sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Climate change will exacerbate the risks and vulnerabilities of the coasts of Latin America and
the Caribbean. There is irrefutable evidence that sea levels rose gradually in the twentieth century and
they are expected to rise further in the twenty-first century, owing mainly to thermal expansion of ocean
water and the melting of polar ice caps. Rising sea levels are not the only threat to the region’s coasts,
however. Variations in swell, surface water temperature, salinity and meteorological tides may pose
significant risks and result in further coastal erosion and coral bleaching, loss of beach tourism and
coastal defences, reduced port infrastructure operability and security offered by maritime defence
structures, and ecosystem flooding. The outlook is not encouraging; current trends pose significant
challenges when it comes to devising policies on integrated coastal management and planning.
Such policies should take into account the need to adapt to new patterns and trends, as well as
climate variability. 14
8. Protection of fishery resources
The seas of Latin America and the Caribbean provide between 15% and 30% of the world supply of fish,
mainly from three areas of high and very high fish abundance: Central America’s west coast and South
America’s Atlantic east coast and its west coast. Reduced biomass production is evident to differing
degrees in all three. Between <strong>20</strong>02 and <strong>20</strong>06, the region’s leading biomass producers were Peru (between
6 million tons and almost 10 million tons), Chile (between 4 million tons and 5 million tons) and
Argentina (between 0.9 million tons and 1.2 million tons) (UNEP, <strong>20</strong>10a).
As mentioned in chapter I, there has been an increase in aquaculture in the region. Between 1992
and <strong>20</strong>08, aquaculture grew by an annual average of 8.4%, becoming the world’s fastest-growing foodproducing
activity. In fact, in the Latin American region the aquaculture growth rate has outstripped that
of every other region in the world, with an annual average of more than 21% in the period from 1970 to
<strong>20</strong>08. However, this growth has not been exempt from environmental problems, such as the destruction of
mangroves associated with shrimp farming (see chapter I) (FAO, <strong>20</strong>10b; ECLAC/FAO/IICA, <strong>20</strong>10).
In contrast, marine fisheries have tended to stabilize, with a total production of around
80 million tons per year, indicating that, in most cases, it has reached its maximum <strong>sustainable</strong> level of
exploitation (FAO, <strong>20</strong>10b). It is a matter of concern that, overall, the percentage of the world’s
underexploited major fisheries fell from 29% in 1992, the year of the Rio Summit, to less than 15% in
<strong>20</strong>08, whereas overexploited fisheries increased from 24% to 33% over the same period (FAO, <strong>20</strong>10b).
The measures adopted globally and regionally, some of which have been incorporated into
national policies in line with Agenda 21, have been major steps in preserving the equilibrium of
ecosystems. However, in many cases, compliance with international agreements or their inclusion in
national legal frameworks is still severely lacking.
There have been changes in the fisheries and aquaculture sector at national and regional levels,
including the creation of an institutional framework in countries like Brazil and Ecuador, the
establishment of the Ministry of Environment in Chile, with a close regulatory relationship with fisheries,
and the establishment of the Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector
(OSPESCA), which have enabled food supplies from the sea to grow within a <strong>sustainable</strong> framework.
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For further information, see ECLAC, <strong>20</strong>11b.