Mangrove Action Day, July 26

Mangrove Action Day is July 26th:

The Mangrove Action Project wishes to lend full support to the plans
and actions of all network members for Global Action on 26 July 2009.
MAP staff and volunteers based in the Seattle area will be attending
the 35th Annual Ballard SeafoodFest on 25-26 July, tabling at this
popular Seattle event and talking with consumers about the problems of
shrimp farming worldwide. MAP will be promoting our "Shrimp Less,
Think More" Consumer Awareness Campaign.

We ask that you and/or your organizations please join us all in a
global protest against the ongoing losses of the mangrove forest
ecosystems and the local communities that depend upon the mangroves
for their lives and livelihoods. Please send MAP your regional or
local plans for actions that are meant to commemorate this
international Day for the Mangroves! MAP would like to again share
your plans and ideas with our global network. We look forward to
hearing from you soon in this regard!

For more details, contact mangroveap@olympus.net


FUNDECOL Initiates Celebrations for International Day for the Defense
of Mangrove Ecosystems:

In Muisne, FUNDECOL is planning several activities for the July 26,
international day for the defense of mangrove ecosystems, including a
massive mangrove reforestation, agro-ecological fairs, art
competitions involving murals and contests, typical local foods and
marimba, among other activities. More than 700 people from communities
of Bolivar, Daul,

Chamanga, Bilsa, stains, Bunche and other user communities of tropical
wetland forest and mangrove ecosystem, students of colleges, schools
and universities in the province and Guangzhou, and other volunteers,
foundations and organizations working to benefit the community at the
national level will participate.


Background on Mangrove Action Day:

The plan to make this call to action arose during the In the Hands of
the Fishers Workshop held in Forteleza, Brazil in early 2003. The
workshop attendees came from Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia and
Guatemala. The IHOF mainly focused on the issues surrounding mangrove
and salt flats endangered by expansion of the shrimp farm industry, as
well as strategies to help halt the continued expansion of these
shrimp farm ventures. It was brought up during this workshop that an
international campaign involving local fisherfolk should be undertaken
where participating NGOs and local community representatives organize
their own local events on the same day, thus linking these local
events with each other to make an international movement or action.

July 26th was chosen because of its existing significance for the
movement in Latin America led by Red Manglar. July 26th has been
called the "Day of the Mangrove," commemorating that day in 1998 when
a Greenpeace activist from Micronesia, Hayhow Daniel Nanoto, died of a
heart attack while involved in a massive protest action led by
FUNDECOL and Greenpeace, International. During this action the local
community of Muisne joined the NGOs in dismantling an illegally placed
shrimp pond in an attempt to restore this damaged mangrove zone back
to its former state. Since Hayhow's death, FUNDECOL and others have
commemorated this day as a day to remember and to take renewed action
to Save the Mangroves!

With no Greenpeace ship in sight on the horizon, we decided that the
fishermen form cooperative flotillas to protest the destructive
expansion of shrimp farming in their areas. This call to got positive
responses from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico, Honduras, Nigeria, Europe and the USA. And it looks like
momentum is building globally for an annual commemoration of July 26th
as Mangrove Action Day, with some groiups organizing teach-ins, some
mangrove tree planting, wetland clean-ups, protests and letter
writing.

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