Problems in the Latin America and Caribbean
The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region embraces almost half of the world's diversity of plant and animal species and half of the world's tropical forests. Yet the rate of destruction of freshwater, marine and especially forest habitat could seriously impact both biodiversity and forest cover.
According to various sources, Brazil loses around 1% of its forests annually, while Paraguay, if it continues at its present rate of forest destruction, will have virtually no native forests left in 25 years from now.Among the threats behind environmental destruction and degradation in the LAC region are the lack of policy frameworks to support sustainable development and natural resource preservation; political instability and civil unrest; inability of some institutional and governmental entities to establish and enforce legislation impacting nature conservation; economic downturn; poverty and inequality.
Today WWF works with local Governments and partners towards viable solutions where men can live together with nature, concentrating its efforts in the following threats:
Poverty
The challenges to sustainable economic growth are daunting. Despite immense resources, the distribution of income is highly skewed, with almost one-third of the region's people living in poverty. Most of the indigenous communities, the majority of whom are living below the poverty line, lack of income opportunities and basic public services such as education, health and housing. This lack of access to basic services has created pressure to overuse resources and encourage unsustainable practices that deplete environmentally fragile areas.
Two of the greatest threats to forest conservation in LAC are illegal logging and deforestation. Illegal logging threatens commercial forest concessions, indigenous reserves, and critical protected areas and buffer zones. In addition, it presents a threat to the commercial viability of mahogany, a WWF flagship species of special concern. In Peru alone it is estimated that nearly 90% of the mahogany reaching the market is illegally logged.
Deforestation and agricultural expansion are just as devastating.
In Central America 70% of the region's original forest cover has been cleared. A principal cause for this is continuing economic necessity and the lack of economic alternatives that would maintain forest cover. According to various sources, Brazil loses around 1% of its forests annually, while Paraguay, if it continues at its present rate of forest destruction, will have virtually no native forests left in 25 years from now.
Infrastructure Projects
Other serious threats to LAC biodiversity are the many large-scale infrastructure projects proposed each year that target development in or through the region's most pristine ecosystems.
As economic stagnation continues in some countries there is considerable emphasis on initiating infrastructure projects such as roads, dams, and pipelines, with little concern for serious environmental consequences.
Overfishing
Another major threat to conservation is the global decline in fish catches combined with rising demand. This scenario is leading to a global fisheries crisis that threatens LAC ocean ecosystems and priority ecoregions, as well as millions of people who depend on fish for sustenance and livelihood.
Excessive fishing capacity, pollution, destruction of coastal habitats through dredging, and the clearing of wetlands, mangroves, and salt marshes are direct causes of this declining fish catch.
The Gulf of California, for example, is the source of nearly 60% of Mexico's total annual fish catch, but over-fishing is now blamed for dramatic declines in sardine, shrimp, shark, and other fish stocks. This trend is not isolated to the coasts of Mexico but is representative of the crisis plaguing LAC fisheries all along its coastline.
By-Catch
By-Catch or incidental capture in fishing operations is the major threat to endangered species such as marine turtles, some dolphins and porpoises, as well as vulnerable species such as sharks and billfish. Several species and many populations of marine creatures will be lost in the next few decades if we don't take action.
In addressing the by-catch problem, however, progress has been slow or non-existent throughout much of the developed and developing world. In some cases, awareness of the by-catch problem is low. In others, the implementation of programs to mitigate it has been given low priority.
WWF has identified a series of threats to the reef system in the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion that, according to their magnitude and source, produce different levels of impact. The main threats in order of importance are as follows:
- Coastal habitat loss from land conversion and inadequate coastal development primarily caused by unregulated growth of tourism and agricultural activities.
- Water pollution from sedimentation, nutrients, agrochemicals, urban and industrial wastes, and contaminants spilled from vessels.
- Unsustainable fishing practices that cause the loss of population of species of commercial value, destroy reefs with trawl fishing and cause by-catch or incidental capture of accompanying fauna.
- Coral bleaching and disease that have lead to the loss of vast areas of reef throughout the Caribbean.
- More frequent storms and hurricanes, probably due to global climate change, causing much damage to the structure of the reef.
