation, although some will not be able to do so because their operations began in 1999, a year in which their establishment was no longer allowed, Ayala detailed.

“Those shrimp farms will have to return the lands to the State, in that they shouldn't have been founded,” he clarified.

The director of the Subsecretariat of Aquaculture, Yahira Piedrahita, assured that visits to shrimp producers will be arranged to explain the process and the importance of regularising their lots.

During the visits, whether or not the shrimp producers comply with the environmental impact studies, whether workers enjoy legal benefits and whether they have a reforestation plan will also be defined, El Comercio reports.

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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