by Roosbelinda Cardenas Gonzales 

On September 28, 1994, Aroldo and a small group of other residents of Bocas de Guabal, a small village on the Mira River in Colombia’s littoral border with Ecuador, held a meeting to discuss the rapid rate at which their community’s mangroves were being destroyed. Mangroves were being exploited for the construction and leather tanning industries with dire consequences for locals’ livelihoods. For example, when the mangroves were cut, concheras, women who made a living collecting shellfish, lost their only source of income. But in addition to being an important source of money, mangroves were essential components in the villagers’ well being. During a conversation that we had in 2009, Aroldo explained the mangroves importance to me in detail. He described them as “daycare centers” where baby fish remained safe until they were large enough to swim in the river without being eaten by larger fish, and as “little houses” where crabs laid their eggs and made their homes. The disappearance of mangroves therefore meant a significant threat on locals’ source of sustenance. Also, a few families who lived on the river’s mouth had lost their houses when the Pacific Ocean’s waves, no longer contained by the mangroves’ powerful barrier, beat against the village’s residential areas.