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Increasing concern
as to how human activities impact the Earth has led to documentation
and quantification of environmental changes taking place on land, in the water, and in the air.
Through a combination of ground photographs, current and historical satellite images, and
narrative based on extensive scientific evidence, this publication illustrates how humans
have altered their surroundings and continue to make observable and measurable changes
to the global environment.
Go to: Chapters
— Site Images — Powerpoints
— Posters
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ONE PLANET MANY PEOPLE
Chapter 3 - Coastal |
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Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras
Honduras is second only to Ecuador in the production and export of cultured shrimp
from Latin America. Vast areas of the delta have been converted into farms for the cultivation of shrimp.
The rapid growth of shrimp aquaculture in Honduras has caused both environmental and social problems. Shrimp
farmers are depriving fishers, farmers and others of access to mangroves, estuaries and seasonal lagoons; destroying
mangrove ecosystems, altering the hydrology of the region, destroying the habitats of other flora and fauna and
precipitating declines in biodiversity; contributing to degraded water quality; and exacerbating the decline in Gulf
fisheries through the indiscriminate capture of other species caught with the shrimp post larvae that are used to stock ponds.
These two images provide a visual comparison of the increase in coverage by shrimp farms in the Gulf of Fonseca over
time. It is evident from the images that between 1987 and 1999, a period of about 12 years, the total
area under shrimp farming has increased tremendously.
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